Of Greed and Glory

**A ground-breaking, personal exploration of America’s obsession with continuing human bondage from the editor of the New York Times–bestselling Barracoon. Freedom and equality are the watchwords of American democracy. But like justice, freedom and equality are meaningless when there is no corresponding practical application of the ideals they represent. Physical, bodily liberty is fundamental to every American’s personal sovereignty. And yet, millions of Americans—including author Deborah Plant’s brother, whose life sentence at Angola Prison reveals a shocking current parallel to her academic work on the history of slavery in America—are deprived of these basic freedoms every day. In her studies of Zora Neale Hurston, Deborah Plant became fascinated by Hurston’s explanation for the atrocities of the international slave trade. In her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, Hurston wrote: “But the inescapable fact that stuck in my craw, was: my people had sold me and the white people had bought me. . . . It impressed upon me the universal nature of greed and glory.” We look the other way when the basic human rights of marginalized and stigmatized groups are violated and desecrated, not realizing that only the practice of justice everywhere secures justice, for any of us, anywhere. An active vigilance is required of those who would be and remain free; with Of Greed and Glory, Deborah Plant reveals the many ways in which slavery continues in America today and charts our collective course toward personal sovereignty for all. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook. And this corrupt system is not only harming Black Americans; the greed driving our capitalist society threatens the liberty of every last one of us. Freedom is the defining characteristic of America and it is being undone. Of Greed and Glory dissects the systemic practices developed throughout history that perpetuate Blacks’ present state of inequality and injustice, underlining the lack of personal sovereignty threatening all Americans should this relentless pursuit of profit persist. By raising consciousness and clarifying the consistency with which Black lives have been devalued, and how we are all enthralled to this madness, Plant charts a path forward toward the personal sovereignty our nation is founded upon.