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.
Slavery
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.
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.
The Revenge Fantasy: 'Django Unchained' vs. '12 Years a Slave'
Do most Americans believe that all problems—psychological, interpersonal, political, moral—can be resolved by a final competition, whether it’s a quick-draw shootout or a dance contest?
150 Years of Racism: Attitudes in the American South
The bias of Southern whites during slavery is still being passed down from generation to generation, according to new research.
Q&A: Abraham Lincoln Wanted the Freed Slaves to Leave America
No, you don't, but it happened well into his presidency. Aaron Gordon speaks to the man who has tried to paint a true, human portrait of the Great Emancipator—even if we don't want to hear it.