Mary Hicks
@maryhicks.bsky.social
Author: Captive Cosmopolitans:
Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469671468/captive-cosmopolitans/
Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469671468/captive-cosmopolitans/
Pinned
Mary Hicks
@maryhicks.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery is officially here!!
Order from @uncpress.bsky.social to receive 30 percent off! uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Order from @uncpress.bsky.social to receive 30 percent off! uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
we are in a bare knuckle fight for the university as we know it. here are takes The Atlantic is too afraid to publish
Now on First View: The latest MAH Q&A on how the national crisis in higher ed affects historians of the modern United States. Lauren Jae Gutterman speaks to Julio Capó, Jr., Joan E. Cashin, Alex Lichtenstein, and Melanie Newport.
Read the full Q&A here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Read the full Q&A here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Crisis in Higher Education | Modern American History | Cambridge Core
Crisis in Higher Education
www.cambridge.org
February 13, 2026 at 2:42 PM
we are in a bare knuckle fight for the university as we know it. here are takes The Atlantic is too afraid to publish
Reposted by Mary Hicks
"The abolition of gender studies is a way of further guaranteeing impunity to the elite men whose contempt for and exploitation of women and girls apparently knew no bounds" - Joan Scott www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott
Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:05 PM
"The abolition of gender studies is a way of further guaranteeing impunity to the elite men whose contempt for and exploitation of women and girls apparently knew no bounds" - Joan Scott www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich
February 1, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich
Reposted by Mary Hicks
remember when the panama papers came out and we found out every rich person on earth was committing tax fraud and then nothing happened
January 31, 2026 at 12:23 PM
remember when the panama papers came out and we found out every rich person on earth was committing tax fraud and then nothing happened
Reposted by Mary Hicks
He was doing what many have been saying white men should be doing. He went outside to observe, he documented, he put his body on the line to protect another person and for this he was murdered by the gatekeepers of the fascist regime.
January 24, 2026 at 8:21 PM
He was doing what many have been saying white men should be doing. He went outside to observe, he documented, he put his body on the line to protect another person and for this he was murdered by the gatekeepers of the fascist regime.
Reposted by Mary Hicks
New Book!
Brooke Newman's The Crown's Silence
'The book reveals that by 1807, when Britain abolished the slave trade in its empire, the British crown had become the world’s largest buyer of enslaved people, buying 13,000 men for the army for £900,000."
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Brooke Newman's The Crown's Silence
'The book reveals that by 1807, when Britain abolished the slave trade in its empire, the British crown had become the world’s largest buyer of enslaved people, buying 13,000 men for the army for £900,000."
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
British crown was world’s largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals
Exclusive: Author of The Crown’s Silence tells how navy and monarchy protected slave trade for hundreds of years
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:00 PM
New Book!
Brooke Newman's The Crown's Silence
'The book reveals that by 1807, when Britain abolished the slave trade in its empire, the British crown had become the world’s largest buyer of enslaved people, buying 13,000 men for the army for £900,000."
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Brooke Newman's The Crown's Silence
'The book reveals that by 1807, when Britain abolished the slave trade in its empire, the British crown had become the world’s largest buyer of enslaved people, buying 13,000 men for the army for £900,000."
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
"Negroes are not now merely a subject of change but an active organ of change. This is the new political equation in contemporary society."
Dr. MLK Jr. Forgotten Call for Economic Justice in 1966 published by @thenation.com remains evergreen. #MLK #blacksky
Dr. MLK Jr. Forgotten Call for Economic Justice in 1966 published by @thenation.com remains evergreen. #MLK #blacksky
MLK’s Forgotten Call for Economic Justice
“Jobs are harder to create than voting rolls.”
www.thenation.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:28 PM
"Negroes are not now merely a subject of change but an active organ of change. This is the new political equation in contemporary society."
Dr. MLK Jr. Forgotten Call for Economic Justice in 1966 published by @thenation.com remains evergreen. #MLK #blacksky
Dr. MLK Jr. Forgotten Call for Economic Justice in 1966 published by @thenation.com remains evergreen. #MLK #blacksky
Reposted by Mary Hicks
ICE raids are not the first time this was made explicit. I think people downplay how much Jim Crow was not just about controlling Black people but it was also about controlling white people. If you thought racism was dumb and acted that way you could end up with a bomb in your home
Just keep coming back to the fact that keeping people in a constant state of terror is a form of mass disablement and essential to the eugenic project that is the United States.
January 17, 2026 at 6:08 AM
ICE raids are not the first time this was made explicit. I think people downplay how much Jim Crow was not just about controlling Black people but it was also about controlling white people. If you thought racism was dumb and acted that way you could end up with a bomb in your home
Reposted by Mary Hicks
The standard for “cultural revolution” according to centrist and right wing commentators is “liberals being loud about their opinions” whereas Trump is making prosecution, regulatory, and funding decisions based on the politics of the speaker but that’s also libs fault for making him mad
January 17, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The standard for “cultural revolution” according to centrist and right wing commentators is “liberals being loud about their opinions” whereas Trump is making prosecution, regulatory, and funding decisions based on the politics of the speaker but that’s also libs fault for making him mad
Reposted by Mary Hicks
W.E.B. Du Bois lives!
Man, Du Bois had some bangers, but for me, it doesn't get much better than his scathing indictment of the "Christianity" of the United States.
Certainly this was all true of the nation in his lifetime. But in my lifetime, his criticisms have never felt so true of the nation right now.
Certainly this was all true of the nation in his lifetime. But in my lifetime, his criticisms have never felt so true of the nation right now.
January 17, 2026 at 3:57 PM
W.E.B. Du Bois lives!
Reposted by Mary Hicks
MAGA, a movement of cynical cruelty that is fueled by atomization, has accidentally created the conditions for in person communities to be formed around resisting their repression bsky.app/profile/aaro...
They have quite an operation going.
www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
Minneapolis church has delivered more than 12,000 boxes of groceries to families in hiding
DHH church has hundreds of volunteers packing and delivering groceries to families who have been too scared to leave their homes during the immigration operation.
www.mprnews.org
January 16, 2026 at 2:11 PM
MAGA, a movement of cynical cruelty that is fueled by atomization, has accidentally created the conditions for in person communities to be formed around resisting their repression bsky.app/profile/aaro...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
This is the context in which “how harmful has diversity been for white people's employment?” conversations dominate our discourse for weeks on end.
As of the recent numbers? The Black Unemployment rate is at least 1.5 times HIGHER than every other groups unemployment rate. AT LEAST.
#blackjobsday #jobsday #blacksky
#blackjobsday #jobsday #blacksky
January 9, 2026 at 4:50 PM
This is the context in which “how harmful has diversity been for white people's employment?” conversations dominate our discourse for weeks on end.
Reposted by Mary Hicks
Just got my author copy of Black Atlantic Worlds! I’m honored and delighted to be a part of this volume.
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
Black Atlantic Worlds — Harvard University Press
Landscapes are key to the Black Atlantic. The history of how Africans and their descendants populated and transformed nations, regions, and ecosystems has always been attentive to the multiple meaning...
www.hup.harvard.edu
January 5, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Just got my author copy of Black Atlantic Worlds! I’m honored and delighted to be a part of this volume.
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
In case you need a positive reminder:
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very
From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:51 AM
In case you need a positive reminder:
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Can I risk proclaiming the end of a historical process before the dust has completely settled? The woke wars are over methinks.
December 26, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Can I risk proclaiming the end of a historical process before the dust has completely settled? The woke wars are over methinks.
Thanks Kelly! I was very lucky to be able to have some wonderful conversations about my book last year. You can check out one here:
And, drumroll please, the most popular episode of Unsung History in 2025 was... The Enslaved Mariners on the Crews of Brazilian Slave Ships with @maryhicks.bsky.social!
The Enslaved Mariners on the Crews of Brazilian Slave Ships
The Enslaved Mariners on the Crews of Brazilian Slave Ships page for UNSUNG HISTORY
www.unsunghistorypodcast.com
December 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Thanks Kelly! I was very lucky to be able to have some wonderful conversations about my book last year. You can check out one here:
Reposted by Mary Hicks
Santa managed one book from my list this year, and I’m right pleased it was this one @maryhicks.bsky.social Thanks for the work Dr Hicks! #MaritimeHistory
December 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Santa managed one book from my list this year, and I’m right pleased it was this one @maryhicks.bsky.social Thanks for the work Dr Hicks! #MaritimeHistory
Reposted by Mary Hicks
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
WaPo reports that ICE is planning 7 massive human warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people.
Recalls the acting ICE director 2015 statement that he wanted to see a “business”-oriented approach to deportations, “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Recalls the acting ICE director 2015 statement that he wanted to see a “business”-oriented approach to deportations, “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
ICE documents reveal plan to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses
The Trump administration wants to build seven large-scale deportation hubs to speed up deportations, internal ICE documents show.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
WaPo reports that ICE is planning 7 massive human warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people.
Recalls the acting ICE director 2015 statement that he wanted to see a “business”-oriented approach to deportations, “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Recalls the acting ICE director 2015 statement that he wanted to see a “business”-oriented approach to deportations, “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Thanks Jim, for the wonderful convo on your great pod Revolutions in Retrospect!
New Episode! "Recovering Black Mariners in the Atlantic World with Mary Hicks"
Check out my conversation with Dr. Hicks about the stories she tells in Captive Cosmopolitans Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery @uncpress.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
Check out my conversation with Dr. Hicks about the stories she tells in Captive Cosmopolitans Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery @uncpress.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
December 12, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Thanks Jim, for the wonderful convo on your great pod Revolutions in Retrospect!
Reposted by Mary Hicks
Sharing my review of @maryhicks.bsky.social's fascinating book Captive Cosmopolitans! In the new issue of Slavery & Abolition: doi.org/10.1080/0144...
Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery
Published in Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies (Vol. 46, No. 4, 2025)
doi.org
December 12, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Sharing my review of @maryhicks.bsky.social's fascinating book Captive Cosmopolitans! In the new issue of Slavery & Abolition: doi.org/10.1080/0144...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
@maryhicks.bsky.social wrote my favorite book on the Atlantic in the last few years. It’s 50% off hardcover over on Amazon. Just sayin.
amzn.to/4ptVSaY
amzn.to/4ptVSaY
Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press)
Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press)
amzn.to
December 10, 2025 at 2:33 AM
@maryhicks.bsky.social wrote my favorite book on the Atlantic in the last few years. It’s 50% off hardcover over on Amazon. Just sayin.
amzn.to/4ptVSaY
amzn.to/4ptVSaY
One of the Trump administration's lasting legacies could very well be the decimation of American agriculture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARGS...
High costs, tariffs hammering U.S. farmers
YouTube video by 60 Minutes
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:37 PM
One of the Trump administration's lasting legacies could very well be the decimation of American agriculture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARGS...
Reposted by Mary Hicks
Harvard faculty disgusted but not surprised by close ties between Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard Faculty Disturbed by Revelations of Summers’ ‘Cozy Friendship’ With Epstein | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard professors responded with outrage to a tranche of emails showing a close yearslong correspondence between former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers and sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein, reop...
www.thecrimson.com
November 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Harvard faculty disgusted but not surprised by close ties between Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
I get we are in an uncertain period in which leftists and liberals of various stripes are enamored with the idea that we must experiment with embracing aspects of Trumpism to be competitive electorally, but surely "your healthcare costs will double" isn't at the top of the list of issues to co-opt.
November 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I get we are in an uncertain period in which leftists and liberals of various stripes are enamored with the idea that we must experiment with embracing aspects of Trumpism to be competitive electorally, but surely "your healthcare costs will double" isn't at the top of the list of issues to co-opt.