►  What is the role of Christianity in slave life?

►  What is the role of black preachers?

►  What is the nature of the extended black family and the creation of the slave community?

►  What are the factors that limit slave resistance?

►  What are other forms of indirect resistance which give slaves some leverage?

►  What is the nature of the Underground Railroad?

►  What are the restrictions and racism facing free blacks in the North?
►  What is the underlying motivation of the abolitionists?

►  Why does the Dred Scot Decision in the 1850s give the South a sweeping victory?

►  Although slavery is not economically viable, why does the South fight to keep it?