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Loading... Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipationby Kris Manjapra
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  bigship | Nov 23, 2022 |  no reviews | add a review
"The 1619 Project illuminated the ways in which every aspect of life in the United States was and is shaped by the existence of slavery. Black Ghost of Empire focuses on emancipation and how this opportunity to make right further codified the racial caste system-instead of obliterating it.To understand why the shadow of slavery still haunts society today, we must not only look at what slavery was, but also the unfinished way it ended. One may think of "emancipation" as a finale, leading to a new age of human rights and universal freedoms. But in reality, emancipations everywhere were incomplete. In Black Ghost of Empire, acclaimed historian and professor Kris Manjapra identifies five types of emancipation-explaining them in chronological order-along with the lasting impact these transitions had on formerly enslaved groups around the Atlantic. Beginning in 1770s and concluding in 1880s, different kinds of emancipation processes took place across the Atlantic world. These included the Gradual Emancipations of North America, the Revolutionary Emancipation of Haiti, the Compensated Emancipations of European overseas empires, the War Emancipation of the American South, and the Conquest Emancipations that swept across Sub-Saharan Africa. Tragically, despite a century of abolitions and emancipations, systems of social bondage persisted and reconfigured. We still live with these unfinished endings today. In practice, all the slavery emancipations that have ever taken place reenacted racial violence against Black communities, and reaffirmed commitment to white supremacy. The devil lurked in the details of the five emancipation processes, none of which required atonement for wrongs committed, or restorative justice for the people harmed. Manjapra shows how, amidst this unfinished history, grassroots Black organizers and activists have become custodians of collective recovery and remedy; not only for our present, but also for our relationship with the past. Timely, lucid, and crucial to our understanding of the ongoing "anti-mattering" of Black people, Black Ghost of Empire shines a light into the deep gap between the idea of slavery's end and its actual perpetuation in various forms-exposing the shadows that linger to this day"-- No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.362Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Economic institutions Systems of labor, industrial sociology SlaveryLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.33)
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Wikipedia in English
4
Whilst the headlines were to the effect that legislative changes brought slavery to an end, what was often introduced what might be called gradual or deferred emancipation. That is, taking Rhode Island and Vermont as examples (pp 18-22) those previously regarded as enslaved were legally 'free' but required to pay their enslavers compensation for loss of their 'property rights' as to the enslaved. This inevitably took the form of compulsory non-remunerated service by the former enslaved for many years, in some cases for decades. Children born to the enslaved, were also technically 'free' but were also required to provide similar service until into their 20s.
Haiti, previously known as Saint-Domingue, was for a time controlled by France. It had many plantations, serviced by the enslaved, predominantly from Africa. In 1804 became one of the few colonialised countries which has ever broken free due to the uprising of its people. France saw the writing on the wall and over the following decades, conceded control to Haiti's people. But such was not the end of the story.'The nations of North America and Europe would not officially engage with haiti as a sovereign nation until France had "emancipated" it...' (p 45). And France would not emancipate Haiti unless and until Haiti had compensated France for the losses it incurred as a result of its loss of 'property rights' (not just the enslaved, but plantations, businesses etc), France having already paid compensation to its citizens for similar losses (and continued to pay such compensation to such people and their ancestors until 1911). In the end, notwithstanding Napoleon in 1803 forgiving any debt, France in 1825 indicated it was willing to concede control /sovereignty provided Haiti agreed to pay France an indemnity of some 15M francs (approx $37 today [presumably US$] and to reduce customs duties on French imports by 50%. Haiti agreed but quickly defaulted on payments. In 1838, a new arrangement was negotiated, under which the indemnity was reduced to 90M Francs,but addition bank fees of some 75M francs were incurred. Whilst Haiti paid off the principal by 1893 (some 55 years later) it continued to pay interest and other fees until the 1950s. As much as 80% of Haiti's revenues went to paying off these debts. (p64)
Many British citizens enslaved people around the world.'Close to a million African people lived under British domination in the decade before the American Revolution.' (p69) As slavery was brought to an end, albeit in the less than optimal means described, Britain paid 'compensation' to those citizens over decades. [TBC] (