feudalism

A new book from Harvard scholar Keidrick Roy, “American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism,” lays out their pioneering critique of the enduring power of feudalism on American thought, along with a coherent framework of liberal ideas shaped by their individual and collective lived experiences.

Let’s start with their explanation: The abstract ideas of liberty were excellent, they argued, but contradicted by “racial feudalism.”

How did that idea confront the claims of founders like Thomas Jefferson that they were getting rid of feudalism entirely?

To be clear, “racial feudalism” is a term I’ve developed to describe how prominent Black liberals before the Civil War characterized slavery in the South and prejudice in the North.

However, after declaring America's independence from England, Thomas Jefferson and other founders believed their legislative and political actions had already eliminated the remaining vestiges of European feudalism.