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Journal Article 1: Harris, L. (2004). Slavery, emancipation, and class formation in colonial and early national New York City. Journal of Urban History, 30, 339–359.

Abstract: In this article, Leslie Harris gives us insight into conditions of slavery and its aftermath in an area we don't typically associate with slavery – New York City. She presents the connections between the slave system and its dissolution and how classes were formed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Journal Article 2: Shah, H., & Nah, S. (2004). Long ago and far away: How US newspapers construct racial oppression. Journalism, 5, 259–278.

Abstract: In this article, the authors look at U. S. newspapers' coverage of racial oppression. They see that often it is presented as "long ago and far away," rather than something real, current, and active in U. S. society.

Journal Article 3: Farr, J. (2008). Locke, natural law, and new world slavery. Political Theory, 36, 494–522.

Abstract: This article first serves as an historical overview of theory making about slavery, and second takes on the theoretical construct of new world slavery as proposed by sociopolitical philosopher John Locke. Long standing controversy over Locke’s work has focused on the questions of whether Locke intended to justify new world slavery and his role in it, or was his theorizing limited to a natural law theory that explained and justified slavery as a consequence of just war.

Journal Article 4: Pargas, D. (2009). Disposing of human property: American slave families and forced separation in comparative perspective. Journal of Family History, 34, 251–274.

Abstract: This article addresses one of the foundational issues for African American families during the period of American slavery: “the dismemberment of slave families that was often the result of their being forcibly and arbitrarily separated by their owners” (252). The author examines records from two separate communities in the antebellum South, one in northern Virginia and one in southern Louisiana, to support his argument that time and place mattered in the way slave families were treated because the threat of forced separation varied for families living in different communities.

Journal Article 5: Hollis, S. (2009). Neither slave nor free: The ideology of capitalism and the failure of radical reform in the American South. Critical Sociology, 35, 9–27.

Abstract: This article looks at the conditions under which Blacks experienced the “freedoms” of Emancipation in the American South. Despite being promised “40 acres and a mule,” most freedmen were turned out with little or no possessions, and no prospects to secure either income or land other than sharecropping or moving North. Hollis argues that “structures of inequality deeply embedded in Southern colonial and post-colonial relations with Europe continued after the Civil War to block changes that would have given access to resources and development opportunities to large sectors of the population, particularly the freed slaves” (11).  She goes on to demonstrate that, rather than being strategies localized to the American South, these forces must best be understood within the ideologies that ground Western capitalism in general.  Rather than granting freedom to slaves as a basic human right, the ultimate aim of Emancipation in the American South was “the diversification of Southern capitalism and the construction of a labor force that was a favorable alternative to slavery” (24).

Journal Article 6: Noel, H. (2013). Which long coalition the creation of the anti-slavery coalition. Party Politics, 19, 962–984.

Abstract: This article explores the question of how party coalitions are shaped and reshaped by elected officials, non-elected political actors, and intellectuals.  Taking the question of slavery the author examines the ideological divisions in Congress and among intellectuals to illustrate these processes.

Journal Article 7: Androff, D. (2011). The problem of contemporary slavery: An international human rights challenge for social work. International Social Work, 54, 209–222.

Abstract: This article examines the literature on human trafficking to support the argument that this violent exploitation persists. While conventional wisdom has suggested the eradication of slavery for decades, it is clear from this author’s work that that is simply not the case. The article investigates other forms of economic exploitation which are essentially slavery and details the range of public policy options necessary for ameliorating the problem.