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Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation
A revelatory historical indictment of the long afterlife of slavery in the Atlantic worldTo fully understand why the shadow of slavery haunts us today, we must confront the flawed way that it ended. We celebrate abolition - in Haiti after the revolution, in the British Empire in 1833, in the United States during the Civil War. Yet in Black Ghost of Empire , acclaimed historian Kris Manjapra argues that during each of these supposed emancipations, Black people were dispossessed by the moves that were meant to free them. Emancipation, in other words, simply codified the existing racial caste system - rather than obliterating it.Ranging across the Americas, Europe and Africa, Manjapra unearths disturbing truths about the Age of Emancipations, 1780-1880. In Britain, reparations were given to wealthy slaveowners, not the enslaved, a vast debt that was only paid off in 2015, and the crucial role of Black abolitionists and rebellions in bringing an end to slavery has been overlooked. In Jamaica, Black people were liberated only to enter into an apprenticeship period harsher than slavery itself. In the American South, the formerly enslaved were 'freed' into a system of white supremacy and racial terror. Across Africa, emancipation served as an alibi for colonization. None of these emancipations involved atonement by the enslavers and their governments for wrongs committed, or reparative justice for the formerly enslaved-an omission that grassroots Black organizers and activists are rightly seeking to address today.Black Ghost of Empire will rewire readers' understanding of the world in which we live. Paradigm-shifting, lucid and courageous, this book shines a light into the enigma of slavery's supposed death, and its afterlives.
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First published April 19, 2022
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About the author
Kris Manjapra
7 books38 followersKris Manjapra is Professor of History and Director of Colonialism Studies at Tufts University.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 69 reviews
May 11, 2025
This was a very, very dense book. It will require multiple readings to ingest it all.
This book on the history of slavery differs than any other I've read because it covers more than just the US and Haiti. It also includes the history of Britain and France, among other countries, as enslavers and Barbados, Congo, Ghana, Malawi, and many other countries as enslaved. Given the breadth of what it's trying to encapsulate and that it's only 272 pages, the book is, as mentioned, dense. But it's also in many ways cursory because it's only 272 pages.
The ambition is there, but the execution suffers just a little bit. It's overly ambitious. It goes back and forth between countries, timelines, and the problems faced in each. All this made it extra hard to read. It also seemed to blur colonialism/colonization/imperialism with slavery (e.g., I don't think India was ever enslaved or was it?).
While I think this is an important book, because I found it hard to read, I did not love it.
This book on the history of slavery differs than any other I've read because it covers more than just the US and Haiti. It also includes the history of Britain and France, among other countries, as enslavers and Barbados, Congo, Ghana, Malawi, and many other countries as enslaved. Given the breadth of what it's trying to encapsulate and that it's only 272 pages, the book is, as mentioned, dense. But it's also in many ways cursory because it's only 272 pages.
The ambition is there, but the execution suffers just a little bit. It's overly ambitious. It goes back and forth between countries, timelines, and the problems faced in each. All this made it extra hard to read. It also seemed to blur colonialism/colonization/imperialism with slavery (e.g., I don't think India was ever enslaved or was it?).
While I think this is an important book, because I found it hard to read, I did not love it.
May 6, 2022
This book describes several types of emancipation of formerly enslaved people. In each case, actual freedom was elusive, and if it happened at all it took a very long time, leaving the formerly enslaved people significantly disadvantaged. Gradual emancipation - in New England and the mid-Atlantic states of the United States and in the Spanish Americas, where freedom was paid for by continued forced labor and the goal of actual freedom kept getting pushed forward. Retroactive emancipation - decades after the slaves revolted in Haiti, France “emancipated” the slaves, provided that Haiti go into perpetual debt to French banks in order to pay the former slaveholders (for a century). Compensated emancipation - the British Empire permitted continued forced labor and the British government gave cash payouts to the slaveholders, setting a precedent for other countries. War emancipation - exemplified by the American Civil War and it’s aftermath. Conquest emancipations - “While refusing to regulate the abolition of slavery in colonial Africa, colonial administrations simultaneously pointed to slavery as their justification to extend wars of conquest across African society.”
“British slaveowners and their heirs received lucrative state-funded reparations bankrolled by British taxpayers for 180 years until 2015. On the other hand, the emancipated African people of the Caribbean states were deprived of education, healthcare, the right to land and livelihood, the vote, and the foundations for independent economies.” 2015! Can you even imagine that? That’s what you can expect when the terms of emancipation are governed by the oppressors. Instead of reparations to the formerly enslaved, you get indentured servitude, Jim Crow laws and payments that further enriched the slave holders.
This book certainly had a lot of information and read like a text book (although one written by a pretty disgruntled professor). I sort of wavered back and forth between information overload and fury. About 25% of the book consists of endnotes. The book is short and should be read. You will learn a lot.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
“British slaveowners and their heirs received lucrative state-funded reparations bankrolled by British taxpayers for 180 years until 2015. On the other hand, the emancipated African people of the Caribbean states were deprived of education, healthcare, the right to land and livelihood, the vote, and the foundations for independent economies.” 2015! Can you even imagine that? That’s what you can expect when the terms of emancipation are governed by the oppressors. Instead of reparations to the formerly enslaved, you get indentured servitude, Jim Crow laws and payments that further enriched the slave holders.
This book certainly had a lot of information and read like a text book (although one written by a pretty disgruntled professor). I sort of wavered back and forth between information overload and fury. About 25% of the book consists of endnotes. The book is short and should be read. You will learn a lot.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
January 3, 2022
Do you ever read something that is so glaringly obvious yet it still blows your mind? Kris Manjapra pieced together the history that I knew, with the things I should have known, sprinkled with honest observations that left me dumbfounded but also telling myself “DUH!” The biggest takeaway for me was that emancipation was done by and for the perpetrators of slavery. It wasn’t informed by Black liberationists. The people with the power to enact change were by and large the criminals and their main priority was protecting their peers and wallets. Not only that, but slave owners received reparations while denying the humans they stole, abused, and often killed any reparations or even apologies. The arguments and pleas made by Black liberationists in the 1860s are frighteningly close to what we hear today from Black people still fighting the same fight.
I think this was a really important book for me to read and I would recommend it to all of my friends and family. We still see the effects of emancipations around the world today and it’s important that we are educated on them. When we learn to recognize these harms, we can better work to repair them. (And this time, we should listen to the voices of those who are affected and let them lead.)
I think this was a really important book for me to read and I would recommend it to all of my friends and family. We still see the effects of emancipations around the world today and it’s important that we are educated on them. When we learn to recognize these harms, we can better work to repair them. (And this time, we should listen to the voices of those who are affected and let them lead.)
February 27, 2022
I received an advanced copy of this book to reveiw.
In ‘The Black Ghost of Empire - The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation’, Kris Manjapra masterfully juxtaposes the present with the absent, revealing the truth of what once was, by illustrating vividly what was not.
Using his own ancestral Afro-Asiatic lineage as the nexus upon which the narrative arch of enslavement and emancipation gyrate, Manjapra illustrates how the enslaved continued to compensate their enslavers through the injustices of so-called ‘apprenticeship’, indenture and colonialism, long after their purported ‘emancipation’ had occurred. Indeed the process of ‘emancipation’ itself, is characterised as a legal mechanism of support for the slave owners transitioning out of slavery, done to the detriment of those they enslaved, who received nothing and who’s lot barely changed in the process. This legal posturing - treating slave owners as victims of property loss, rather than enslaved people as victims of crimes against humanity, - was defined by the slave owners themselves and enacted incrementally for their own benefit.
Manjapra illustrates the absurdity of white European enslavement practices, - designed to not only exploit, degrade and dehumanise black people but also to dismember their history, - as a nefarious network of voids created by enslavers, to render the black experience into a malaise of invisible ghostly apparitions.
Traversing these voids in search of his own history he likens to pursuing those ghosts; whilst ironically being “unseen” - generation after generation, due to those very same voids. A case of a dog chasing it’s tail at the behest of its master, who’d trained him to do just that.
This book takes the self-aggrandisement of white abolitionisms and rams it back down the throats of those who lauded it as an example of white benevolence. In cting the “Marronage’ (namesake of the Maroons of St Domingue - Haiti) he contextualises black ‘self emancipation’ and ‘insurgency’ within the abolitionist gamut, as yet another ghost that swirls unseen in the shade of the self indulgent white abolitionists, wallowing in their own righteousness. Manjapra states; ‘The story of the triumphant declaration to end slavery, disintegrates under investigation’.
Manjapra references the Doxa (popular misconceptions) in North America; like the one ‘exonerating the north and praising New England abolitionist intelligence’. These fallacies are evidenced elsewhere, in books like Grant Hayter-Menzies ‘The North Door: Echoes of Slavery in a New England Family’ (OJP Vermont 2019) Hayter-Menzies ‘New England family’ held slaves from reign of Elizabeth I in 1555, through ‘til 1864, moving between New England, Connecticut and Massachusetts, before moving south to North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana. Stories like these, debunk entirely the myth of an absolute Northern abolition, a theme that Manjapra grapples relentlessly with throughout his treatise, referencing also Du Bois’ 19th century post-slavery sociological study ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ (1899) highlighting the lack of reparative justice for those who’d been enslaved in the north and continued to suffer in slave-like servitude, post-emancipation.
In ‘The Black Ghost of Empire - The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation’, Kris Manjapra masterfully juxtaposes the present with the absent, revealing the truth of what once was, by illustrating vividly what was not.
Using his own ancestral Afro-Asiatic lineage as the nexus upon which the narrative arch of enslavement and emancipation gyrate, Manjapra illustrates how the enslaved continued to compensate their enslavers through the injustices of so-called ‘apprenticeship’, indenture and colonialism, long after their purported ‘emancipation’ had occurred. Indeed the process of ‘emancipation’ itself, is characterised as a legal mechanism of support for the slave owners transitioning out of slavery, done to the detriment of those they enslaved, who received nothing and who’s lot barely changed in the process. This legal posturing - treating slave owners as victims of property loss, rather than enslaved people as victims of crimes against humanity, - was defined by the slave owners themselves and enacted incrementally for their own benefit.
Manjapra illustrates the absurdity of white European enslavement practices, - designed to not only exploit, degrade and dehumanise black people but also to dismember their history, - as a nefarious network of voids created by enslavers, to render the black experience into a malaise of invisible ghostly apparitions.
Traversing these voids in search of his own history he likens to pursuing those ghosts; whilst ironically being “unseen” - generation after generation, due to those very same voids. A case of a dog chasing it’s tail at the behest of its master, who’d trained him to do just that.
This book takes the self-aggrandisement of white abolitionisms and rams it back down the throats of those who lauded it as an example of white benevolence. In cting the “Marronage’ (namesake of the Maroons of St Domingue - Haiti) he contextualises black ‘self emancipation’ and ‘insurgency’ within the abolitionist gamut, as yet another ghost that swirls unseen in the shade of the self indulgent white abolitionists, wallowing in their own righteousness. Manjapra states; ‘The story of the triumphant declaration to end slavery, disintegrates under investigation’.
Manjapra references the Doxa (popular misconceptions) in North America; like the one ‘exonerating the north and praising New England abolitionist intelligence’. These fallacies are evidenced elsewhere, in books like Grant Hayter-Menzies ‘The North Door: Echoes of Slavery in a New England Family’ (OJP Vermont 2019) Hayter-Menzies ‘New England family’ held slaves from reign of Elizabeth I in 1555, through ‘til 1864, moving between New England, Connecticut and Massachusetts, before moving south to North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana. Stories like these, debunk entirely the myth of an absolute Northern abolition, a theme that Manjapra grapples relentlessly with throughout his treatise, referencing also Du Bois’ 19th century post-slavery sociological study ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ (1899) highlighting the lack of reparative justice for those who’d been enslaved in the north and continued to suffer in slave-like servitude, post-emancipation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2023
Perhaps a 1.5.
This is a poor work of historical scholarship. Maybe it is better understood as a polemic in support of a political goal (reparations), but it is a poor exemplar of that genre as well.
The text flattens all historical nuance, playing fast and loose with terms and ideas in ways that obfuscate rather than illuminate. Some examples:
The Note on Terminology states that the text uses Black and African interchangeably. This does not make sense. For the three centuries of the translatlantic slave trade, certain African societies grew fat as slave traders in other African peoples (and undesirables within their own population). Are the descendants of these societies also “victims” of the slave trade when they benefitted from it for so long? Does ignoring their complicity aid in creating solidarity among Black peoples? See Lose Your Mother.
The text treats plantation slavery, household slavery, bonded labor, bondage, indentured servitude, indenture, sharecropping, tenant farming, convict leasing, prison work, and apprenticeship as the same thing. This makes no sense. These are varied forms of organizing and exploiting the work of other people, but the similarities and differences across these systems are important. It is only under the system of plantation slavery constructed by the West in the transAtlantic slave trade that property rights in slaves could be commodified in the form of insurance, futures contracts, etc. This reflects the particular legal framework of Western European societies vis a vis property rights and how they were enforced. This was not possible with any of the other systems mentioned above. This distinction matters.
This type of sloppiness also manifests in terms of citing and other rigors of scholarship. Chapter after chapter contains sweeping sentences with extreme rhetoric with no cite. See, e.g., the discussion of Mary Princes slave narrative and how it was censored by British abolitionists to serve their own ends. I believe this is factually true. Nonetheless, no cite at all through the entire discussion, and use of passive voice: “scholars have shown”. It does a disservice to the texts readers to write in this fashion and a disservice to the political project of the text because it can be easily dismissed.
The text uses passive voice to construct a straw man that it tilts at, but the straw man does not exist. Words like “we” and “historians” litter the text, with no clarification as to who these people are and whether they still matter. Through introducing the term “ghost line” the text states that these stories are denied. Who is denying them? Which stories? The idea that the legacy of trans-Atlantic slavery continues to this day and that this slavery was one of the foundations of modernity is widely accepted, both in academia, and even in the broader public consciousness. E.g., if a mainstream publication like the NYT, far from radical, is publishing the 1619 project, these stories have not been “ghost lined”.
At times it felt like the text was just smashing together buzz words from academic history and redefining what words mean and claiming that was scholarship. “Long” “slow death” “void” “ghost line” “whiteness” “white supremacy” appear over and over but don’t enhance understanding and are not situated in specific historical contexts. Words like “emancipation” and “slavery” are redefined to serve whatever purpose the author wants. So rather than being a contested term “Emancipation” means “continued white supremacy” means “long death of slavery”. This is just playing musical rhetorical hats.
Ultimately, this text is a disservice to the political project (reparations, and a reclamation of Black stories) that it ostensibly supports. It dehumanizes Black people: it makes them all saints, nobly working together to resist and fight slavery. There were Black collaborators with plantation slavery, African plantation owners, Black slave traders, etc. Black people also displaced the violence of slavery onto other Black people, and movements for liberation are contested with different meanings. Is constructing a Black patriarchy, as some Black resistance movements advanced, liberation for Black women? This is not reclaiming Black stories, it is making a new one up that in fact silences some Black voices.
The text also never defines reparations in a meaningful way. Whenever it brings it up, reparations mean “a redefining of human relationships” or “reciprocity” or “mutual respect”. What does that mean? Can you eat reciprocity? Can you pass a law for mutual respect? Who wants this? The examples of Black people asking for reparations that he gave asked for very concrete, material, things (eg a pension, an end to discrimination in who could work what jobs, etc).
Putting the above together, leaves the question of who is this book for? It’s not for historians or even students of history given its poor standards of scholarship. It’s not for Black people given its flattening of nuance. The only audience I can think of is sympathetic but relatively ignorant white people, who get to feel bad reading this book, think they learned something, and so virtue signal their support for an ill-defined concept of reparations that is not controlled by Black people. Doesn’t this sound like the very Emancipation process the text criticizes?
This is a poor work of historical scholarship. Maybe it is better understood as a polemic in support of a political goal (reparations), but it is a poor exemplar of that genre as well.
The text flattens all historical nuance, playing fast and loose with terms and ideas in ways that obfuscate rather than illuminate. Some examples:
The Note on Terminology states that the text uses Black and African interchangeably. This does not make sense. For the three centuries of the translatlantic slave trade, certain African societies grew fat as slave traders in other African peoples (and undesirables within their own population). Are the descendants of these societies also “victims” of the slave trade when they benefitted from it for so long? Does ignoring their complicity aid in creating solidarity among Black peoples? See Lose Your Mother.
The text treats plantation slavery, household slavery, bonded labor, bondage, indentured servitude, indenture, sharecropping, tenant farming, convict leasing, prison work, and apprenticeship as the same thing. This makes no sense. These are varied forms of organizing and exploiting the work of other people, but the similarities and differences across these systems are important. It is only under the system of plantation slavery constructed by the West in the transAtlantic slave trade that property rights in slaves could be commodified in the form of insurance, futures contracts, etc. This reflects the particular legal framework of Western European societies vis a vis property rights and how they were enforced. This was not possible with any of the other systems mentioned above. This distinction matters.
This type of sloppiness also manifests in terms of citing and other rigors of scholarship. Chapter after chapter contains sweeping sentences with extreme rhetoric with no cite. See, e.g., the discussion of Mary Princes slave narrative and how it was censored by British abolitionists to serve their own ends. I believe this is factually true. Nonetheless, no cite at all through the entire discussion, and use of passive voice: “scholars have shown”. It does a disservice to the texts readers to write in this fashion and a disservice to the political project of the text because it can be easily dismissed.
The text uses passive voice to construct a straw man that it tilts at, but the straw man does not exist. Words like “we” and “historians” litter the text, with no clarification as to who these people are and whether they still matter. Through introducing the term “ghost line” the text states that these stories are denied. Who is denying them? Which stories? The idea that the legacy of trans-Atlantic slavery continues to this day and that this slavery was one of the foundations of modernity is widely accepted, both in academia, and even in the broader public consciousness. E.g., if a mainstream publication like the NYT, far from radical, is publishing the 1619 project, these stories have not been “ghost lined”.
At times it felt like the text was just smashing together buzz words from academic history and redefining what words mean and claiming that was scholarship. “Long” “slow death” “void” “ghost line” “whiteness” “white supremacy” appear over and over but don’t enhance understanding and are not situated in specific historical contexts. Words like “emancipation” and “slavery” are redefined to serve whatever purpose the author wants. So rather than being a contested term “Emancipation” means “continued white supremacy” means “long death of slavery”. This is just playing musical rhetorical hats.
Ultimately, this text is a disservice to the political project (reparations, and a reclamation of Black stories) that it ostensibly supports. It dehumanizes Black people: it makes them all saints, nobly working together to resist and fight slavery. There were Black collaborators with plantation slavery, African plantation owners, Black slave traders, etc. Black people also displaced the violence of slavery onto other Black people, and movements for liberation are contested with different meanings. Is constructing a Black patriarchy, as some Black resistance movements advanced, liberation for Black women? This is not reclaiming Black stories, it is making a new one up that in fact silences some Black voices.
The text also never defines reparations in a meaningful way. Whenever it brings it up, reparations mean “a redefining of human relationships” or “reciprocity” or “mutual respect”. What does that mean? Can you eat reciprocity? Can you pass a law for mutual respect? Who wants this? The examples of Black people asking for reparations that he gave asked for very concrete, material, things (eg a pension, an end to discrimination in who could work what jobs, etc).
Putting the above together, leaves the question of who is this book for? It’s not for historians or even students of history given its poor standards of scholarship. It’s not for Black people given its flattening of nuance. The only audience I can think of is sympathetic but relatively ignorant white people, who get to feel bad reading this book, think they learned something, and so virtue signal their support for an ill-defined concept of reparations that is not controlled by Black people. Doesn’t this sound like the very Emancipation process the text criticizes?
April 1, 2023
So frustrating, so infuriating! So many people worked so hard to keep black people enslaved! The passage on Haiti nearly brought me to tears. What a strong nation! Absolutely incredible! I think this is a MUST read to understand how the black community is still affected by slavery and why they can’t just « get over it » (what a stupid and uneducated argument!). I’m so glad this book exists. 9/10
February 1, 2024
Blew me away--
Similarly to Richard Huzzey's Freedom Burning, Black Ghost of Empire by Kris Manjapra explores ‘the end of slavery’ across the imperial world. Manjapra employs the use of a lot of posthumous terms like “afterlife”, “endings”, and “long death” to understand the implied failure of emancipation (1,4, and 125). Principally, Black Ghost of Empire “pursues a comparative perspective on emancipation processes across the globe” (8). I ask, what can we learn differently from a comparative history rather than a singular one? Are all histories comparative in some way? Are all histories singular in other ways? What is singular about this history? In my opinion, the topic of slavery. What is comparative about this history? The locations and processes of emancipation. Manjapra explores four types of emancipation. First, gradual emancipations (New England, American mid-Atlantic, Spanish Americas) that made black people pay for their freedom. Second, retroactive emancipations (Haiti) that sought to contain the revolution in Haiti. Third, compensated emancipations (the British empire) which allowed for slave-owners to enrich themselves enormously through payouts from the public state. And finally, war emancipation through the American Civil War and the ongoing ‘dirty’ war against black people in the United States. My additional questions about the Manjapra reading are: what does Black Ghosts of Empire add to the history of the Haitian Revolution (with regard to Trouillot’s Silencing the Past)? What does Manjapra mean by the term ‘the long death’? What is ‘global Jim Crow’? And, how does Manjapra redefine the meaning of the word emancipation?
Similarly to Richard Huzzey's Freedom Burning, Black Ghost of Empire by Kris Manjapra explores ‘the end of slavery’ across the imperial world. Manjapra employs the use of a lot of posthumous terms like “afterlife”, “endings”, and “long death” to understand the implied failure of emancipation (1,4, and 125). Principally, Black Ghost of Empire “pursues a comparative perspective on emancipation processes across the globe” (8). I ask, what can we learn differently from a comparative history rather than a singular one? Are all histories comparative in some way? Are all histories singular in other ways? What is singular about this history? In my opinion, the topic of slavery. What is comparative about this history? The locations and processes of emancipation. Manjapra explores four types of emancipation. First, gradual emancipations (New England, American mid-Atlantic, Spanish Americas) that made black people pay for their freedom. Second, retroactive emancipations (Haiti) that sought to contain the revolution in Haiti. Third, compensated emancipations (the British empire) which allowed for slave-owners to enrich themselves enormously through payouts from the public state. And finally, war emancipation through the American Civil War and the ongoing ‘dirty’ war against black people in the United States. My additional questions about the Manjapra reading are: what does Black Ghosts of Empire add to the history of the Haitian Revolution (with regard to Trouillot’s Silencing the Past)? What does Manjapra mean by the term ‘the long death’? What is ‘global Jim Crow’? And, how does Manjapra redefine the meaning of the word emancipation?
April 14, 2022
This book is filled with tons of important information that is so often suppressed from the public. Most people do not want to see the horrific things we have done and are doing to the African American community. We would like to think that slavery is in the past when it so clearly is not. There are residual side effects that sadly will continue unless we as a society decide to fix what was taken away from so many.
It was powerful to see the history of slavery the way Kris Manjapara wrote it. However, his book reminded me of a college textbook. The material was dense and took me awhile to get through. I am not sure if this occurred because the content itself was difficult or I was just worried about dissecting it for a term paper.
Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Scribner for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.
It was powerful to see the history of slavery the way Kris Manjapara wrote it. However, his book reminded me of a college textbook. The material was dense and took me awhile to get through. I am not sure if this occurred because the content itself was difficult or I was just worried about dissecting it for a term paper.
Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Scribner for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.
June 8, 2022
(Audiobook) I once recalled briefly reading/hearing about how European nations ended slavery before America and a big part of that was the economic compensation of slaveholders. I also wondered that if we did something like that in America, then maybe the Civil War could have been avoided. I was sorta correct about the first part, but I had no idea what that compensation looked like. As for the second, well, maybe it might have avoided war, but if we were like Europe, it would have been something akin to oppressive Jim Crow for a lot longer.
This work lays bare the truth about how nations like England, France, Spain, Brazil, and the US, ended slavery, but it was hardly to the benefit of the previously enslaved. Reparations were enacted…for the owners, and the former slaves lived their lives hardly any better or freer than before. France was particularly vindictive with Haiti, and got the rest of the West to isolate and all but subjugate that nation for having the gall to liberate itself from slavery at France’s expense.
It is hardly an American phenomenon that those who were once slaves and their descendants were and still are subjugated. Tot explains much and dispel other myths and half truths. A tough tread, but worth the time to do so.
This work lays bare the truth about how nations like England, France, Spain, Brazil, and the US, ended slavery, but it was hardly to the benefit of the previously enslaved. Reparations were enacted…for the owners, and the former slaves lived their lives hardly any better or freer than before. France was particularly vindictive with Haiti, and got the rest of the West to isolate and all but subjugate that nation for having the gall to liberate itself from slavery at France’s expense.
It is hardly an American phenomenon that those who were once slaves and their descendants were and still are subjugated. Tot explains much and dispel other myths and half truths. A tough tread, but worth the time to do so.
August 5, 2023
4.5 stars. Thank you to Net Galley and Scribner for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a riveting historical read of all the things we don't really learn in history about slavery and the emancipation that followed. The author starts with slavery in Haiti and Cuba and the continued involvement by European nations, especially England and France. They made nations pay their way to "freedom" while providing loans that would accrue interest for over 150 yrs. England and France like to say they abolished slavery in their countries yet they were still investing in slavery in the Caribbean and other island nations. There are also sections re US post-emancipation where sharecropping, re-education programs and non-enforcement of slavery happened regularly keeping people in a different form of slavery. It's unbelievable that in France the Rothschild family still have loans from the time of emancipation which they're most likely still collecting interest. As we can all see, the consequences of this history still plays out today and organizers and activists are still fighting for justice and remedy. I highly recommend this book!
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October 13, 2024i already wanna re-read but like follow along with the audio bc there's so much details to grasp that i feel like one read won't do it justice
March 17, 2022
Emancipation has a complicated history. This book gives a well-researched, comprehensive education about the subject. It contains a lot of information. The author examines, in detail, the terms and conditions that the United States and other countries have implemented for the emancipation of their slaves. It is quite a bit more complex than just freeing the slaves. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of this book.
March 15, 2022
From the 1770s to 1880s slavery ended and emancipation began across the Atlantic world. This did not create freedoms but more racial caste systems. What I took away from this book was more of an understanding of racial oppression. This book is a siren song and so important in everyone's live especially today in the face of more blatant racism in our lives. Five stars! Thank you to Scribner for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 3, 2022
I finished Black Ghost of Empire by Kris Manjapra. I really liked it. I think he did something interesting but I can see people being put off by it. He tried to shake the reader out of this idea that emancipation and liberation were the same thing. Liberation was imposed by the enslaved people who freed themselves and emancipation was imposed by the slave class. In the Atlantic slave system, we ended up with an emancipation system, even in Haiti or the US were enslaved people either liberated themselves or were essential in liberating themselves.
The reason he does this is to get at the costs imposed by emancipation on the formerly enslaved people and on the nonslavers. I thought it was a good dichotomy that's worth using as a framing device for considering the post-slave society/culture/government. In the US it's easy to see the outcome through Black Codes and then Jim Crow. In Haiti it's easy to see with imposed indemnity.
The author got a little bit into how the British used their courts in Sierra Leon to both emancipate enslaved people they captured and to create an economic benefit to the slave owning class paid in part by tax payers who were responsible for the bounties paid and on the "liberated" who were then forced into "apprenticeships" that didn't differ all that much from slavery.
He also did a good job of pointing out how long those benefits paid off, there are possibly still existing bonds used to raise money to compensate the Empire's slave owners but the last known owners of the bonds refused to talk about them.
He cited David Cameron, whose family received the equivalent of about 3 million pounds for the people they enslaved, who gave a speech not that long ago dismissing the idea of reparations to the descendants of Jamaica's formerly enslaved people.
All in all I really liked it. I think it gave me some new tools to think about emancipation. But I can see how some people will misunderstand his objective (probably somewhat purposefully) to claim the book is polemical.
The reason he does this is to get at the costs imposed by emancipation on the formerly enslaved people and on the nonslavers. I thought it was a good dichotomy that's worth using as a framing device for considering the post-slave society/culture/government. In the US it's easy to see the outcome through Black Codes and then Jim Crow. In Haiti it's easy to see with imposed indemnity.
The author got a little bit into how the British used their courts in Sierra Leon to both emancipate enslaved people they captured and to create an economic benefit to the slave owning class paid in part by tax payers who were responsible for the bounties paid and on the "liberated" who were then forced into "apprenticeships" that didn't differ all that much from slavery.
He also did a good job of pointing out how long those benefits paid off, there are possibly still existing bonds used to raise money to compensate the Empire's slave owners but the last known owners of the bonds refused to talk about them.
He cited David Cameron, whose family received the equivalent of about 3 million pounds for the people they enslaved, who gave a speech not that long ago dismissing the idea of reparations to the descendants of Jamaica's formerly enslaved people.
All in all I really liked it. I think it gave me some new tools to think about emancipation. But I can see how some people will misunderstand his objective (probably somewhat purposefully) to claim the book is polemical.
May 9, 2022
Absolutely phenomenal and essential text for anyone looking for a comprehensive history of the long-standing effects of transatlantic slavery in the United States. Includes a sizeable section dedicated to Haiti and the punishment the nation was made to endure for the 'audacity' to successfully emancipate itself from French colonial rule during the Haitian Revolution from roughly 1791 to 1804.
November 17, 2022
Scholar and historian Kris Manjapra presents a challenge to rethink and re-evaluate positions about reparations for descendants of enslaved people of African descent in “Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation.” Manjapra contrasts the popular history of emancipation – the governmental and legal mechanism of outlawing the institutions – with the actual experiences of liberation among people who resisted bondage. Throughout the history of enslavement in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean, declarations of emancipation were rarely supported with enforcement. Modified versions of slavery, such as indentured servitude, persisted as common practice among White planters and slavers. Worse, reparations were paid to slaveholders and plantation owners for losing property rights.
“Ghosts announce the unended. They settle, frighten and haunt.” Manjapra shares pivotal moments in American and Pan-African history rarely discussed in classrooms or in everyday discourse. He asserts that “ghostlining” renders the sordid history of enslavement and enduring mechanisms of White supremacy prevent us from moving forward.
Reading “Black Ghost of Empire” from my lens as a settler colonist in the United States, I was struck by the strength of will and resolve of spirit exhibited by Black liberationists to secure their own freedom, despite gargantuan odds. “Abolitionism bubbled up from below,” writes Manjapra, illustrating Black self-determination in multiple revolts in Haiti, legal challenges in London, and myriad coordinated acts of resistance against Jim Crow laws in the U.S.
Manjapra’s research and explication show us that the conversation – and embodied practice – of reparations for slavery is not new. White supremacist systems in settler nationals governed the process for the perpetuation of the caste system. Generations after emancipation, slave-owners, and their descendants benefited financially from policies that favored patrimonial leaders. Enslaved and freed peoples organized and strategized to act upon a vision for liberatory future. People of all backgrounds have an opportunity to dismantle anti-Black racism and achieve reparatory justice for slavery.
“Ghosts announce the unended. They settle, frighten and haunt.” Manjapra shares pivotal moments in American and Pan-African history rarely discussed in classrooms or in everyday discourse. He asserts that “ghostlining” renders the sordid history of enslavement and enduring mechanisms of White supremacy prevent us from moving forward.
Reading “Black Ghost of Empire” from my lens as a settler colonist in the United States, I was struck by the strength of will and resolve of spirit exhibited by Black liberationists to secure their own freedom, despite gargantuan odds. “Abolitionism bubbled up from below,” writes Manjapra, illustrating Black self-determination in multiple revolts in Haiti, legal challenges in London, and myriad coordinated acts of resistance against Jim Crow laws in the U.S.
Manjapra’s research and explication show us that the conversation – and embodied practice – of reparations for slavery is not new. White supremacist systems in settler nationals governed the process for the perpetuation of the caste system. Generations after emancipation, slave-owners, and their descendants benefited financially from policies that favored patrimonial leaders. Enslaved and freed peoples organized and strategized to act upon a vision for liberatory future. People of all backgrounds have an opportunity to dismantle anti-Black racism and achieve reparatory justice for slavery.
June 21, 2022
Black Ghost of Empire is not a lengthy work of historical analysis, but it is dense with information organized in a carefully crafted argument. The book explores the concept of emancipation, the many forms it took, and who stood to gain from each method (spoiler alert: it was not the people released from enslavement). Manjapra compares different localized acts of emancipation while highlighting their interconnectedness across space and time.
Before getting into the details of specific emancipation projects, Manjapra elucidates the etymology of the term. Its origins lie in Latin and with the Roman concept of a slave-owner's voluntary release of slaves. This emphasizes the inherited view of emancipation as a process controlled by and favoring the owner with no agency or consideration for an enslaved person in the implementation. This is a theme throughout the different global examples spanning the 18th and 19th centuries. Emancipation schemes aimed to prolong slave-owner power over enslaved people and allow them to keep or even inflate their wealth. Periods of extended indentured servitude, re-enslavement elsewhere, and reparations (!) for slave-owners for loss of "property" were common.
Beyond examining the goals and results of emancipation, Manjapra shows how black people resisted both enslavement and the following schemes to release them on white terms. They ran away, revolted, and created mutual aid societies. They wrote about their experiences, hopes, and plans for the future. They formed political movements and agitated for change.
This book powerfully dispels misconceptions that emancipation ushered in a time of freedom and improved opportunities for enslaved people. Rather, it increased racial disparities in wealth and solidified barriers to black social mobility. There are a plethora of important ramifications for current society, not least of which is the need for reparations for those whose ancestors suffered enslavement. This is an informative, impactful read. I highly recommend it. Thanks to Scribner for my copy to read and review!
Before getting into the details of specific emancipation projects, Manjapra elucidates the etymology of the term. Its origins lie in Latin and with the Roman concept of a slave-owner's voluntary release of slaves. This emphasizes the inherited view of emancipation as a process controlled by and favoring the owner with no agency or consideration for an enslaved person in the implementation. This is a theme throughout the different global examples spanning the 18th and 19th centuries. Emancipation schemes aimed to prolong slave-owner power over enslaved people and allow them to keep or even inflate their wealth. Periods of extended indentured servitude, re-enslavement elsewhere, and reparations (!) for slave-owners for loss of "property" were common.
Beyond examining the goals and results of emancipation, Manjapra shows how black people resisted both enslavement and the following schemes to release them on white terms. They ran away, revolted, and created mutual aid societies. They wrote about their experiences, hopes, and plans for the future. They formed political movements and agitated for change.
This book powerfully dispels misconceptions that emancipation ushered in a time of freedom and improved opportunities for enslaved people. Rather, it increased racial disparities in wealth and solidified barriers to black social mobility. There are a plethora of important ramifications for current society, not least of which is the need for reparations for those whose ancestors suffered enslavement. This is an informative, impactful read. I highly recommend it. Thanks to Scribner for my copy to read and review!
June 27, 2022
This revelatory nonfiction book looks at how "emancipation" movements in Europe, Africa, and North and South America prioritized the lives and livelihoods of slaveholders as opposed to freed enslaved people. Manjapra uses a litany of facts to discuss the "after" emancipation realities in these locations, how some forces attempted to fight back (Haiti), and how, inevitably, reparations went to slaveholders and their heirs, while institutions and policies were formed to continue to subjugate Black people. It's enlightening and enraging.
Although this book contains many stats and citations, Manjapra still shares the information in an engaging tone, while highlighting things most definitely not taught in history classes. Reading about the truly repugnant Thomas Thistlewood, a Jamaican slaveholder who bragged nonchalantly in his diary about raping over 135 Black women, some repeatedly was eye-opening. The specific torture he invented was particularly stomach-churning. I didn't know about the Haitian Revolution or how Britain's response to emancipation created an imperial system that is still in play to this day.
Manjapra's thesis is this: The dissolution of slavery led to institutional and societal structures in these locales that fueled the continuation of a racial hierarchy where white supremacy reigned and the devastation wrought by slavery reverberated through future generations. He proves this with painstaking factual detail, enlightening anecdotes, and impassioned prose. An educational gem.
Although this book contains many stats and citations, Manjapra still shares the information in an engaging tone, while highlighting things most definitely not taught in history classes. Reading about the truly repugnant Thomas Thistlewood, a Jamaican slaveholder who bragged nonchalantly in his diary about raping over 135 Black women, some repeatedly was eye-opening. The specific torture he invented was particularly stomach-churning. I didn't know about the Haitian Revolution or how Britain's response to emancipation created an imperial system that is still in play to this day.
Manjapra's thesis is this: The dissolution of slavery led to institutional and societal structures in these locales that fueled the continuation of a racial hierarchy where white supremacy reigned and the devastation wrought by slavery reverberated through future generations. He proves this with painstaking factual detail, enlightening anecdotes, and impassioned prose. An educational gem.
October 16, 2025
This book is extraordinary - and deeply shocking for me as it broadened my understanding dramatically about the whole issue of slavery , past, present and continuing…..
The theme is that of the ‘ghosting’ of Black people by white people throughout the last 500 years.
In ng childhood I knew nothing about slavery; thrm I learned with horror about the middle passage and the cruelty at the start anf end if this hideous journey. Then u learned how much British people encouraged and developed this trade and became so wealthy from if. Sugar, coffee, tobacco and cotton alm verg Labour intensive activity sbd carried out by skates using immense cruelty. I then started to learn about the Abolition movement / and how wonderful Britain was to lead this.
Then I learned about the lies …. How racism perpetuated the undermining of Black people right up to today … the slavers were compensated not the victims; emancipation laws were a complete nonsense as ‘freed slaves’ then had to work for years to pay back their masters fir their losses on freeing them; then the dread of having so many Black people loitering around led to commercial interests packing them off to quite unsuitable places (Sierra Leon’s, Liberia) … sbd the. Worst of all the charade about his white Europeans need to protect Africans from becoming slaves by civilising them with Christianity and economic ‘ development’ tgg bd at only benefitted Europeans. That lie waz tgdd red mist upsetting if all sbd tgey used it to ‘carve up Africa’
The theme is that of the ‘ghosting’ of Black people by white people throughout the last 500 years.
In ng childhood I knew nothing about slavery; thrm I learned with horror about the middle passage and the cruelty at the start anf end if this hideous journey. Then u learned how much British people encouraged and developed this trade and became so wealthy from if. Sugar, coffee, tobacco and cotton alm verg Labour intensive activity sbd carried out by skates using immense cruelty. I then started to learn about the Abolition movement / and how wonderful Britain was to lead this.
Then I learned about the lies …. How racism perpetuated the undermining of Black people right up to today … the slavers were compensated not the victims; emancipation laws were a complete nonsense as ‘freed slaves’ then had to work for years to pay back their masters fir their losses on freeing them; then the dread of having so many Black people loitering around led to commercial interests packing them off to quite unsuitable places (Sierra Leon’s, Liberia) … sbd the. Worst of all the charade about his white Europeans need to protect Africans from becoming slaves by civilising them with Christianity and economic ‘ development’ tgg bd at only benefitted Europeans. That lie waz tgdd red mist upsetting if all sbd tgey used it to ‘carve up Africa’
April 3, 2024
A highly detailed and well-researched text, Black Ghost of Empire provides “a comparative perspective on emancipation processes” that focusses on: 1) gradual emancipation (as exemplified by the New England of the 1700-1800s); 2) retroactive emancipation (see Haiti following Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution); 3) compensated emancipation (or how British slaveowners received cash reparations directly from the Crown); 4) war emancipation (exemplified by the American Civil War and subsequent civil rights violations); and, 5) the emancipations that provided “pretexts for massive colonial occupations across Africa.”
Originally read as background knowledge for how Caribbean history has unfolded, I found the text provided a deeper understanding of how our current geopolitical structures have functioned in the aftermath of the global slave trade. The chapter on Haiti is particularly damning, as it unveils the complicity of several colonial powers in the rejection of Haiti’s newly found freedom from colonisation. Indeed, the role these countries played in the current state of Haiti’s degradation cannot be understated.
4 stars. One thought that continued to resonate with me as I read this text: what if this were required reading in high school history classes? What perspectives might arise in the minds of upcoming generations? What opportunities for reparative justice? Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished…
Originally read as background knowledge for how Caribbean history has unfolded, I found the text provided a deeper understanding of how our current geopolitical structures have functioned in the aftermath of the global slave trade. The chapter on Haiti is particularly damning, as it unveils the complicity of several colonial powers in the rejection of Haiti’s newly found freedom from colonisation. Indeed, the role these countries played in the current state of Haiti’s degradation cannot be understated.
4 stars. One thought that continued to resonate with me as I read this text: what if this were required reading in high school history classes? What perspectives might arise in the minds of upcoming generations? What opportunities for reparative justice? Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished…
May 17, 2023
So often we hear that slavery happened, and it was awful, and them it was abolished and that was brilliant.
Whilst that is all true there is much more to the story. We think of emancipation of being a moment of jubilation and freedom, setting everything right. The truth is that emancipation was drip fed, sweet words that changed little to peoples' lives. People fought bitterly for their freedom, for justice and it never really came. The unjust legacy of slavery is still felt by communities today and despite our enlightened 'modern day' thinking, there have been no apologies or attempts to fix all the wrongs that slavery wrought.
Manjapra takes us through the story of emancipation from the transatlantic slave trade, all around the world. How it started, how it played out and how it actually affected enslaved and black people across the globe. The book ends by summarising the current situation, the transatlantic slave trade is an unfinished chapter in human history, we have yet to see it's conclusion.
This was a very interesting read. I keep thinking I've got my head around our history and I learn something new that shocks me. I really appreciated the approach of covering the global aspect of emancipation, it is too easy to forget that each country's actions affected other countries.
Whilst that is all true there is much more to the story. We think of emancipation of being a moment of jubilation and freedom, setting everything right. The truth is that emancipation was drip fed, sweet words that changed little to peoples' lives. People fought bitterly for their freedom, for justice and it never really came. The unjust legacy of slavery is still felt by communities today and despite our enlightened 'modern day' thinking, there have been no apologies or attempts to fix all the wrongs that slavery wrought.
Manjapra takes us through the story of emancipation from the transatlantic slave trade, all around the world. How it started, how it played out and how it actually affected enslaved and black people across the globe. The book ends by summarising the current situation, the transatlantic slave trade is an unfinished chapter in human history, we have yet to see it's conclusion.
This was a very interesting read. I keep thinking I've got my head around our history and I learn something new that shocks me. I really appreciated the approach of covering the global aspect of emancipation, it is too easy to forget that each country's actions affected other countries.
July 3, 2022
In “the black ghost of Empire“ I learned so many things and so many new names of pioneers in the time of slavery. The one that sticks out most in my mind is Martin Robinson Delaunay, he traveled across Louisiana and Texas trying to bring Black people together and he did this in 1839 when things were added to worst. Slavery with a worldwide struggle and I love reading stories about those Who were successful despite everything being against them. This book talked about those who help Africans, but mainly focuses on the African to try to help their self. This is a great book on the history of slavery be emancipated states not only in America but also the countries in Africa who were emancipated it’s a vast study on many aspects of slavery and I enjoyed it all. It’s books like these that should be in our history classes and not the white washed books that called slaves employees (i’m looking at you Texas!) I highly recommend this book I was given this book by net Gally and the author and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but I opinions are definitely my own.
July 11, 2024
I really liked the purpose and structure of the book. Manjapra analyzes different types of emancipations, comparing the ways that slavery ended in various countries across roughly a century from the 1770s to the 1880s. I think this is a fruitful way to understand how emancipation happened, and the implications of the various types of emancipations.
However, I struggled with some of his interpretations of the effects of emancipation. He sees more continuity between slavery and the post-slavery world than I think is warranted, and minimizes the significant changes that did occur. While it's helpful to recognize that the formal end of slavery did not represent a complete break with the past, and there were continuities across those turning points, Manjapra swings too far to one side in his analysis, particularly when he ends up arguing that the purpose of the emancipations was to enshrine white supremacy in those countries. Clearly, white supremacy was maintained and even grew in some ways after emancipation, but its growth was the not the purpose of emancipation - there's a reason these changes were fought against so intensely by various forces of entrenched power.
However, I struggled with some of his interpretations of the effects of emancipation. He sees more continuity between slavery and the post-slavery world than I think is warranted, and minimizes the significant changes that did occur. While it's helpful to recognize that the formal end of slavery did not represent a complete break with the past, and there were continuities across those turning points, Manjapra swings too far to one side in his analysis, particularly when he ends up arguing that the purpose of the emancipations was to enshrine white supremacy in those countries. Clearly, white supremacy was maintained and even grew in some ways after emancipation, but its growth was the not the purpose of emancipation - there's a reason these changes were fought against so intensely by various forces of entrenched power.
August 27, 2025
Pros:
- this book goes through what I think most people know broadly, in that emancipation was a failed system of redress for slavery, but explains the how and why of it and, more importantly, how emancipation has continued systems of inequality all the way into the twenty-first century
- Majapra does a very good job of highlighting how it wasn't just a Southern issue in the US, and how Northern states were both complicit and active participants in the oppression of Black people
- a phenomenal job was done in talking about the white and Black abolitionists and both their strengths and shortcomings
Cons:
- because there is no straight path to discuss these things, the topics kind of wind back around each other and at some points make the book feel repetitive
Overall:
This is joining my personal list of required reading for folks who want to get involved in social activism because it is such a good look at how these systems operated and continue to operate, and shows how modern racial stereotypes are the product of a settler-colonialist society that had vested interests in making an entire continent out to be "barbaric."
4.5/5
- this book goes through what I think most people know broadly, in that emancipation was a failed system of redress for slavery, but explains the how and why of it and, more importantly, how emancipation has continued systems of inequality all the way into the twenty-first century
- Majapra does a very good job of highlighting how it wasn't just a Southern issue in the US, and how Northern states were both complicit and active participants in the oppression of Black people
- a phenomenal job was done in talking about the white and Black abolitionists and both their strengths and shortcomings
Cons:
- because there is no straight path to discuss these things, the topics kind of wind back around each other and at some points make the book feel repetitive
Overall:
This is joining my personal list of required reading for folks who want to get involved in social activism because it is such a good look at how these systems operated and continue to operate, and shows how modern racial stereotypes are the product of a settler-colonialist society that had vested interests in making an entire continent out to be "barbaric."
4.5/5
January 25, 2023
Historically, emancipation has turned out to entail the compensation of slave-holders for their losses in human "property", rather than the compensation of formerly enslaved people for their losses in labor, self-determination, cultural identity, family ties, etc. The author traces how emancipation was implemented in five diverse historical contexts (all related to the Atlantic slave trade:
making africans pay gradually in the American North
Punishing the black nation of Haiti
British anti-slavery and the emancipation of Property
compensated emancipation across the Caribbean
Emancipation and ongoing bondage in the American South
This study provides the historical background for the argument that formerly enslaved people and their descendants are still entitled to be compensated for their stolen labor and lives, especially in view of the fact that their enslavers were previously compensated for their losses in human "property". It's a valuable and powerful argument for reparations.
making africans pay gradually in the American North
Punishing the black nation of Haiti
British anti-slavery and the emancipation of Property
compensated emancipation across the Caribbean
Emancipation and ongoing bondage in the American South
This study provides the historical background for the argument that formerly enslaved people and their descendants are still entitled to be compensated for their stolen labor and lives, especially in view of the fact that their enslavers were previously compensated for their losses in human "property". It's a valuable and powerful argument for reparations.
August 21, 2022
Pub date: 4/19/22
Genre: nonfiction, history
In one sentence: Emancipation is thought to have ended slavery, but Black Ghost of Empire shows that it was just another tool to enforce racial disparities.
This book is a deep dive into emancipations across the world and their important consequences. The most shocking story for me was the story of Haiti and how the French government's demands for reparations for slaveholders prevented the country from providing for its citizens. This and the other stories in the book are heartbreaking and maddening - it is almost unbelievable how the interests of slaveholders were continuously prioritized over those of the former slaves.
If you've read books like The 1619 Project and Four Hundred Souls, this is a great companion work to pick up. It is a bit more academic in tone, so I'd recommend doing it as a "one chapter a day" read so you don't feel rushed.
Thank you to Scribner for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: nonfiction, history
In one sentence: Emancipation is thought to have ended slavery, but Black Ghost of Empire shows that it was just another tool to enforce racial disparities.
This book is a deep dive into emancipations across the world and their important consequences. The most shocking story for me was the story of Haiti and how the French government's demands for reparations for slaveholders prevented the country from providing for its citizens. This and the other stories in the book are heartbreaking and maddening - it is almost unbelievable how the interests of slaveholders were continuously prioritized over those of the former slaves.
If you've read books like The 1619 Project and Four Hundred Souls, this is a great companion work to pick up. It is a bit more academic in tone, so I'd recommend doing it as a "one chapter a day" read so you don't feel rushed.
Thank you to Scribner for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
March 25, 2023
A MUST READ!! This is the side of slavery and emancipation that is NOT taught in schools. I was blown away by how much I didn't know about how emancipation was structured and implemented. Hint - it was made financially beneficial for whites and created a society where formerly enslaved people were still subservient to their former owners. The book covers many nations, not just the USA, but includes Great Britain, France, and other colonial powers. How they benefited from slavery and profited from emancipation, even decades after emancipation, former owners were receiving money from the government which extracted the funds from the formerly enslaved. It is an ugly business that still has huge ripple effects today.
I'm not kidding when I say that this book (or significant portions of it) should be mandatory reading in high schools. Sadly, it would likely be banned by the ranks of the white supremacists currently running the Republican parties in many states and localities.
I'm not kidding when I say that this book (or significant portions of it) should be mandatory reading in high schools. Sadly, it would likely be banned by the ranks of the white supremacists currently running the Republican parties in many states and localities.
January 17, 2023
This book is great. It took me a while to finish it, just due to getting distracted and into other things, but it’s not a very long book, but offers potent insights to the transatlantic slave trade, particularly emphasizing the impact in the Caribbean and Africa. The book introduces emerging theoretical language of the spectral into the conversation of understanding slavery’s impact on the present. Manjapra is keenly aware of the role contingencies play in creating gaping absences of vitality, flourishing, and reciprocity in the present social lives of many today. Unkept promises, self-interested ruling class, deception, legalized violence and many other factors are all key dimensions post-emancipation life that often go unrecorded in popular historical texts. Manjapra helpfully illuminates the haunting consequences of the ongoing exploitative afterlife of slavery.
August 10, 2023
This is such a vital and informative read, because these things were not taught in school (and the current efforts of some would see them never taught). Manjapra examines the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the emancipation processes (mostly as carried out by the US and British empires across North America and the Caribbean), and the continued colonization of Africa itself. In the process, he details how emancipations were largely focused on compensating slave-owners on lost "property" rather than restoring justice and reciprocity for the enslaved people whose labor, lives, and histories were stolen from them.
It's a slim volume packed with information. This has also been the first time in a while I've been interested in looking up some of the primary sources referenced, because they sound incredibly valuable.
Highly recommend, but be prepared for an emotionally tough read.
It's a slim volume packed with information. This has also been the first time in a while I've been interested in looking up some of the primary sources referenced, because they sound incredibly valuable.
Highly recommend, but be prepared for an emotionally tough read.
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