The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888

by Robin Blackburn

Critically acclaimed historian of slavery in the Americas

The Reckoning offers the first rounded account of the rise and fall of the Second Slavery—largescale plantation slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil, Cuba and the US South. Robin Blackburn shows how a fusion of industrial capitalism and transatlantic war and revolution turbo-charged racial oppression and the westwards expansion of the United States.

Blackburn identifies the new territories, new victims and new battle cries of the Second Slavery. He emphasises the role of financial credit in the spread of plantation agriculture, traces the connections between slavery and the US Civil War, and asks why Brazil threw off Portuguese rule whereas Cuba became one of imperial Spain’s final outposts.

The Second Slavery faced a fearful reckoning in the 1860s and after when the supposedly invincible Slave Power was defied by extraordinary cross-class, international and interracial alliances. Blackburn narrates the abolitionists’ difficult victory over the enslavers, while documenting the racial backlash which brought on Jim Crow and cheated the freedmen and freedwomen of the fruits of their struggle.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, The United States Of America, World History, American History

544 pages, Hardcover

Published February 20, 2024

Reviews

[Swarthout · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought this book was decent but i had a difficult time shifting from the lack of continuity between chapter topics. i am pretty familiar with us slavery and abolition, less so with british, and almost completely ignorant about latin or caribbean slavery. i think it would have been a little better if he had broken these up into smaller volumes covering each country. it also had the feel of the last one i read in this series, where it was just a infodump of facts with a difficult time sorting through the avalanche of people and events. in important book nontheless, i like the invention of the term second slavery (the era in the mid to late 19th century of intensified, industrialized chattel slavery).

[Peter Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive description of the last century or so of slavery, focusing on the United States, Cuba, and Brazil and therefore covering the US Civil War and the abolitionist movements of varying strength and effectiveness. Comprehensive, readable, and detailed.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Or, Colonialism in Overdrive. Here are all the forces involved. No one is innocent.