Anthony C. Infanti, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, dives into the unsettling relationship between taxation and slavery in colonial America. He highlights how tax laws were weaponized to dehumanize enslaved individuals, treating them as property for economic gain. Infanti explores various colonial approaches to compensating slaveholders, revealing the moral complexities of these practices. He also discusses how taxation could serve as a tool for both oppression and potential reform, urging listeners to reflect on its historical implications for modern society.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Tax Compensation for Slaveholders
South Carolina used tax laws early to compensate slaveholders for executed enslaved persons to ensure cooperation.
They experimented with various tax mechanisms to fund these compensations during the colony's formative years.
insights INSIGHT
Tax Laws Mirror Slave Society
Tax laws in South Carolina reflected the centrality of slavery, showing legislators' and slaveholders' mindsets.
Compensation laws revealed literalism and occasional equity, highlighting complex societal and legal dynamics.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Tax Records Expose Enslaved Lives
Tax records reveal individual stories of enslaved persons' lives and harsh realities, such as dangerous punishments and executions.
Some enslaved people had backgrounds as free men, yet faced execution and compensation paid to slaveholders.
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Principles for Navigating the Big Debt Cycle, Where We Are Headed, and What We Should Do
Ray Dalio
In this book, Ray Dalio provides a groundbreaking analysis of the Big Debt Cycle, addressing critical questions about debt growth, the potential for a major reserve currency country like the US to go broke, and how to identify and mitigate debt-related risks. Dalio draws on his experience as a global macro investor and his study of 35 historical cases of governments facing financial crises over the past 100 years. He offers a template for identifying and managing debt problems, which he has discussed with treasury secretaries and central bankers worldwide. The book explains the mechanics of debt sustainability, potential government debt reduction strategies, and the role of central bank interventions in managing debt crises.
The Human
Rene Descartes
The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America (NYU Press, 2025) by Anthony C. Infanti documents how the American colonies used tax law to dehumanize enslaved persons, taxing them alongside valuable commodities upon their forced arrival and then as wealth-generating assets in the hands of slaveholders. Dr. Infanti examines how taxation also proved to be an important component for subjugating and controlling enslaved persons, both through its shaping of the composition of new arrivals to the colonies and through its funding of financial compensation to slaveholders for the destruction of their “property” to ensure their cooperation in the administration of capital punishment. The variety of tax mechanisms chosen to fund slaveholder compensation payments conveyed messages about who was thought to benefit from—and, therefore, who should shoulder the burden of—slaveholder compensation while opening a revealing window into these colonial societies. While the story of colonial tax law is intrinsically linked to advancing slavery and racism, Infanti reveals how several colonies used the power of taxation as a means of curtailing the slave trade. Though often self-interested, these efforts show how taxation can be used not only in the service of evil but also to correct societal injustices. Providing a fascinating account of slavery’s economic entrenchment through the history of American tax law, The Human Toll urges us to consider the lessons that fiscal history holds for those working in the reparations movement today.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
New Books in Critical Theory 
