Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination

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Contemporary African American artists and intellectuals explore the legacy of slavery to confront the exclusion of African Americans from the nation's founding narratives. By examining contested figures and events, such as Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings and the characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin, they reconstruct "sites of slavery." This analysis not only highlights the civic estrangement felt in the post-civil rights era but also seeks to reclaim the subjectivity of enslaved individuals, ultimately envisioning a more inclusive American democracy.