In this provocative book Neville Hall offers a comprehensive study of slave society in the Danish West Indies. Covering the entire period of slavery in the territory--from 1671 to 1848--Hall focuses on slave rebellion andresistance and discusses the legislative system introduced to control the slave population. He also examines the life of the freedman, the complex relationship between cultural and linguistic development on the islands; and the unusually cosmopolitan character of the slaveowning class.Edited by Barry Higman, this revealing study of slavery in the Dutch West Indies broadens our understanding of Caribbean colonialism.