Book excerpt: Identity in the Shadow of Slavery addresses issues relating to the gender, ethnic, and cultural factors through which enslaved Africans and their descendants interpreted their lives under slavery, thereby creating communities with a shared sense of identity. The focus of the book is on the ways in which identities were formulated under slavery and the ways in which the struggle to escape slavery and its legacy continued to affect the lives of descendants of slaves. The introductory essay explores an approach to the study of the African diaspora that looks outward from Africa and places the following chapters, written by leading authorities from Europe and North and South America, in the context of the theoretical literature.