Most Americans, both black and white, believe that slavery was a system exclusively maintained by whites to exploit blacks, but Larry Koger"s authoritative study portrays the small yet significant role that African Americans played as masters in the peculiar institution. By profiling South Carolina"s diverse population of African-American slaveowners, he demonstrates that free African-Americans embraced slavery as a viable economic system and that they--like their white counterparts--exploited the labor of slaves on their farms and in their businesses.