Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1941–2007) and I intended Slavery in White and Black: Class and Race in the Southern Slaveholders' New World Order to stand alone, so that readers who do not know our previous work would not be placed at serious disadvantage. Those who have read The Mind of the Master Class: History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview (2005) will, however, have a richer context for the place of our argument in the trajectory of proslavery thought and, more broadly, nineteenth-century transatlantic religious and secular conservative thought.

A few clarifications: “The War” refers to the War for Southern Independence of 1861–1865. The term “free labor” is not as straightforward as it might appear; different scholars use it differently. Here, we equate it with “wage labor” as usually done in the texts we discuss. Where we have identified the author of anonymous publications, the name appears in brackets. A question mark indicates that we consider the author in brackets probable. All words placed in italics for emphasis are from original sources quoted. We use sic only in rare cases in which it seems indispensable.

We are deeply grateful to Christopher Luse for helping us to collect materials, checking references and quotations, and offering valuable criticisms of style and content. As Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's health was collapsing, Tina Trent's kindness and innumerable professional and personal efforts on our behalf reached heroic proportions.