Conclusion: A Personal Reflection on the Comparative Approach

Leone, M; Webster, J; Lee, SJ; Woehlke, SF

doi:10.1093/9780197551295.003.0021

Conclusion: A Personal Reflection on the Comparative Approach

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Abstract

The concluding chapter of The Oxford Handbook of the Comparative Archaeology of Slavery (unfinished at the time of the author’s death in December 2024) has been published as a tribute to Mark P. Leone but must be understood as incomplete. The author asks how the handbook contributors have engaged with Moses Finley and Orlando Patterson and considers from a comparative perspective four wide-ranging themes: slavery and capitalism, slavery and the spirit, freedom within and beyond slavery, and slavery’s afterlives. Building on the idea of the role of archaeology in answering questions about the emergence of the modern world, he reminds us of the importance of frequent public reconciliation and memory that preserves revolutionary excitement, commitment, and achievement against the hatred, exploitation, oppression, theft, ruin, degradation, disrespect, marginalisation, and stark impoverishment created by enslavement. And in answering the eternal question of enslavement—How is forgiveness achieved?—he asks of us, archaeologists and readers, to keep the stories alive so we never forget how we got from then to now.