This book reexamines slave trading in the Early Middle Ages from a comparative perspective, situating it at the core of economic and political development in northern and east central Europe.

Fontaine focuses on the 'slaving zones' centered around the British Isles and the Czech lands, tracing the forced migration of enslaved people from the point of capture to their destinations across Europe, the North Atlantic, North Africa, and western Asia. The book explores the changes of the ninth and tenth centuries prompted by increased demand, principally in the Islamic world as well as areas of Viking settlement. The desire to source more slaves led to changes in the practice of warfare to maximize captive taking, the logistics of slave trading and rulers' legal and economic relationships with slavery.

By spanning from the seventh through to the eleventh century, this important study traces the growth, climax, and decline of slave trading in the early Middle Ages and establishes its role as a driver of connectivity.