"In this eye-opening and disturbing account, historian Berry (History Teaches Us to Resist) reveals that Black children were routinely “trafficked” by white Southerners via so-called apprenticeships following the Civil War. Through archival sleuthing, she uncovers a pattern of court cases in which Black parents tried to retrieve children stolen by wealthy whites, like the Alabama couple Nathan and Jenney Cox, who in 1865 lost five of their children—ages ranging from three to 16—to Francis Jones, their former enslaver. Jones—whom Berry characterizes as wanting “to keep his unpaid laborers as long as possible”—had applied to a court to indenture the children on the grounds that their parents could not support them, and that by granting his application the county would be spared the cost of their upkeep. The judge, a former Confederate officer, ruled in his favor, rejecting Nathan and Jenney’s protests that they were able to provide for their family. Other chapters recount similarly harrowing episodes that highlight additional cudgels used by the courts to traffic Black children, like how marriages that Black people had entered into during slavery were not considered legal, making their children legally orphans. Tracing the impact such forced separations had on later generations of these same families, Berry makes a forceful case for reparations. It’s a persuasive look at how the material harms of racism are still quantifiable today." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Slavery After Slavery tells an essential part of the story of slavery that must be told. It is a brilliant, truth-telling narrative that is groundbreaking, bracing, and enormously good—a work of importance.” —Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor, Yale University, and author of Black in White Space

“Basing her work on ten compelling court cases, Mary Frances Berry brings to life a horrific chapter of post–Civil War history that has been woefully overlooked: the virtual re-enslavement of Black children as forced laborers to enrich white adults through court-ordered apprenticeships. Slavery After Slavery is essential reading to understand—and contest—the racist structures that survived Emancipation and continue to deny Black people equal status and family autonomy in America today.” —Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body, Shattered Bonds, and Torn Apart

“Slavery After Slavery presents a heart-wrenching series of vignettes on white slaveholders acting to maintain ownership and control over the lives of black children through the ‘apprenticeship’ mechanism under the Black Codes. The book documents cases of fierce resistance of black parents to the theft of their children and the circumstances when they experienced success or failure in maintaining their families. At its core, Slavery After Slavery offers moving narratives of the lives destroyed and intergenerational damages wrought by the American failure to implement true Reconstruction.” —William Darity Jr., coauthor of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century