During the antebellum period, slave owners weaponized southern Black joy to argue for enslavement, propagating images of "happy darkies." In contrast, abolitionists wielded sorrow by emphasizing racial oppression. Both arguments were so effective that a political uneasiness on the subject still lingers. In The Politics of Black Joy , Lindsey Stewart wades into these uncomfortable waters by analyzing Zora Neale Hurston's uses of the concept of Black southern joy. Stewart develops Hurston's contributions to political theory and philosophy of race by introducing the politics of joy as a refusal of neo-abolitionism, a political tradition that reduces southern Bla ..

During the antebellum period, slave owners weaponized southern Black joy to argue for enslavement, propagating images of "happy darkies." In contrast, abolitionists wielded sorrow by emphasizing racial oppression. Both arguments were so effective that a political uneasiness on the subject still lingers. In The Politics of Black Joy , Lindsey Stewart wades into these uncomfortable waters by analyzing Zora Neale Hurston's uses of the concept of Black southern joy. Stewart develops Hurston's contributions to political theory and philosophy of race by introducing the politics of joy as a refusal of neo-abolitionism, a political tradition that reduces southern Bla ..