Michael A. Schoeppner is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maine, Farmington.

Introduction; 1. The Atlantic's dangerous undercurrents; 2. Containing a moral contagion, 1822-9; 3. The contagion spreads, 1829-33; 4. Confronting a pandemic, 1834-42; 5. 'Foreign' emissaries and rights discourse, 1842-7; 6. Sacrificing black citizenship, 1848-59; 7. From the decks to the jails to assembly halls: black sailors, their communities, and the fight for black citizenship; Epilogue.