A Stain On Our Past

The issue of the memory of the slavery has gained unprecedented international visibility that perhaps only the Holocaust has achieved as human tragedy. This recognition has been politically contentious and conceals profound disparities between and within former colonial empires and the colonized societies involved in this crime against humanity. Bringing together a wide range of scholars of slavery from diverse backgrounds, this multi-disciplinary book offers an in-depth analysis of the memory of slavery in different geographic contexts, including France, the United States, Jamaica, the French Caribbean, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. It is unprecedented in the scope of the questions it addresses.

“The patrimonialization of the memory of the slave trade and slavery has transformed public spaces and helped victims to recover their dignity. Both students and activists will benefit from the pertinent analyses in this volume.”

—Bogumil Jewsiewicki Koss, Emeritus Professor, formerly Canada Research Chair in Comparative History and Memory, Université Laval

“This wide-ranging collection of essays by leading scholars is a must-read for those interested in the politics and culture of the memory of slavery. Evocative and analytically rich, this volume grapples with questions surrounding law, cultural and artistic practice, and institutional politics. Collectively, the book offers both an insightful analysis of the present and a sense of the link between remembrance and the construction of alternative political futures.”

—Laurent Dubois, Professor, Duke University, author of Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution