Slavery
Juneteenth 2019: An Essential Reading List
Highlights from Pacific Standard's coverage of racial inequality and the state of reparations in America.
One Reason Why White People in Southern States Still Have a Higher Rate of Bias Against Black Americans
New research finds that white Americans are more likely to hold unconscious biases against black Americans if their home region was once heavily dependent on slavery.
Inside the Land Rights Struggle for the Descendants of Runaway Slaves in Brazil
Communities made up of fugitive slave descendants have been forced from their lands and denied their rights, a situation that may only get worse under newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro.
How Calls for Civility Led to the Civil War
Stephen E. Maizlish's new book discusses a time much like our own, when radicals in Congress hurled insults while moderates bemoaned a lack of civility.
Taking Freedom: Modern-Day Slavery in America's Prison Workforce
On the labor issues connected with using inmates as extremely low-paid workers in state and federal prisons.
La Esclavitud Moderna en la Fuerza Laboral en la Prisión de Estados Unidos
Este artículo explica los problemas laborales relacionados con el uso de presos como trabajadores extremadamente mal pagados en las prisiones estatales y federales.
No, the Irish Were Not Slaves Too
Historian Liam Hogan has spent the last six years debunking the Irish slave myth.
Frederick Douglass' Most (Mis)quoted Words
Setting the record straight on the abolitionist's 200th birthday.
A Historian of Forgotten Resistance
From pirates to abolitionist dwarves, Marcus Rediker's research tends to unearth radical and oppositional communities.
Ona Judge, the Washingtons, and the Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave
A portrait of George Washington as slave master.
America, the House That Slavery Built
By minimizing how we talk about slavery, we ignore its profound impact on the development of the American economy.
How Slavery Changed the DNA of African Americans
Widespread sexual exploitation before the Civil War strongly influenced the genetic make-up of essentially all African Americans alive today.
Shelf Help: 'The Other Slavery'
Not the slavery you learned about in high school.
A Future History of the United States
In 'The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry,' Ned and Constance Sublette offer a radical re-interpretation of American history. It’s brutal and uncompromising, and, for better or worse, it’s how we should understand the country.
Desperate Efforts to Re-Unite During Reconstruction
The racial empathy gap, then and now.
Why It Was Easy for Rachel Dolezal to Pass as Black
Race is more social than biological.
Black Diseases Matter Too
Could the brutality of slavery still have an effect on the health of African Americans, who continue to live shorter lives, on average, than whites?
Economics at the North Pole: Are Santa's Elves Slaves?
A pair of economists seek to reconcile two conflicting schools of thought in order to predict what sort of environments increase incentives for labor coercion.
Slavery’s Legacy: Race-Based Economic Inequality
Two European researchers find a link between county-level slavery in 1860 and economic inequality today.
The United States Needs a Slavery Museum
As part of its reparations demands, the Caribbean Community is seeking money for cultural organizations that examine the history of slavery. Here’s why the U.S. should construct similar institutions to memorialize our peculiar institution.
Let’s Stop Using the Term 'Modern-Day Slavery'
Human trafficking isn’t a relic of history.
Masochism at the Movies: Historical Horrors With Hitchcock and McQueen
Brutalism on screen—and its moral repercussions.
What Makes American Cuisine American?
At its essence, American food began as a cuisine of survival free from the burdens of tradition and elitism. Little has changed.
The Financial Meltdown of the New Orleans Slave Market
As you watch 12 Years a Slave recall that the market in humanity really was a market—with dizzying asset price changes, speculative bubbles, and a fear of volatility greater than a fear of civil war.