| | Heritage: Groundwork and Waterscapes | p. 3 |
| | John: Odyssey of an Able-Bodied Seaman, 1846-1864 | |
| | Mongrel Liverpool, Empire, and the "Nigger Jack" | p. 15 |
| | New Bedford, the Cambridge, and "Seeing the Elephant" | p. 38 |
| | An Able-Bodied Seaman No More | p. 71 |
| | Emma: Old Bonds, New Bonds, 1846-1870 | |
| | "Turkey Buzzard Lay Me": A Childhood in Tidewater Country | p. 91 |
| | Wartime Norfolk, Liberty, and a Legitimized Marriage | p. 122 |
| | Fire, Ashes, and the Hobbled Phoenix | p. 156 |
| | Northern Exposures, 1870-1905 | |
| | No Room at the Inn | p. 183 |
| | Citizenship, Fraternity, and a Dutiful Son | p. 211 |
| | Wake of the Lancaster: Little Brown Brother and the Navy Blues | p. 241 |
| | Walking in Emma's Footsteps: Time and Tides along Mother Brook | p. 274 |
| | Percy's Tribe, 1902-1926 | |
| | Wizardry, and Jim Crow's Alabama Trilogy | p. 303 |
| | Carrie: Theories of Evolution and the Company of Women | p. 342 |
| | Captains' Tales, Before and Beyond the Great Wars | p. 379 |
| | Capital Times: "A Paradise of Paradoxes" | p. 428 |
| | All the World's a Stage | p. 473 |
| | The Widow's Might: Further Hyde Park Chronicles, 1905-1926 | |
| | Purgatory: The Poisoned Tree | p. 503 |
| | Nights When the Music Stopped | p. 529 |
| | Notes | p. 553 |
| | Acknowledgments, and Coming to Conclusions | p. 655 |
| | Index | p. 663 |