Cover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. The Global Biography of Early American Coral
Red Coral Jewelry
Coral and Bells
Coral Reef Specimens
2. "Labors of the Coral"
Coral Insect Labor
Exhaustless Laborers
"The Coral People"
Interchapter: The Korl Woman
3. Fathomless Forms of Life
Hidden Complexities: Peyssonnel's "Coral Insect" (1726)
Founded in Relations: Darwin's "Coral Insect" (1842)
Interchapter: "I Come from Coral Reefs"
4. Coral Collectives
Color Plates
"Society is that Island"
We Are Not That Island Yet

African American Coral Collectives
Interchapter: "The Coral Builders," St. John's AME Church, Cleveland, Ohio
5. Red Coral, Black Atlantic
Palmyre Philosophe's Red Coral Necklace and Black Atlantic Ritual
US Literature's Red Coral Repertoire, ca. 1850-1900
Stowe, Coral, and Race
Interchapter: Topsy in Coral
Coda: Coral Temporalities
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index