An authoritative study of the free people of color in the largest state of the Old South Virginia was the state with the most enslaved people prior to the Civil War. It was also at one time the state with the most resident free people of color―free from the legal disabilities specifically associated with enslavement but still denied many basic civil rights. Written by an award-winning expert on free people of color in the American South, Freedom in the Age of Slavery is the first modern comprehensive history of free Virginians of color from the colonial period through Reconstruction.   Milteer recounts in granular detail the discriminatory policies and resulting hardships that free Virginians of color faced, while also documenting the openings they created for themselves and the successes they enjoyed against overwhelming odds. Throughout, he highlights the commonwealth’s significance as the laboratory for legal discrimination throughout the nation, while never losing sight of the ways free people of color seized their opportunities wherever possible and built meaningful lives in the face of massive white resistance. Both accessible and extensively researched, Warren Milteer's Freedom in the Age of Slavery is the first book in more than a century to provide a broad survey of the experiences and circumstances of free people of color in Virginia. Moving between stories of individual lives and the changing legal and social contexts that shaped them, Milteer shows the perseverance, determination, and ingenuity demonstrated by free people of color to survive and thrive in a state deeply committed to the institution of slavery. This is an important book likely to be the starting point on the subject for years to come. ? Joshua D. Rothman, University of Alabama, author of A Pioneer in the Cause of Freedom: The Life of Elisha Tyson Both accessible and extensively researched, Warren Milteer's Freedom in the Age of Slavery is the first book in more than a century to provide a broad survey of the experiences and circumstances of free people of color in Virginia. Moving between stories of individual lives and the changing legal and social contexts that shaped them, Milteer shows the perseverance, determination, and ingenuity demonstrated by free people of color to survive and thrive in a state deeply committed to the institution of slavery. This is an important book likely to be the starting point on the subject for years to come. ― Joshua D. Rothman, University of Alabama, author of A Pioneer in the Cause of Freedom: The Life of Elisha Tyson Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. is Associate Professor of History at George Washington University and the author of Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South .