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The Invisible Line

Review by Wilbert Rideau

Published: February 21 2011 02:09 | Last updated: February 21 2011 02:09

The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, by Daniel J Sharfstein, Penguin, RRP$27.95, 416 pages

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act to allow slave owners to pursue and recapture runaway slaves in states that did not permit slavery. In practice, the Act allowed Southern-sympathisers in the North to swear out a slave warrant on any black person, thereby unintentionally terrorising even free people of colour by putting them at risk of being kidnapped and sold to plantation owners in the South. (Federal court commissioners were paid $10 for finding a defendant to be a slave but only $5 for declaring him free.) A second unintended consequence of the Act was to strengthen the resolve of abolitionists to defeat slavery and deny slave-catchers their quarry. Continue reading →

Why America’s unions are not working any more

By Christopher Caldwell

Published: February 25 2011 22:34 | Last updated: February 25 2011 22:34

During the holiday break this winter, a woman in my neighbourhood was at the supermarket with her son when they ran into the son’s teacher. “See you Monday,” the mother said. The teacher gaily informed her she would not be back until mid-month, as she had planned a vacation in Central America. Teachers used to content themselves with the months off they enjoy in summers and at holidays, but they have got used to more. One can understand why American public employees ardently defend their unions, and the benefits they win. But one can also understand why, in a time of straitened budgets, union-negotiated contracts might be among the first places to make savings. Continue reading →

It wasn’t the smartest thing for Mr. Ryan to say, since he probably didn’t mean to compare Mr. Walker, a fellow Republican, to Hosni Mubarak. Or maybe he did — after all, quite a few prominent conservatives, including Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum, denounced the uprising in Egypt and insist that President Obama should have helped the Mubarak regime suppress it. Continue reading →