Scenes of Subjection

'One of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers' Claudia Rankine 'An unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom' New Yorker In this radical re-evaluation of American history, Saidiya Hartman draws together a striking portrait of nineteenth-century slavery and its many afterlives. Through close examination of a variety of 'scenes', ranging from the auction block and the minstrel show to plantation diaries and legal cases, Scenes of Subjection investigates the interconnected nature of historical enslavement and present-day racism. With bold and persuasively argued possibilities for Black resistance and transformation, this book shows how far we have yet to go to dismantle the pervasive legacy of slavery.

Saidiya Hartman is a Columbia University professor of English and Comparative Literature. She is the author ofScenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-making in Nineteenth Century America (Oxford University Press,1997) and Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007). In 2019 Hartman was awarded a prestigious MacArthur 'Genius' grant.