The Common-place.org website publishes articles like these by Sutton and Finley which think about modern repercussions of past history that still surround and confront us in the present day.  The website hopes to give a sense that history is still alive and contested and important to modern American culture, still capable of stirring powerful feelings -- still not “past” because still unresolved.

This week’s articles concern the living history of slavery.  So, did they matter to you?  Did the articles make history seem alive, relevant, difficult, important?  If so, why so?  If not, why not?