Economies of Enslavement: Book Talk with Caitlin Rosenthal & Marcus Rediker
Channel: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Date: 2023-12-15

Different questions, two distinct approaches, one topic: Enslavement. 

With their detailed historical research, Caitlin Rosenthal and Marcus Rediker presented deep insights on enslavement and its social and economic effects. In “Accounting for Slavery”, Rosenthal links enslavement with management and accounting on the plantations and relates it with capitalism. In “The Slave Ship”, Rediker also looks into economic questions of enslavement and analyses power dynamics at and about this specific place. With different focuses and interests, both look at the decisions taken by traders and plantation owners and their immense consequences for people who were not seen as humans.

In this book talk, facilitated by Bafta Sarbo, the authors of their recently published books in German language got into conversation around the following questions: Which political economies developed on the basis of enslavement? How did they progress? Which possibilities did remain for enslaved and how did they shape power dynamics on the ships and plantations? What is visible today and where?

Hosted by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Matthes & Seitz Berlin and Assoziation A.