Capitalism, Slavery, and Reparations

The birth of “Modern Economic Growth” constituted a watershed in human history, allowing societies to escape the Malthusian impasse and permanently raise living standards. While the new growth regime had lifted billions of people out of extreme poverty over the last two centuries, the total distribution of economic gains—both between and within countries—had been far from equitable. Why had Europe diverged from the baseline of human history, and how did this success relate to the deeper history of Western imperialism, exploitation, and the mass commodification of human beings? Would modern economic growth have occurred absent the transatlantic slave trade? And could the horrors of slavery—and its continuing, long-term consequences—be remedied? Growing numbers of people around the world called for reparations for historical wrongs in 2020, and nowhere more intensely than in the United States. A reckoning with the past was at hand, and much depended on the response of newly elected President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.