Eighty years late: groundbreaking work on slave economy is finally published in UK?

In 1938, a brilliant young Black scholar at Oxford University wrote a thesis on the economic history of British empire and challenged a claim about slavery that had been defining Britain’s role in the world for more than a century.Slavery, Williams argues, was abolished in much of the British empire in 1833 because doing so at that time was in Britain’s economic self-interest – not because the British suddenly discovered a conscience.“ The capitalists had first encouraged West Indian slavery and then helped to destroy it,” he writes.

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Founding the New Free Black Community

Millions of freed Black Americans built their own communities across the South post-Civil War. They worked to establish a life of freedom and prosperity for themselves and future generations. Schooling, church, and family were important pillars of community-building. They meant to enjoy their freedom to live with family, unite in marriage, raise children, worship in the open, and educate the next generation.

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The Lost Promise of Reconstruction

Eric Foner draws parallels between our tense political climate and the end of the Reconstruction Age, overviewing the backward steps our country has taken as we move further from the promises of Reconstruction.

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