Problem 1: What is Berlin referring to when he writes of the "Atlantic Littoral" and what is its significance to our study of slavery in North America?
Problem 2: Who were the Charter Generation and what was their role in the Atlantic World?
Problem 3: One of Berlin's themes throughout his book is the "contingency" of slavery and enslavement - that it was not the same in every place and time and depended on multiple factors and circumstances. How was the life of Anthony Johnson and his family "contingent" on the particular circumstances of the Charter Generation and slavery as it existed prior to the Plantation Generation?
Problem 4: What were the forces that brought about the development of the plantation system and what were its consequences for slavery in North America and the lives of the enslaved?
Problem 5: Where does the Plantation Generation fit within Berlin's theoretical distinction between societies with slaves and slave societies?
Problem 6: How was the "agency" (sense of or actual control of their lives within the context of their bondage) of the enslaved changed or altered by the development of the plantation system and how did it change over time and place?