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History

Engraving of the women pirates Ann Bonny and Mary Read by Benjamin Cole, circa 1724

Motley mutinies, popular pirates and slave revolts at sea

By Reparations

Historian Marcus Rediker spoke to Ken Olende about the struggles that took place aboard the ships of early capitalism. By The Socialist Worker — The first strike wasn’t in a factory or an office. It wasn’t even on land. US historian Marcus Rediker explains how sailors in England fought against a wage cut in 1768. “They went from ship to ship and took down the sails. That’s called striking the sails….

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No one was ever a more critical reader of the Constitution, or a more compelling advocate of its virtues, than Douglass.

The Prophetic Pragmatism of Frederick Douglass

By Editors' Choice

He escaped from slavery, and helped rescue America. By Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker — Frederick Douglass, who has been called the greatest American of the nineteenth century, grew up as a slave named Frederick Bailey, and the story of how he named himself in freedom shows how complicated his life, and his world, always was. Frederick’s father, as David W. Blight shows in his extraordinary new biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet…

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Time to Abolish Columbus Day

Time to Abolish Columbus Day

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Bill Bigelow, Zinn Ed Project — Once again this year many schools will pause to commemorate Christopher Columbus. Given everything we know about who Columbus was and what he launched in the Americas, this needs to stop. Columbus initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in early February 1494, first sending several dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. Columbus described those he enslaved as “well made and of very good intelligence,” and recommended…

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The Supreme Court Is Headed Back to the 19th Century

By Editors' Choice

The justices again appear poised to pursue a purely theoretical liberty at the expense of the lives of people of color. By Adam Serwer, The Atlantic — When the Louisiana State Militia finally arrived at the Colfax courthouse on April 15, 1873, all it could do was bury the bodies. Two days earlier, a large force of white supremacists had taken control of the courthouse from the mostly black faction…

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This 1867 drawing by Alfred Waud, "The First Vote," depicts Black men waiting in line to cast ballots. In Southern states, Black men first gained the right to vote in state constitutions drafted during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.,

Honoring Reconstruction’s Legacy: The Freedom to Vote

By Editors' Choice

During the 1870s, more than a half a million Black men voted for the first time in their lives. But this wave of progressive change did not last long. By Rebekah Barber and Billy Corriher, Facing South — One hundred and fifty years ago, a Congress dominated by “Radical Republicans” — mostly former abolitionists who represented Northern states — mandated that Southern states rewrite their constitutions, ratify the 14th amendment, and grant…

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The Slaves Rebel - image by Mr. Fish, Truthdig

The Slaves Rebel

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig — The only way to end slavery is to stop being a slave. Hundreds of men and women in prisons in some 17 states are refusing to carry out prison labor, conducting hunger strikes or boycotting for-profit commissaries in an effort to abolish the last redoubt of legalized slavery in America. The strikers are demanding to be paid the minimum wage, the right to vote, decent…

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