How did a population of free Black individuals navigate the social and economic landscape of 17th-century Virginia before the hardening of racial caste systems? Authors T. H. Breen and Stephen Innes examine the lives of Black landowners on the Eastern Shore of Virginia between 1640 and 1676. By analyzing court records, land deeds, and probate inventories, the authors argue that these individuals functioned as integral, property-owning members of their communities, challenging modern assumptions about the inevitability of racial slavery in the early colonial period.

Historians frequently cite this work as a foundational study for understanding the fluidity of race relations in the early Chesapeake colonies. Scholars note the text's meticulous use of local records to reconstruct the lives of individuals often omitted from broader historical narratives.