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Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson & His Slaves
by Henry WiencekIs there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book—based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers—opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money.So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves—and thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. We see Jefferson taking out a slave-equity line of credit with a Dutch bank to finance the building of Monticello and deftly creating smoke screens when visitors are dismayed by his apparent endorsement of a system they thought he'd vowed to overturn. It is not a pretty story. Slave boys are whipped to make them work in the nail factory at Monticello that pays Jefferson's grocery bills. Parents are divided from children—in his ledgers they are recast as money—while he composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what some of his friends call "a vile commerce."Many people of Jefferson's time saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?
Master of the Mysteries
by Louis Sahagun"And for anyone wishing to learn more about Manly Hall, Louis Sahagun's gripping biography is an insightful look at the life and times of one of the last century's most important mystical thinkers."--The Fortean TimesIn 1919, a Canadian teenager with a sixth grade education arrived by train to the wilds of Los Angeles. Within a decade he had transformed himself into a world-renowned occult scholar.His name was Manly Palmer Hall, author of the landmark publication The Secret Teachings of All Ages, regarded as the best introduction to Western esoteric ideas, and the founder of the Philosophical Research Society, which houses one of the biggest occult libraries in the United States.Hall became the twentieth century's most prolific writer and speaker on ancient philosophies, mysticism, and magic, and a confidant of Hollywood celebrities and politicians. In 1990, he died--some say he was strangled--in what remains an open-ended Hollywood murder mystery worthy of Raymond Chandler.Master of The Mysteries: The Life of Manly Palmer Hall offers an intimate portrait of this elusive luminary who set as his life's work the daunting task of reconciling scientific reason with ancient wisdom--issues that seekers and scientists still struggle with today.Author Louis Sahagun draws from Hall's massive archives and a wealth of interviews to provide an insider's view of the birth of a metaphysical subculture that continues to have a profound influence on movies, television, music, books, art, and thought.
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #3)
by Robert A. CaroThe most riveting political biography of our time, Robert A. Caro's life of Lyndon B. Johnson, continues. Master of the Senate takes Johnson's story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 through 1960, in the United States Senate. Once the most august and revered body in politics, by the time Johnson arrived the Senate had become a parody of itself and an obstacle that for decades had blocked desperately needed liberal legislation. Caro shows how Johnson's brilliance, charm, and ruthlessness enabled him to become the youngest and most powerful Majority Leader in history and how he used his incomparable legislative genius--seducing both Northern liberals and Southern conservatives--to pass the first Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction. Brilliantly weaving rich detail into a gripping narrative, Caro gives us both a galvanizing portrait of Johnson himself and a definitive and revelatory study of the workings of legislative power.<P><P> Winner of the National Book Award<P> Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Mastering Sadhana: On Retreat with Anthony de Mello
by Carlos VallesA close friend and associate of Anthony de Mello shares for the first time not only personal conversations and reminiscences, but also de Mello's own words as recorded during a 15-day retreat in India.
Mastering the Art of French Eating: From Paris Bistros to Farmhouse Kitchens, Lessons in Food and Love
by Ann MahThe memoir of a young diplomat's wife who must reinvent her dream of living in Paris--one dish at a time When journalist Ann Mah's diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting gastronomic adventures a deux. Then her husband is called away to Iraq on a year-long post--alone. Suddenly, Ann's vision of a romantic sojourn in the City of Light is turned upside down. So, not unlike another diplomatic wife, Julia Child, Ann must find a life for herself in a new city. Journeying through Paris and the surrounding regions of France, Ann combats her loneliness by seeking out the perfect pain au chocolat and learning the way the andouillette sausage is really made. She explores the history and taste of everything from boeuf Bourguignon to soupe au pistou to the crispiest of buckwheat crepes. And somewhere between Paris and the south of France, she uncovers a few of life's truths. Like Sarah Turnbull's "Almost French" and Julie Powell's "New York Times" bestseller "Julie and Julia," " Mastering the Art of French Eating" is interwoven with the lively characters Ann meets and the traditional recipes she samples. Both funny and intelligent, this is a story about love--of food, family, and France.
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing
by Anya Von BremzenA James Beard Award-winning writer captures life under the Red socialist banner in this wildly inventive, tragicomic memoir of feasts, famines, and three generations Born in 1963, in an era of bread shortages, Anya grew up in a communal Moscow apartment where eighteen families shared one kitchen. She sang odes to Lenin, black-marketeered Juicy Fruit gum at school, watched her father brew moonshine, and, like most Soviet citizens, longed for a taste of the mythical West. It was a life by turns absurd, naively joyous, and melancholy--and ultimately intolerable to her anti-Soviet mother, Larisa. When Anya was ten, she and Larisa fled the political repression of Brezhnev-era Russia, arriving in Philadelphia with no winter coats and no right of return. Now Anya occupies two parallel food universes: one where she writes about four-star restaurants, the other where a taste of humble kolbasa transports her back to her scarlet-blazed socialist past. To bring that past to life, Anya and her mother decide to eat and cook their way through every decade of the Soviet experience. Through these meals, and through the tales of three generations of her family, Anya tells the intimate yet epic story of life in the USSR. Wildly inventive and slyly witty, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking is that rare book that stirs our souls and our senses.
Mastering the Metal: The Story of James Watson and Eddie Bravo
by James Watson Zack MooreOver the last two decades, Eddie Bravo has been at the forefront of revolutions we&’ve seen in the arts of fighting, comedy, and podcasting. But he wasn&’t alone in his journey.For just over a decade, James Watson and Eddie Bravo were inseparable: musical partners, work colleagues, roommates, and best friends. From metal to rap, our protagonists worked to master the art of music together. Through the story of these past experiences in the pursuit of musical mastery, the reader will get to intimately understand Eddie Bravo and see how those experiences in his youth spent in music made him the man and martial artist he is today. Through the narration of our author, we get the complete picture of the private man behind the Eddie Bravo public persona.
Masterminds: Profiles of Eleven Indian Scientists
by Enakshi ChatterjeeAn introduction to the life and work of eleven Indian scientists is told against the background of political and scientific developments over the last hundred and fifty years. Their interesting personal experiences are also revealed.
Masterpiece in Progress
by Jeff SteinbergThey called his condition Phocomelia, probably the result of Thalidomide or some medication prescribed for his mother. Born with tiny scissored legs, only one arm, and that tiny stump, Jeff spent his first years in a welfare center and then later in a Shriners' Hospital, where he learned to walk in braces, feed himself with a hook, and fight for survival. Later he went to live in a home for the severely disabled, where he would have spent the rest of his life. But God had other plans. The Master Artist was at work putting together the materials that He would use to create another masterpiece. Jeff Steinberg's story is about a masterpiece in progress - living proof of what a person can become when willing to be shaped by the hands of the Master Artist. Someone once described Jeff as having "a face like B.J. Thomas and a voice like Neil Diamond." He now travels around the country, singing about what God has done with his life and encouraging others to be "the best YOU - you can be". Masterpiece in Progresswas written for people who are giving up on themselves, thinking their situation is too hard, that they don't have enough to work with, that life has dealt them a bad hand. Jeff Steinberg's story will inspire anyone to see that their lives, too, can become something beautiful - a masterpiece in progress! Jeff Steinberg's story is an incredible, inspiring demonstration of the eternal and invincible nature of God's Spirit in each of us. Jeff is the Rocky of the "handicapable". -Pat Boone Tough and tenacious, Jeff Steinberg is a survivor. Breaking through into a life for himself and his family, he left behind the crumbled walls of fear, ignorance, and pity. The journey, tough as it has been, is not over. Jeff Steinberg's masterpiece is still in progress. -Joni Eareckson Tada Jeff Steinberg teaches how to make it on grit, gumption, God, and an indomitable will to overcome severe physical limitations. - Zig Ziglar .
Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945
by Andrew RobertsThis joint WWII biography of Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall, and Brooke “is a triumph of vivid description, telling anecdotes, and informed analysis” (The New York Review of Books).Masters and Commanders explores the degree to which the course of the Second World War turned on the relationships and temperaments of four of the strongest personalities of the twentieth century: political masters Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the commanders of their armed forces, General Sir Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall.Each was exceptionally tough-willed and strong-minded, and each was certain that only he knew best how to win the war. Andrew Roberts, “Britain's finest contemporary military historian” (The Economist), traces the mutual suspicion and admiration, the rebuffs and the charm, the often-explosive disagreements and wary reconciliations, and he helps us to appreciate the motives and imperatives of these key leaders as they worked tirelessly in the monumental struggle to destroy Nazism.
Masters and Servants
by Wyatt Mason Pierre MichonOne of Pierre Michon's most powerful works, this book imagines decisive moments in the lives of five artists of different times and places: Vincent van Gogh, Francisco Goya, Antoine Watteau, Claude Lorrain, and Lorentino, a little-remembered disciple of Piero della Francesca. Michon focuses on particular moments when artist and model collide, whether that model is a person or a landscape, inner or outer. In the five separate tales he evokes the full passion of the artist's struggle to capture the world in images even as the world resists capture. Each story is a small masterpiece that transcends national boundaries and earns its place among the essential works of world literature.
Masters of Crime: Fiction's Finest Villains and Their Real-Life Inspirations
by Adam NightingaleThis fascinating volume reveals the real men – and women – behind some of the most infamous London villains ever to appear in fiction. Fagin, Professor Moriarty, Moll Cutpurse and the notorious 'cracksman' A.J. Raffles were all rooted in the lives and deaths of a litany of real-life criminals, agitators and activists. With a special emphasis on the city that spawned them, this book brings together their stories for the first time, and shows how they were woven into fiction by some of Britain’s greatest writers, including Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle. Containing prison escapes, sensational trials, daring art thefts, vicious attacks, roaring boys, black magicians and private detectives, Masters of Crime explores both the real underworld of British crime history, and its fictional counter-parts. It will delight fans of true crime and crime fiction alike.
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
by David Kushner"To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses--and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way." --Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams. Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history--Doom and Quake--until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry's greatest story, written by one of the medium's leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry--a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.
Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World's Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game
by Grant WahlIn Masters of Modern Soccer, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl asks: How do some of the game's smartest figures master the craft of soccer? <P><P>By profiling players in every key position (American phenomenon Christian Pulisic, Mexican superstar Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, Belgium's Vincent Kompany, Spain's Xabi Alonso, Germany's Manuel Neuer) and management (Belgium coach Roberto Martínez and Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc), Wahl reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field and execute in high pressure game situations. <P>Masters of Modern Soccer is the definitive thinking fan's guide to modern soccer. For a supporter of any team, from the U.S. national teams to Manchester United, or any competition, from Mexico's Liga MX to the World Cup, this book reveals what players and managers are thinking before, during, and after games and delivers a true behind-the-scenes perspective on the inner workings of the sport's brightest minds. <P>America's premier soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, follows world-class players from across the globe examining how they do their jobs. This access imbues Masters of Modern Soccer with deep insight from the players on how goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards function individually and as a unit to excel and win. <P>Wahl also shadows a manager and director of soccer as they juggle the challenges of coaching, preparation, and the short- and long-term strategies of how to identify and acquire talent and deploy it on the field. <P>A book that will stand the test of time, Masters of Modern Soccer is the most in-depth analysis of the craft of soccer ever written for the American fan. For any fan, player, coach, or sideline enthusiast, this book will change the way they watch the game.
Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle & Harry Houdini
by Christopher SandfordRenowned mystery author Arthur Conan Doyle and famous illusionist Harry Houdini first met in 1920, during the magician's tour of England. At the time, Conan Doyle had given up his lucrative writing career, killing off Sherlock Holmes in the process, in order to concentrate on his increasingly manic interest in Spiritualism. Houdini, who regularly conducted séances in an attempt to reach his late mother, was also infatuated with the idea of what he called a "living afterlife," though his enthusiasm came to be tempered by his ability to expose fraudulent mediums, many of whom employed crude variations of his own well-known illusions. Using previously unpublished material on the murky relationship between Houdini and Conan Doyle, this sometimes macabre, sometimes comic tale tells the fascinating story of the relationship between two of the most loved figures of the 20th century and their pursuit of magic and lost loved ones.
Masters of Sex
by Thomas MaierIn Masters of Sex, critically acclaimed biographer Thomas Maier offers an unprecedented look at William Masters and Virginia Johnson, their pioneering studies of intimacy, and the sexual revolution they inspired. Masters and Johnson began their secret studies in a small Midwest laboratory, and soon became the nation’s top experts on sex. Over the course of more than forty years, they analyzed and explained the secrets of orgasm, emotional fulfillment, and sexual dysfunction. But they divorced after twenty years amid a clash of success, betrayal, and jealousies. Weaving interviews with the notoriously private William Masters and the ambitious Virginia Johnson, Maier offers a titillating portrait of the legendary couple. Entertaining, revealing, and beautifully told, this groundbreaking book sheds light on the eternal mysteries of desire and intimacy, and their complicated roles in the American psyche.
Masters of Sex
by Thomas MaierIn Masters of Sex, critically acclaimed biographer Thomas Maier offers an unprecedented look at William Masters and Virginia Johnson, their pioneering studies of intimacy, and the sexual revolution they inspired. Masters and Johnson began their secret studies in a small Midwest laboratory, and soon became the nation's top experts on sex. Over the course of more than forty years, they analyzed and explained the secrets of orgasm, emotional fulfillment, and sexual dysfunction. But they divorced after twenty years amid a clash of success, betrayal, and jealousies.Weaving interviews with the notoriously private William Masters and the ambitious Virginia Johnson, Maier offers a titillating portrait of the legendary couple. Entertaining, revealing, and beautifully told, this groundbreaking book sheds light on the eternal mysteries of desire and intimacy, and their complicated roles in the American psyche.
Masters of Sex
by Thomas MaierIn Masters of Sex, critically acclaimed biographer Thomas Maier offers an unprecedented look at William Masters and Virginia Johnson, their pioneering studies of intimacy, and the sexual revolution they inspired. Masters and Johnson began their secret studies in a small Midwest laboratory, and soon became the nation’s top experts on sex. Over the course of more than forty years, they analyzed and explained the secrets of orgasm, emotional fulfillment, and sexual dysfunction. But they divorced after twenty years amid a clash of success, betrayal, and jealousies. Weaving interviews with the notoriously private William Masters and the ambitious Virginia Johnson, Maier offers a titillating portrait of the legendary couple. Entertaining, revealing, and beautifully told, this groundbreaking book sheds light on the eternal mysteries of desire and intimacy, and their complicated roles in the American psyche.
Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love
by Thomas MaierNow a New Showtime Original Series Showtime's dramatic series Masters of Sex, starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, is based on this real-life story of sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Before Sex and the City and ViagraTM, America relied on Masters and Johnson to teach us everything we needed to know about what goes on in the bedroom. Convincing hundreds of men and women to shed their clothes and copulate, the pair were the nation’s top experts on love and intimacy. Highlighting interviews with the notoriously private Masters and the ambitious Johnson, critically acclaimed biographer Thomas Maier shows how this unusual team changed the way we all thought about, talked about, and engaged in sex while they simultaneously tried to make sense of their own relationship. Entertaining, revealing, and beautifully told, Masters of Sex sheds light on the eternal mysteries of desire, intimacy, and the American psyche.
Masters of Sex: Vida y época de William Masters y Virginia Johnson, la pareja que enseñó a Estados Unidos cómo amar
by Thomas MaierUn excitante retrato del ginecólogo William Masters y la sexóloga Virginia Johnson, la pareja que cambió la forma en que todos pensamos, hablamos y participamos del sexo. Las investigaciones del ginecólogo William Masters y la sexóloga Virginia Johnson supusieron toda una revolución en la década de los 60. A lo largo de más de cuarenta años, a través de la observación directa de miles de encuentros sexuales entre cientos de hombres y mujeres, analizaron y explicaron temas hasta entonces tabú como los secretos del orgasmo, la homosexualidad, la satisfacción emocional o la disfunción. Thomas Maier ofrece una mirada sin precedentes sobre la pareja que cambió la forma en que todos pensamos, hablamos y participamos del sexo. Reseñas:«Un relato perspicaz y bien escrito sobre Masters y Johnson, que, en un sentido clínico, probablemente sabían más sobre el sexo y el amor conyugal que cualquier otra pareja en Estados Unidos.»Gay Talese «Narrada con paciencia y esmero... Maier escribe bien, y con humor.»New York Times «Una mirada, maravillosamente escrita y totalmente absorbente, a una pareja increíble.»Booklist «El galardonado biógrafo Maier... ofrece el primer examen en profundidad de la compleja pareja que ayudó a revolucionar el estudio de la respuesta sexual humana.»Library Journal «La reveladora biografía de Maier se adentra en la vida de la pareja que inició la revolución sexual.»Discover «Absorbente. Masters of sex es un libro de lectura obligada para aquellos que quieran conocer los embriagadores comienzos de la revolución sexual.»The American Prospect «Puede que debido a su tórrido tema, Masters of sex [...] pueda impactar a algunos lectores por resultar extraordinariamente gráfico tratándose de una biografía, pero este perturbador relato de sexo y ciencia en la teoría y la práctica es en realidad más aleccionador que excitanteO, The Oprah Magazine
Masters of Warfare: Fifty Underrated Military Commanders from Classical Antiquity to the Cold War
by Eric G. PinzelliIn Masters of Warfare, Eric G. L. Pinzelli presents a selection of fifty commanders whose military achievements, skill or historical impact he believes to be underrated by modern opinion. He specifically does not include the household names (the "Gods of War" as he calls them) such as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Wellington, Napoléon, Rommel or Patton that have been covered in countless biographies. Those chosen come from every period of recorded military history from the sixth century BC to the Vietnam War. The selection rectifies the European/US bias of many such surveys with Asian entries such as Bai Qi (Chinese), Attila (Hunnic), Subotai (Mongol), Ieyasu Tokugawa (Japanese) and Võ Nguyên Giáp (Vietnamese). Naval commanders are also represented by the likes of Khayr al-Din Barbarossa, Francis Drake and Michiel de Ruyter. These 50 "Masters of War" are presented in a chronological order easy to follow, with a concise overview of their life and career. Altogether they present a fascinating survey of the developments and continuities in the art of command, but most importantly their contribution to the evolution of weaponry, tactic and strategy through the ages.
Masters of sex
by Thomas MaierThe definitive biography of the famous sex research team who dramatically transformed American sexuality yet whose private relationship was just as complex and dysfunctional as any of their patients
Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players
by Phil Jackson Sam SmithThe legendary sportswriter and the Hall of Fame, eleven-time NBA champion coach separate the music from the noise in the stories of the greatest who ever played and their impact on the gameSam Smith and Phil Jackson grew to know and respect each other in the late 1980s, when Smith was a Chicago Tribune sportswriter and Jackson was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls. Forty years later, the two remain close friends. In 2021, Smith helped the NBA arrive at a list of the seventy-five greatest players of all time in celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary. Phil Jackson was asked to participate too, but he&’s not a big fan of ranking greatness. They&’ve been enjoying the argument ever since.In Masters of the Game, Smith and Jackson chop it up about the basketball life, the sport, and the genius and the shadow side of the all-time greats: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bill Russell, Wilt, Jerry West, Bird, LeBron, KD, Steph Curry, Bill Walton, and more. In a conversation full of high-grade analysis and high-grade gossip, we meet the stars of long-ago eras of basketball and see the mark race left on players and the business of the game—and we get a master class on character and the alchemy of a good team. And of course, inevitably, these two old heads get into the GOAT debate.There are so many huge characters here, and Smith and Jackson can hold their own with any of them. Their spirit—sharp, wise, irreverent, honest, respectful of the lore and legacy of the game but never pious—and the clash of their different perspectives combine to make this book a joyous ride, a short course in greatness open to all students.
Masters of their Craft: The Art, Architecture and Garden Design of the Nesfields
by Shirley Rose EvansIn this informative volume, Dr Shirley Rose Evans explores the lives of two of the most prominent designers of the nineteenth century, designers who have left their distinctive mark on buildings and gardens throughout the British Isles. William Andrews Nesfield and William Eden Nesfield, father and son, were inspired by the beauty and romance of the past, and both played important roles in the nineteeth-century revivals of the Jacobean, Renaissance and Gothic styles. The Nesfields produced horticultural and architectural designs for wealthy and influential landowners, winning important public commissions at Kew Gardens and the Prince Consort's Kensington museum complex. Shirley Rose Evans covers the education of both men and the evolution of their aesthetic sensibilities in detail. William Andrews Nesfield's early life in Durham, his military training and his travels in Canada and Europe fed his fascination with Renaissance proportion and the pre-Revolutionary French parterre-de-broderie, a design of intricate and highly artificial bedding that was to become his signature. His son flourished in the artistic milieu in which he was raised, but his main passion was for Gothic detailing. Both were highly accomplished painters, and Nesfield Senior's watercolours were lauded by John Ruskin. This illustrated volume will be of great interest to enthusiasts of the remarkable work of the Nesfields in particular, or of Victorian design in general.
Masters, Slaves, and Exchange
by Kathleen M. HilliardThis book examines the political economy of the master-slave relationship viewed through the lens of consumption and market exchange. What did it mean when human chattel bought commodities, 'stole' property, or gave and received gifts? Forgotten exchanges, this study argues, measured the deepest questions of worth and value, shaping an enduring struggle for power between slaves and masters. The slaves' internal economy focused intense paternalist negotiation on a ground where categories of exchange - provision, gift, contraband, and commodity - were in constant flux. At once binding and alienating, these ties endured constant moral stresses and material manipulation by masters and slaves alike, galvanizing conflict and engendering complex new social relations on and off the plantation.