Slavery was women's business too

+ why independent voters are hard to count US Edition - Today's top story: American slavery wasn’t just a white man’s business − new research shows how white women profited, too [View in browser]( US Edition | 10 June 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [How couples can manage their money]( - [Costs of rolling back college DEI programs]( - [How engineers build underwater]( Lead story An old myth of U.S. history is that slavery was big business for men and men alone. To this day, many Americans believe that white women, particularly in the antebellum South, were relatively uninvolved in the buying and selling of human beings. 

 While this popular belief is rooted partly in earlier generations of scholarship, new research has shown that slavery was far more profitable for women than previously understood. In fact, in some states, slavery was associated with unique legal and economic protections for women – namely, for slave-owning white women. Surveying recent work in economics and U.S. history, The Ohio State University economist Trevon Logan presents the sometimes surprising ways [race, gender and money interacted in the economy of enslavement]( – and mulls the contradictions of an “early feminist institution” for white women that brutally oppressed women of color. [ [Understand what’s going on in Washington and around the world. Get our Politics Weekly newsletter.]( ] Tracy Walsh Economy + Business Editor A colorized engraving depicts enslavers selling enslaved people in the 19th-century South. Corbis via Getty Images [American slavery wasn’t just a white man’s business − new research shows how white women profited, too]( Trevon Logan, The Ohio State University Human bondage was big business in the antebellum US, and men weren’t the only ones cashing in. Education - [How DEI rollbacks at colleges and universities set back learning]( JT Torres, Washington and Lee University DEI programs bolster college students’ sense of identity and belonging. Without these programs, they stand to miss out on crucial learning and career opportunities. Environment + Energy - [The warming ocean is leaving coastal economies in hot water]( Charles Colgan, Middlebury Institute of International Studies Global ocean temperatures have been at record highs almost daily for over a year, and economies are feeling the heat. Ethics + Religion - [How much do you need to know about how your spouse spends money? Maybe less than you think]( Scott Rick, University of Michigan A researcher explains how couples can create a sense of ‘our money’ while keeping a sense of financial autonomy. Science + Technology - [The Indian election was awash in deepfakes – but AI was a net positive for democracy]( Vandinika Shukla, Harvard Kennedy School; Bruce Schneier, Harvard Kennedy School Campaigns used deepfakes to connect with voters rather than deception, and AI also helped them break through language barriers. - [How do you build tunnels and bridges underwater? A geotechnical engineer explains the construction tricks]( Ari Perez, Quinnipiac University Underwater construction is a complex and difficult task, but engineers have developed several ways to build underwater … mostly by not building underwater at all. - [NASA’s asteroid sample mission gave scientists around the world the rare opportunity to study an artificial meteor]( Brian Elbing, Oklahoma State University; Elizabeth A. Silber, Sandia National Laboratories Scientists don’t often have the time to get all their equipment set up to study incoming meteors from space. Instead, they can study capsules from space missions as ‘artificial meteors.’ International - [EU parliament election sees shaken centre hold – but far right now has chances to show its strength]( Amelia Hadfield, University of Surrey Enviroment policies and executive roles now in the spotlight – while France faces a potentially divisive national election. - [Snap elections in France: a political scientist lays out what’s at stake]( Julien Robin, Université de Montréal Julien Robin, a specialist in French parliamentary life, looks at what the surprise dissolution means for French politics. Politics + Society - [Why is it so hard to know how many independent voters there are?]( Thom Reilly, Arizona State University Increasingly, the media, pollsters and pundits are focusing on independent voters and their effects on election outcomes. - [2020’s ‘fake elector’ schemes will be harder to try in 2024 – but not impossible]( Derek T. Muller, University of Notre Dame In the 2020 presidential election, groups of self-appointed electors in seven states met to cast votes for Donald Trump, even though Joe Biden had carried their states. Could that happen again? Economy + Business - [Getting services to people in need often relies on partnerships between government and nonprofits, but reporting requirements can be too onerous]( David C. Campbell, University of California, Davis By relying heavily on privately run organizations to deliver social services, the government employs fewer people, reducing the size of its bureaucracy. But these partnerships can flounder. 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