The Logic of Slavery: Debt, Technology, and Pain in American Literature

In American history and throughout the Western world, the subjugation perpetuated by slavery has created a unique “culture of slavery.” That culture exists as a metaphorical, artistic, and literary tradition attached to the enslaved – human beings whose lives are “owed” to another, who are used as instruments by another, and who must endure suffering in silence. Tim Armstrong explores the metaphorical legacy of slavery in American culture by investigating debt, technology, and pain in Afric...