Slavery, racial inequality, and education

The relationship between higher education, race, and slavery has become a burgeoning field of inquiry. In recent years, historians and archaeologists have unearthed a wealth of information on the complicity of American colleges and universities in chattel slavery, scientific racism, colonization schemes, and the dispossession of Native Americans. Taking their cue from path-breaking historical commissions at Yale and Brown in the early 2000s, several prominent institutions including Emory, Harvard, the University of Maryland, the University of Virginia, and the College of William and Mary have sponsored long overdue initiatives aimed at recovering these unsavory chapters from their pasts. Craig Steven Wilder's Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities represents a synthesis of these early findings.

The Review of Black Political Economy, 2020

We compare the 2018 per capita Black–White wealth gap of about US$352,250 with portions of the estimated total cost of slavery and discrimination to African American descendants of the enslaved. For the period of slavery in the United States, we arrive at estimates of about US$12 to US$13 trillion in 2018 dollars using Darity’s land-based and Marketti’s price-based estimation methods, respectively. Estimates using Craemer’s wage-based method tend to be higher ranging from US$18.6 trillion at 3% interest to US$6.2 quadrillion at 6% interest. The value of lost freedom (LF) based on Japanese American World War II internment reparations is estimated at 3% interest to amount to US$35 trillion and at 6% to US$16 quadrillion. Further research is required to estimate the cost of lost opportunities (LC) and pain and suffering (PS). Further research is also required to estimate the costs of colonial slavery, as well as racial discrimination following the abolition of slavery in the United Sta...

1987

The Blackwell companion to social …, 2005

The Blackwell Companions to Sociology provide introductions to emerging topics and theoretical orientations in sociology as well as presenting the scope and quality of the discipline as it is currently configured. Essays in the Companions tackle broad themes or central puzzles within the field and are authored by key scholars who have spent considerable time in research and reflection on the questions and controversies that have activated interest in their area. This authoritative series will interest those studying sociology at advanced undergraduate or graduate level as well as scholars in the social sciences and informed readers in applied disciplines.

Case Study, 2025

This case study examines the integral role that slavery played in shaping the economic foundation of the United States, particularly through industries such as cotton, sugar, and tobacco. It explores how enslaved labor not only fueled the Southern economy but also contributed to the growth of the industrial revolution in the U.S. and Europe. The study delves into the immense wealth generated by slavery, which extended beyond plantation owners to include financial institutions, corporations, and universities. It highlights the role of banks and insurance companies that profited from slavery and the long-term economic consequences for Black Americans, particularly in terms of generational wealth and systemic inequality. The case study also investigates how modern corporations and universities are addressing their historical ties to slavery, and the ongoing economic disparities that continue to affect Black communities today. By understanding the economic impact of slavery, this study emphasizes the importance of reparative actions to address the legacy of economic exploitation and work toward a more equitable future.

2005

Can Africa's current state of under-development be partially attributed to the large trade in slaves that occurred during the Atlantic, Saharan, Red Sea and Indian Ocean slave trades? To answer this question, I combine shipping data with historical records that report slave ethnicities and construct measures of the number of slaves exported from each country in Africa between 1400 and 1913. I find the number of slaves exported from a country to be an important determinant of economic performance in the second half of the 20th century. To correct for potential biases arising from measurement error and unobservable country characteristics, I instrument slave exports using measures of the distance from each country to the major slave markets around the world. I also find that the importance of the slave trade for contemporary development is a result of its detrimental impact on the formation of domestic institutions, such as the security of private property, the quality of the judicial system, and the overall rule of law. This is the channel through which the slave trade continues to matter today.

Studies show lighter skinned Black people are advantaged on a number of social indicators-a phenomenon called "colorism." These studies generally contend preferences for light-skinned and/or Mulatto slaves endured the postbellum period to shape social outcomes into today. Following this idea, other studies examine differences in social outcomes between Mulattos and Blacks in the 19th century, but few empirically connect antebellum life to postbellum Mulatto-Black stratification. With that in mind, I examine whether the socio-economic differences between Mulattos and Blacks varied across geographic space in proportion to places' reliance on slave labor and the characteristics of its free African American population. This allows me to examine whether differences in economic status between Mulattos and Blacks are a result of Mulatto advantage in the form of privileged positions during slavery. My results reveal that Mulattos have higher occupational statuses relative to Blacks in places where slavery was more prominent and where free Mulattos were literate. This suggests the intraracial hierarchy established during slavery was more likely to be replicated in places where slavery was more important, and Mulattos were able to capitalize on freedom by leveraging their literacy into better economic statuses after emancipation. These results support the idea that skin color stratification was initiated at least in part by practices during chattel slavery and offers some plausible mechanisms for its transmission.

2019

This research project analyzes why a person's status and opportunity for achievement is shrouded in a racialized context. The analysis focuses on the effect of the master-slave dynamic, which was unique as an institution of slavery in the United States because it was conceived along racial lines. Considering that for over 400 years this master-slave dynamic was a primary determinant of the relationships between black and white people, it is not unimaginable to consider that some aspects of that dynamic are still in play today. They have firmly entrenched an unequal economic system that falls along racial lines. For the purposes of this paper, I will use the terms African American and black interchangeably. Since this is the beginning of ongoing research, there are some generalizations made about black men and women. Modisette 1 UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SLAVERY, SELF-ESTEEM, AND INCOME: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MASTER-SLAVE DYNAMIC AND THE S...

2019

History-colonial period. 2. Indentured servitude. 3. Bacon's Rebellion. 4. Position of Afro-Americans in 17th Century Virginia. 5. Origin of racial slavery and racism. 6. Early capitalist economy. 7. Slavery as capitalism-slaves as proletarians. 8. Joint struggles of European and African bond servants. 9. Invention of the "white" race.

2019