Black Ghost of Empire Audiobook By Kris Manjapra cover art

Black Ghost of Empire

The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

Black Ghost of Empire

By: Kris Manjapra
Narrated by: Robin Miles, Kris Manjapra
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.74

Buy for $18.74

If the 1619 Project illuminated the ways in which life in the United States has been shaped by the existence of slavery, this “historical, literary masterpiece” (Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy) focuses on emancipation and how its afterlife further codified the racial caste system—instead of obliterating it.

To understand why the shadow of slavery still haunts us today, we must look closely at the way it ended. Between the 1770s and 1880s, emancipation processes took off across the Atlantic world. But far from ushering in a new age of human rights and universal freedoms, these emancipations further codified the racial caste systems they claimed to disrupt.

In this paradigm-altering book, acclaimed historian and professor Kris Manjapra identifies five types of emancipations across the globe and reveals that their perceived failures were not failures at all, but the predictable outcomes of policies designed first and foremost to preserve the status quo of racial oppression. In the process, Manjapra shows how, amidst this unfinished history, grassroots Black organizers and activists have become custodians of collective recovery and remedy; not only for our present, but also for our relationship with the past.

Black Ghost of Empire will rewire readers’ understanding of the world in which we live. Timely, lucid, and crucial to our understanding of contemporary society, this book shines a light into the gap between the idea of slavery’s end and the reality of its continuation—exposing to whom a debt was paid and to whom a debt is owed. Black & African American Human Rights United States Freedom Americas British Empire Latin America Great Britain Europe England United Kingdom

People who viewed this also viewed...

Black Skin, White Masks Audiobook By Frantz Fanon, Richard Philcox - translator cover art
Black Skin, White Masks By: Frantz Fanon, and others
All stars
Most relevant
Lots of information new to me on how ‘failure of emancipation’ and recompense to enslavers took place in different countries. Expanded my knowledge of who worked to perpetuate the status quo and who worked with less success to try to make it right for the enslaved their descendants.

Novel framing of ‘how did we get here’

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took me some time to finish this book. It is so sad to read about the treatment of a people just because of the color of their skin. This mistreatment is still going on today. Only the continent of Africa has apologized for their role in sending their people into slavery. England,France,Spain and all the other countries involved in the slave trade including America have never apologized. It amazes me that the people that enslaved people are paid but the people who were enslaved are given nothing. The shipping companies and the banks that supported slavery are still in business today but they have not paid one penny to the descendants of the enslaved but continue to pay the descendants of the enslavers.

Heart Break

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.