Covering the period from 1619 through 1739, this spotlights the origins of slavery in America. Focusing on Dutch New Amsterdam (later New York City), this illustrates how slavery in its early years was a loosely defined labor source similar to indentured servitude. Africans and others of mixed race and/ or mixed ethnicity had some legal rights. The enslaved could take their masters to court and they could even earn wages as they undertook the backbreaking labor involved in building a new nation -- clearing land, constructing roads, unloading ships. Culminates with the bloody Stone rebellion n South Carolina, which led to the passage of "black codes," regulating virtually every aspect of slaves' lives.