Slavery
Posted on 22 July 2018
The 17th century Ethiopian rationalist Zera Yacob, hailed as the first modern Africana philosopher.
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Posted on 30 September 2018
The spread of Islamic scholarship in subsaharan Africa, focusing on intellectuals of the Songhay empire around the Niger River in the 15th-17th centuries.
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Posted on 26 May 2019
An introduction to Africana philosophical thought as it emerged from the modern experience of slavery and colonization by Europeans.
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Posted on 9 June 2019
Anton Wilhelm Amo, brought to Germany from his native Ghana, defends a rigorous dualism of mind and body. Was this philosophy connected to his African origins?
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Posted on 7 July 2019
Eighteenth century black authors touch on philosophical themes in autobiographical narratives, poetry, and other literary genres.
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Posted on 21 July 2019
Phillis Wheatley astonishes colonial Americans with her exquisite and precocious poetry and reflects on the liberating power of the imagination.
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Posted on 1 September 2019
Preacher and Revolutionary War soldier Lemuel Haynes argues that the principles of the American Revolution demand the abolition of slavery.
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Posted on 15 September 2019
Ignatius Sancho and Benjamin Banneker make their mark on the history of Africana thought through letters that reflect on the power of sentiment.
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Posted on 29 September 2019
Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano advance the goals of the abolitionist movement through a groundbreaking political treatise and an influential autobiography.
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Posted on 13 October 2019
In an age of revolutions and revolutionary ideas, the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 stands out as the most radical of them all.
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Posted on 27 October 2019
The Baron de Vastey unveils the horror of colonialism as a system and defends the monarchy of King Christophe in the tense early years of Haiti’s independence.
Note: this episode repeats some of Vastey's vivid descriptions of violence against slaves, so please think twice before listening to it around kids for example.
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Posted on 10 November 2019
An interview with Doris Garraway on the background, intellectual basis, and legacy of the Haitian Revolution.
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Posted on 24 November 2019
Building black institutions in early American history, with Prince Hall and the Masons in Boston, and Richard Allen and the Methodists in Philadelphia.
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Posted on 8 December 2019
Questions of political autonomy and group identity in the emigration movement led by Paul Cuffe, Daniel Coker, John Russwurm and others.
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Posted on 22 December 2019
An interview with James Sidbury about the emergence of a self-conscious African identity in the diaspora.
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Posted on 5 January 2020
David Walker defends violent resistance in his incendiary and influential Appeal.
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Posted on 19 January 2020
Maria W. Stewart’s public addresses bring the concerns of African American women into the struggle against racial prejudice.
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Posted on 2 February 2020
Hosea Easton’s Treatise provides an overlooked but fascinating theory of race and racism.
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Posted on 16 February 2020
Melvin Rogers joins us to discuss David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Hosea Easton.
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Posted on 1 March 2020
Frederick Douglass' journey from slave to leading figure of 19th century American thought.
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Posted on 15 March 2020
In two speeches marking holidays, Frederick Douglass champions the idea of world citizenship, the power of appeals to conscience to bring change, and the role of violence.
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Posted on 29 March 2020
Henry Highland Garnet encourages, or actually demands, that enslaved Americans throw off their chains and debates Douglass over how best to resist slavery.
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Posted on 12 April 2020
He is called a “father of black nationalism,” but Martin Delany also promoted integration in American society. Can the apparent tension be resolved?
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Posted on 26 April 2020
The moral crusades of Sojourner Truth and Frances Harper, activists against racial and gender oppression.
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Posted on 10 May 2020
Mary Ann Shadd and Samuel Ringgold Ward reflect on what Canada can offer African Americans, differing on the problem of racism.
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Posted on 4 October 2020
Abolitionists Luiz Gama and Joaquim Nabuco, and the great novelist Machado de Assis, react to the injustices of slaveholding in Brazil.
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Posted on 29 November 2020
A late 19th-century churchman tries to explain how slavery fit into God’s plan and decide whether the future for African Americans lies in Africa or America.
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Posted on 10 January 2021
Co-host Chike joins Peter to look back at series two and ahead to series three.
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Posted on 12 December 2021
Sociologist E. Franklin Frazier critiques the Harlem Renaissance and the “black bourgeoisie” for failing to embrace values that will empower black Americans.
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Posted on 9 January 2022
Two Trinidadian political thinkers: sociologist Oliver Cox analyzes the nature of racial prejudice, and historian Eric Williams connects capitalism to slavery.
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Posted on 2 October 2011
Peter looks at the ideal arrangement of the state in Aristotle’s Politics, his critique of Plato’s Republic and his views on slavery.
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