Because the institution of slavery has exerted such momentous force in shaping the socioeconomic and political history of the Caribbean, much of the region's historical writing has focused on slavery. Caribbean Slave Society and Economy brings together into one volume the main themes of the recent research on slavery, and explores the patterns and forms of socioeconomic life and activity that molded the region's heterogeneous slave societies.

Hilary Beckles is Reader and Head of the Department of History at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.  He has written and published extensively on Caribbean slave society, and is also an editor of the Journal of Caribbean History.

Verene Sheperd lectures in the Department of History at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.  She is a recipient of the Dubois-Mandela-Rodney Fellowship awarded by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.