Black Labor Powered Reconstruction’s Fight for Democracy. It Can Do It Again.
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News spread fast across plantations in the antebellum United States. Enslaved Black workers tracking current events in 1860 quickly developed the widespread notion of an “emancipating army,” marching south to enact biblical vengeance. Panic among white elites confirmed Armageddon rumors, unlocking new space for open struggle. Mass labor action at the point of production made Black workers the...