1619

1619

A blueprint for rebellion: C.L.R. James and the politics of ‘Black Jacobins’

November 30, 2019 M. Matsemela-Ali Odom
Published in 1938, “Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution” became C.L.R. James’ magnum opus, though fans of the sport of cricket might beg to differ. “Black Jacobins” was printed by the British […]
1619

‘Pressed to the Wall … But Fighting Back’: The Black Radical Tradition and the Legacy of the Chicago Race Riots 1919

November 20, 2019 M. Odom
Recently, I watched the opening episode of the new HBO series “Watchmen.” Like millions of other viewers, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the episode began with the white terrorist assault on the community […]
1619

From the Terrible Transformation to the Creation of the Negro: A Black Socialist Analysis of the First Century of Slavery in North America

August 1, 2019 Matsemela Odom
In Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, the late popular historian Lerone Bennett refers to the African captives who arrived in Jamestown in 1619 as immigrants. “An estimated million of these slaves found […]
1619

Slavery, Settler Colonialism, Gender Oppression and Resistance in the Early Colonial Years

March 25, 2019 M. Odom
This year marks 400 years since “20 and odd” enslaved Africans on board a Dutch frigate were traded for supplies to English settlers at Jamestown. As historians have noted, these African captives were not the […]