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A roll of cotton thread in the shape of an eye.

Slavery and the Guardian: The Ties That Bind Us

There is an illusion at the centre of British history that conceals the role of slavery in building the nation. Here’s how I fell for it.

Louis Congo: Ex-Slave and Executioner of Louisiana

Although freed from slavery, Louis Congo's job as public executioner ensured him a life as a pawn of French officials and retaliation from those he disciplined.
A plantation worker harvests palm oil fruits in Riau, Indonesia.

The Story of Palm Oil Is a Story About Capitalism

Palm oil is in everything, but it is also enmeshed in global supply chains that rely on brutal working conditions and the destruction of the planet.
The historic campus of the College of William & Mary, drawn ca. 1740 by John Bartram.

William & Mary's Nottoway Quarter: The Political Economy of Institutional Slavery and Settler Colonialism

The school was funded by colonial taxation of tobacco grown by forced labor on colonized Indian lands.
African American prisoners in Alabama post-Reconstruction.

How the Slavery-Like Conditions of Convict Leasing Flourished After the Collapse of Reconstruction

On the terror that filled the void left by the retreat of federal authority in the South.
Two rosin potatoes sitting on newspaper.

The Elusive Roots of Rosin Potatoes

A talk with family, turpentine workers, historians, chefs, foresters, and beer brewers to get to the root of the rosin potato's origins.
Black and white photo of an African American family near Southern Pines, N.C. North Carolina Southern Pines

The Black Family, Landownership, and Tobacco Culture

In the US, where less than one percent of the land is owned by black people, Black landownership has historically been a means to challenge economic oppression.
A mural of a Black musician wearing a pinstripe suit, hat, and playing guitar.

The Devil, the Delta, and the City

In search of the mythical blues—and their real urban origins.

The Brutal Legacy of the Longleaf Pine

The carefully-tended longleaf pine forests of North America were plundered by European colonizers. They're still recovering.
Trumpet vine in Bayou Bienvenue. An orange-red flower held in someone's hand.

Living Freedom Through the Maroon Landscape

Swampland communities established by self-liberated slaves in Louisiana offer a model to cope with climate disruption.
Photograph of an African American woman standing on her front porch.

America’s Oldest Black Town Is Trapped Between Rebuilding and Retreating

In Princeville, what’s at stake is not just one town’s survival but a unique window into American history.
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High Domes and Bottomless Pits

Exploring the homes of two presidents, the birthplace of another, and a natural wonder that once drew visitors from far and wide.
"Under My Wings Every Thing Prospers" by New Orleans artist J. L. Bouqueto de Woiseri, 1803, depicting an eagle flying over a port city and agricultural fields.

Slavery's Revolutions In Louisiana

Comparing the results of two Louisiana slave rebellions 20 years apart and what that meant for the continuation of slavery within the Deep South.
Palm Oil Farm from above

The Irreplaceable: Palm Oil Dependency

Cheap palm oil is part of an interlocking late capitalist system.
1865 map of North Carolina & South Carolina
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Gone to Carolina

Ed Ayers heads south in search of stories from two centuries ago. Traces are there, but larger meanings remain elusive.
Crowd at Kentucky Derby

The Complicated Story Behind The Kentucky Derby’s Opening Song

Emily Bingham’s new book explores the roots of the Kentucky Derby’s anthem. It may not be pretty, but it’s important to know.
People collecting sap from trees for maple sugar

Praising Maple Sugar in the Early American Republic

In Early America, some prestigious residents advocated for the replacement of cane sugar, supplied by enslaved workers, with maple sugar from family farms.
Ocean waves and cloudy skies.

The 1619 Project Unrepentantly Pushes Junk History

Nikole Hannah-Jones' new book sidesteps scholarly critics while quietly deleting previous factual errors.
A picture of an eerie dark house.

This House Is Still Haunted: An Essay In Seven Gables

A spectre is haunting houses—the spectre of possession.
Portrait photograph of John B. Cade.

John B. Cade's Project to Document the Stories of the Formerly Enslaved

There are revelations in a newly digitized collection of slave narratives compiled by a professor and his students during the Great Depression.
Vintage drawing of a man attempting to hypnotize a crowd of people, sitting in chairs.

Mesmerizing Labor

The man who introduced mesmerism to the US was a slave-owner from Guadeloupe, where planters were experimenting with “magnetizing” their enslaved people.
Illustration of burning cannabis with helicopters overhead

The Cold War Killed Cannabis As We Knew It. Can It Rise Again?

Somewhere in Jamaica survive the original cannabis strains that were not burned by American agents or bred to be more profitable.
Vintage drawing of a rural area with snowfall. In the foreground, two horses are pulling a man in a cart on the snowy road.

Cox’s Snow and the Persistence of Weather Memory

One of the worst snowstorms recorded in Virginia’s history began on Sunday, January 17, 1857. It remained in Virginians' collective memories eighty years later.
Watercolor painting of enslaved people walking barefoot on a forced march, with white men on horseback at the front and back of the line.

Reparative Semantics: On Slavery and the Language of History

Scholarly accounts of slavery have been changing, but these correctives sometimes say more about historians than the historical subjects they're writing about.
A migrant from Haiti prays with a Bible on her head during a Mass at an improvised refugee shelter in Ciudad Acuña on Sept. 21.
partner

In Its Early Days, the United States Provided Haven to People Fleeing Haiti

Extending that compassion today could reverse past wrongs.
Antiquated image of two Indigenous people, against the backdrop of a settlement.

What Slavery Looked Like in the West

Tens of thousands of Indigenous people labored in bondage across the western United States in the 1800s.
Yams under concrete with the leaves growing out of a crack in the sidewalk

The Deep and Twisted Roots of the American Yam

The American yam is not the food it says it is. How that came to be is a story of robbery, reinvention, and identity.
Still Life with Ham, 1625.

Thanksgiving and the Curse of Ham

19th-century African American writer Charles Chesnutt’s subversive literature.
Health care workers on strike, holding picket signs.
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Are We Witnessing a ‘General Strike’ in Our Own Time?

W.E.B. Du Bois defined the shift from slavery to freedom as a “general strike” — and there are parallels to today.
Montpelier, the home of James Madison in Orange, Virginia

Is History for Sale?

The omnipresence of slavery at historic sites today seems intended to tarnish remarkable achievements and promote the cause of identity politics.

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