Trauma, Trauma Everywhere: Race, Violence, and Pathology in the Study of American Slavery

This essay discusses how the concept of trauma has evolved within scholarly circles and its impact on historians of slavery and emancipation. It considers whether trauma is a useful category of analysis and surveys its use among recent historical works relating to the legacy of slavery among Black communities. Despite a tendency to flatten historical analysis, the concept of trauma can be useful in charting both individual and collective responses to violence and its aftermath.