In The News: Slavery

The Economist’s review of Edward Baptist’s book on slavery and capitalism sparks a firestorm – and a retraction

The Economist’s review of “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism” by Edward Baptist, along with the magazine’s retraction:

http://www.economist.com/news/books/21615864-how-slaves-built-american-capitalism-blood-cotton

And some reaction:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/economist-denounces-one-sided-slavery-account.html

And a review from the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-edward-baptist-20140907-story.html

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Boston’s bright light: The African Meeting House

Trymaine Lee MSNBC September 5, 2014 (photo above)

 BOSTON — The city’s bad reputation for race relations has been well-earned. In the mid-1970s, when Massachusetts moved to desegregate its public schools through a busing program, white Bostonians erupted in violent protests and riots. The Boston Red Sox were the last major league baseball team to integrate. And Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony in New England and played a central role in America’s early slave trade.

But there’s another side to the racial history of this much-maligned city. It played a historic role in the abolition of slavery and helped shape the lives of many of the important historical figures of the time.

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison founded his Liberator Newspaper in Boston which called for “the immediate and complete emancipation” of all slaves in the United States. Prince Hall, a black abolitionist, stalwart defender of equality and the father of black Freemasonry, was a pillar of Boston’s black community and used the city as a launching pad to feed the national abolitionist movement.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bostons-bright-light-the-african-meeting-house

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Note: I’ll be back posting next week… birthday break…Lara