110 Search results for "slave labor"

Inmates in at least 17 states begin massive labor strike, calling conditions modern-day slavery
According to the Guardian, August 21st marks the beginning of a nineteen-day protest and labor stoppage across the prison populations of American prisons in at least 17 states. The protest, which has largely been organized by the prisoners themselves, is designed to disrupt the system of unpaid labor many prisons in America rely upon to stay […]
Remains of 95 Black “convict lease laborers” who were basically post-Civil War slaves found in Texas
Note: Many articles covering this event note that the men and a few women who are the subjects of this piece were identified as contract laborers, but in this historical and sociological context, these people were enslaved, still doing hard plantation labor with no compensation and not out of their own free will. According to […]
From John Henry to James Evans: Black men married to hard labor in the white American imagination
by Donnie MoreIand I find myself humming the theme of Good Times, quite a bit. It’s calming, in the way only Black Baptist Church Choirs can be calming. In fact, I find all of it pretty calming—Good Times, that is—because it’s so unequivocally Black, that it feels a part of my cultural genome. Now, I […]
Georgetown’s student vote on slave reparation fund signals a needed change in higher education
by Cobretti Williams Students of Georgetown University recently voted in overwhelming favor to increase tuition fees for all undergraduate students. Compared to most cases when student fees are assessed for the operation costs of the university, this circumstance was different. The impetus for this student body vote was to create a reparation fund for the […]
Hungary is in revolt over a draconian overtime bill workers are calling a “slave law”
According to Jacobin, protests have erupted in Hungary against the recent passage of a law allowing employers to demand up to 400 hours of overtime work, with payment delayed for up to three years. Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban pushed for the law aggressively, and has sparked massive protests that have not been seen […]
95 bodies—how sanitizing slavery keeps America’s hands clean
The remains of ninety-five Black people were recently found buried at a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. The vast majority of reports about this discovery neglect to call these dead Black people what they really were: enslaved. This essay contains discussions of racialized state violence, slavery, and lynching. “African-American forced laborers” have […]
Review Roundup: Zora Neale Hurston’s book on one of the last Africans in the Atlantic slave trade
Nearly 90 years after it was first written, Zora Neale Hurston’s series of interviews with one of the last Africans brought to America from the Atlantic slave trade has arrived in bookstores across the country. Barracoon is introduced rather fittingly by Alice Walker, the woman whom we can thank for a revitalized interest and scholarship […]
Black people were held in slavery in the Deep South as late as the 1960’s
According to a series of interviews published by Vice, historian and genealogist Antionette Harrell has uncovered long-hidden cases of Black people who were still living as slaves a century past the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Harrell’s groundbreaking work has exposed cases in her home state of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida. Harrell first began […]
Camila Cabello erases enslaved Africans’ contributions in call to support immigrants at the Grammys
Which came first: the derailer or the eraser? This question was inspired by pop star Camila Cabello’s pro-immigration speech to millions of viewers at the 60th annual Grammys last night. “Today, in this room full of music’s dreamers, we remember that this country was built by dreamers, for dreamers, chasing the American dream,” Cabello said […]
Harvard Law School owns past ties to slavery by adding memorial
While top universities are removing Confederate monuments, Harvard is going one step further by owning up to its past connections to slavery. Harvard Law School has unveiled a memorial honoring the slaves whose labor built the wealth the institution was founded on, according to Harvard Law Today.
When I, a Black person, was told I didn’t know enough about another culture to have opinions on slavery
Last week, something Trumpian must have sparked a race between major publications to put out the most fucked up writings on the topic of slavery. On Tuesday, The New York Times compared Saartje Baartman–an enslaved Black woman who, in addition to the many other horrors she suffered both before and after her death, was forced […]
Bill Brennan, New Jersey candidate for governor, connects for-profit prisons with slavery
Recently, Bill Brennan, a candidate for New Jersey governor, turned some heads when he shared his opinion on for-profit prisons, according to Salon.