Introduction: "A man from another country" -- citizenship and the bonds of labor -- Bound by law: apprenticeship and the culture of 'free' labor -- Civic virtues: narrative form and the trial of character in early America -- Fugitive bonds: contract and the culture of constitutionalism -- Hereditary bondsman: Frederick Douglass and the spirit of the law -- "If man will strike": Moby Dick and the letter of the law -- Conclusion: the labors of emancipation -- founded law and freedom defined
