Dr. Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former chairwoman of the US Commission on Civil Rights, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Legal History, the author of thirteen books, and the recipient of thirty-seven honorary degrees. Dr. Berry has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show, PBS NewsHour, CBS Evening News, Al Jazeera America News, and various MSNBC and CNN shows.

"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 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

"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 . . . 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

Publisher: Beacon Press

Pub date: 2026-01-13

Length: 200 pages