A few years ago, Dr. Christine Sears published a nonfiction book about American slaves and African masters whose tales of high-seas misadventure sounded more like a Patrick O'Brian novel than a depiction of real life. Now the associate professor of history at UAH is back, with a collection of essays that delve into the commodification of slavery, slave communities, and how slavery compared between different nations. "A lot of the research I couldn't include in my first book I was able to incorporate into this one," she says.