American Slavery in History and Memory

Abstract

Abstract The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865 abolished slavery in the United States. In the years that followed, Southern planters and their allies proved extraordinarily resourceful in inventing new forms of labor extraction and racial oppression, but—try as they might—they could not reinstate chattel bondage. Yet, almost a century and a half later, the question of slavery again roils the water of American life. Indeed, the last years of the twentieth and the first years of the twenty-first centuries have witnessed an extraordinary popular engagement with slavery. Slavery has a greater presence in American life now than at any time since the Civil War ended.