|Hodges not only redirects attention to New York and East Jersey, a region of intensive slavery and significant African-American presence, but also extends the chronological scope of inquiry by starting in the early seventeenth century. . . . His discussion of African-Americans in the era of the American Revolution is particularly valuable, for it reveals how the potential for African-American freedom at the end of slavery was circumscribed. . . . A useful book that draws attention to an important African-American community.--Times Literary Supplement