“human bondage gave rise to a modern Western superpower”
“an emphasis on the darker side of capitalism’s history comports well with the world today. It is a world where, following the financial meltdown of 2008, the fragility of the economic system is apparent. It is a world in which almost anything can be commoditised and securitised for the benefit of a small minority, while those at the bottom struggle to scrape by. In this world, a past in which the most vulnerable literally belonged to forces of capital that manipulated their labour and their lives for profit makes perfect sense.”
“slavery’s legacy can be seen plainly in the annual reports of corporate entities whose stock prices depend in part on how many black men and women are locked in their cells.”
“capitalism without limits can produce nearly unfathomable human misery as it produces wealth for a select few”
“capitalism without limits can and will make property of man”
“In the US, the Civil War and the age of emancipation was a moment when the nation tried to draw a clear line delineating what can and cannot be legitimately sold in a capitalist system.”