| Contents |
Prologue : "an important crisis is at hand" -- "To seek his fortunes in the distant South" : Stephen Duncan's migration from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi territory -- Laying the foundations of mastery : land, slaves, capital, and the network of elites -- Slaves, politics, and family : Stephen Duncan and the challenges to mastery -- "We will one day have our throats cut in this county" : Stephen Duncan and the challenges of slavery -- Power and position : redefining economic self in boom and bust times -- Public duties and private worlds : the roles and dynamics of the Duncan family -- Survival of the fittest : preservation of wealth and family -- An empire realized : the concentration of wealth and the negotiation of shifting networks -- Underground networks : slave communities and slavery on the Duncan plantations -- Epilogue : "we are in the midst of perils". |
