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During the first generations of European settlement in North America, a number of interconnected Northeastern families carved out private empires. In Bound by Bondage, Nicole Saffold Maskiell argues that slavery was vital to the rise of this aristocracy, and those dynastic families built prestige through mastery, creating manorial estates and expansive trading networks from the Northeast to the South, the Caribbean, and beyond. Members of this elite class, including mayors, governors, and presidents, were among the largest slaveholders in the North, with power aspirations uniting Anglo and Dutch families.

Using original research drawn from archives across several continents in multiple languages, Maskiell traces the origins of these private empires from the founding of Northeastern colonies to the eve of the Revolutionary War. She reveals a multiracial Early America, where enslaved traders, woodsmen, millers, maids, bakers, and groomsmen developed expansive networks of their own that challenged the power of the elites, helping in escapes, in trade, and in simple camaraderie.

Bound by Bondage adds a new chapter to early North American history, linking Northern networks of merit to slavery.