Robin Blackburn on the History of Slavery and Capitalism in the Americas

How was slavery defeated in the Americas? In this interview Robin Blackburn discusses the key ideas and arguments in his new work, The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888. He is interviewed by Kevin Ochieng Okoth-a writer and researcher based in London, part of the Salvage Editorial Collective, and author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics.
The Reckoning traces the “Second Slavery” that surged in the US South, Cuba and Brazil after the Age of Revolution (1776-1848) destroyed the main slave regimes of the Caribbean. By 1860, more than 6 million captives of African descent toiled to produce the cotton, sugar and coffee craved by global consumers.Robin Blackburn highlights the role of abolitionism in driving Confederate slaveholders into the apparent escape-hatch of secession, and how racial oppression was later reconfigured by “Black Codes” and Jim Crow.
Robin Blackburn is the author of many works of history on slavery, including The Making of New World Slavery, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery and The American Crucible. You can find all his work here: www.versobooks.com/blogs/auth...
The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888 is out now: www.versobooks.com/products/3...
See also-Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics by Kevin Ochieng Okoth: www.versobooks.com/products/2...
00:00 Intro
00:45 The genesis of the 'Slavery in the Americas' project
06:27 Capitalism and slavery
10:21 Slavery and indebtedness
14:35 The American Civil War and abolition
17:36 Abolition of the slave trade didn't abolish slavery
18:24 The Second Slavery: US, Cuba and Brazil
20:50 Credit in slavery
26:10 The Fugitive Slave and antislavery movements
30:30 The Civil War's impact on Cuba and Brazil
35:11 Brazil, racialisation and fascism
37:04 Racial capitalism as a term
42:18 Specialisation of production

[@dinnerwithfranklin2451]

One of the most interesting interviews I've seen on the yt. Thank you for this.

[@pelicans456]

Cannot recommend his "The Making of New World Slavery: 1450-1800" enough - I've taught several sections from that text. Really excited for the new one - the other two histories of the overthrow of colonial slavery are also excellent.

[@cuspcham]

That book changes me, for real. Would have a complete different understanding of history after reading it.

[@BettBeat_Media]

The interviewer and guest mention Belgium, but don't even mention the Netherlands: The wealthiest colonial empire before the Brits. It is baffling to me how the Dutch always escape the blame. They are literally pioneers of capitalism, apartheid and slavery.

[@vootamu1]

It's because "the Dutch" that were involved in the slave trade belong to the six pointed star tribe that only wants you to focus on what happened to them in Belgium and Germany so they deny their involvement in "capitalism, apartheid, and slavery" since it might detract from their victimhood status. Some members of the six pointed star tribe speak glowingly about the "brains of the Confederacy" who also owned 140 slaves because Judah Benjamin belongs to their tribe. They also don't talk about where the justification for race based slavery came from because it can still be found in their most revered book. Epstein was just part of a long tradition of enslavement.

[@rorymchugh9140]

@@vootamu1 antisemitism like this has no place here

[@alexhoyle560]

Someone get the giant butterfly net

[@Patafisique]

He devoted entire chapters to the Dutch in "The making of New World slavery". It's pretty obvious he won't cover everything in a 40 minutes interview.

[@pritch481]

At about 18:30, Robin starts to talk about the key features of the Second Slavery.

[@pausereflect5911]

Having come to this vid cold, the title "The Reckoning" made me think of "Come Uppance" but that's not what you're talking about! Still it got me thinking about how enduring and pervasive the binary black/white attitude still is. Could we be coming up to white as property? We need a change or to change.

[@syourke3]

Slavery was just a very successful form of capitalism in the USA. There’s no contradiction between slavery and capitalism at all.

[@user-qi2gr3yk3c]

Speculation came before the market for speculation.