How debt reinforces society's hierarchies

Plus: Who Lincoln would vote for in 2024 |

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By Made by History / Produced by Olivia B. Waxman The student loan debt crisis has provoked fierce debate about the propriety of loan forgiveness. But women and Black people have proportionally higher debt loads. And that’s problematic, argues Amanda White Gibson in Made by History, when one considers the history of debt in America. Gibson tells the story of Louisa Brown, arrested in pre-Civil War Richmond for not carrying her county-issued pass to prove that she was not enslaved. After six months, Brown proved her status in court, but since Brown couldn’t pay the six months of prison costs she had accrued, she was auctioned off to a member of Virginia’s elite as a debt peon. The law was technically egalitarian, but in practice, only Black people were auctioned off for not paying jail debts—in other words, debt was used as a weapon to reinforce society's hierarchies. Gibson argues that student loan debtors have been similarly swept up in a broader economic system. Read more here.

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