Portside

Incivility runs through the history of this country, founded on stolen land, built with the labor of stolen lives. The document that governs our lives effectively denied more than half of the population the right to vote.

In 1791, enslaved Haitians did the seemingly impossible. They ousted their French masters and founded a nation. But France made generations of Haitians pay for their freedom — in cash. How much has remained a mystery, until now.

Unfinished in 1865 and unfinished today, the 13th Amendment says to every woman: You are heir in your person to a promise of universal freedom, that recognizes an individual’s right to her life, her labor, her body and self-possession all as one.

Rodney lays out an invaluable concept: that underdevelopment expresses a relationship of exploitation. It implies not lack of development but the existence and results of suppression, oppression and exploitation.

The Civil War was a revolutionary upheaval that crushed slavery and stoked hopes of a broader emancipation against the rule of property. We should draw on that memory today for struggles against racism and capitalism.

Jamaica in the 18th century was described by Charles Leslie as a “constant mine, whence Britain draws prodigious riches.” More Africans arrived in Kingston to become plantation slaves than arrived in any other place in the British empire.

Our research found that many plantation museums are reluctant to highlight Black lives and histories. But there is promising evidence of change at sites like McLeod Plantation in Charleston and Whitney Plantation in Louisiana.

I would be failing future generations if I did not to write about who owns the narrative of our country’s evolution. It is difficult to have productive discourse about liberty and justice in this country if we don’t first have command of basic truths