This book places the slave in the center of the history not simply as a type of labor, but as an actor whose culture, actions and decisions influenced the operation of the system. It is written with verve and grace for a general readership.

Katia Mytilineou de Queirós Mattoso (born Kyriacoula Katia Demetre Mytilineou ; Volos , 8 of April of 1931 - Paris , 11 of January of 2011  was a historian Greek-Brazilian, a specialist in Bahia's economic and social history (1750-1889) and in the social history of slavery in Brazil (1549-1888).

Katia Mattoso was a professor at the Catholic University of Salvador and Bahia Federal (1963-1988), visiting professor at the Universities of Minnesota (1978), Paris IV (1982) and Columbia (1983). He was also visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge ( UK ). In 1988, he took the chair of History of Brazil at the University Paris IV - Sorbonne, of which he was the first holder. Teacher emeritus  of the same University, he is the author of several books, among which are: Bahia: the city of Salvador and its market in the nineteenth century (São Paulo: Hucitec, 1978), Être esclave au Brésil, XVIe-XIXe siècles (Paris : Hachette, 1979; Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995), with editions in Portuguese ( Being a slave in Brazil São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1982; 3.ed. 1990) and English (To Be a Slave in Brazil ,New Brunswick. , NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986; 7.ed. 2002), Family and society in nineteenth-century Bahia (São Paulo: Corrupio, 1988) and Bahia, nineteenth century. A province in the Empire (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1992, 2.ed. 1994).

— Stuart B. Schwartz, from the foreword