Sean Gallagher
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seangallagher.bsky.social
Sean Gallagher
@seangallagher.bsky.social
Historian of slavery in the American Revolution. University of South Carolina. Writing a book on people enslaved to the state.
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
Book Launch tomorrow at London @histmat.bsky.social with @redprof.bsky.social , Gargi Bhattacharya, Pepijn Brandon, and Charles Post.

Saturday 11/8, 14:30-16:15, B103 SOAS Brunei Gallery
November 7, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
#OtD 3 Nov 1979 the Greensboro, NC, massacre occurred when five communists at an anti-Ku Klux Klan protest were murdered by members of the KKK and the American Nazi Party., who were helped by police who gave them a map of anti-racists stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1023...
November 3, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
ICE shot an American citizen and food bank worker who tried to block them arresting an immigrant by pulling his car in front of them.
After being released from hospital: "He is now facing charges for assault on a federal officer."
www.calonews.com/featured-top...
November 2, 2025 at 6:54 PM
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We’ve already seen quite a few examples of ICE agents trying to kidnap someone and eventually giving up and running away because a crowd had gathered and shouted them down. That’s EFFECTIVE.
A lot of folks may think that just yelling at ICE agents is ineffective, but consider the cumulative psychological toll of being yelled at EVERY DAY when trying to do shit. Even the biggest asshole in the world who doesn't give a shit about other people will feel the pressure.
More from the scene
October 25, 2025 at 9:44 PM
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At @oieahc.bsky.social conference, @adamxmcneil.bsky.social delivered an engaging paper centering enslaved Black children & the Battle of Yorktown as a historical lens through which to frame questions of freedom during the American Revolution.
October 24, 2025 at 1:48 PM
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The New York Times publishes a handy guide to which federal forces are terrorizing us at any moment. This is America, 2025.
October 24, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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So FYI, ICE is definitely in Oakland RIGHT NOW, clashing with protesters.
Whatever deal Lurie made with Trump does not include Oakland, which unlike SF is majority nonwhite. And of course has a Black female mayor.

They're still coming for Oakland right now - which was surely the plan all along.
October 23, 2025 at 5:24 PM
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Coming next spring, in time for what will surely be a lively but respectful debate about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration
October 22, 2025 at 12:27 PM
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The fact that these 2 things can be happening at the same time demonstrates the contempt the ruling class has for the people
October 22, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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I had a lot of convos with people who said they were sympathetic, but Defund the Police was a "bad slogan". I told them it wasn't a slogan. It was an answer. It was an answer to the constant question "what can we do to actually lower crime and make our neighborhood's safer?"

Anyway. Here we are.
Should’ve defunded the police like we instructed smh
October 11, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
This is truly horrifying.
October 8, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
and when I said “the violence is already here” I also meant: the actual police
What we’re seeing now is not people “[beginning] to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army”—the federal agents are becoming an occupying army, and the violence is theirs. The violence is already here.
Chilling insight by @barbarafwalter.com: "Once citizens view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this… They’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns."

via www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...
October 8, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
October 8, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
Happening now: at Kedzie and 40th, where Border Patrol agents just opened fire on rapid response this afternoon. A woman CFD says they found after the incident is reported in fair condition.

A growing number of outraged neighbors have gathered across from ICE/CBP agents who have closed Kedzie.
October 4, 2025 at 6:19 PM
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Hey #vastearlyamerica folks, I'm thinking about putting together a panel for @cndhistassoc.bsky.social 's conference next summer, looking at religion and violence in the colonial wars between New France and New England/the mid-Atlantic (or just France & England in Canada). Anyone interested?
October 3, 2025 at 9:42 PM
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Here is a review of my new book *Freedom Ship* by Eric Foner, published yesterday in *The New York Review of Books* (@nybooks.com).

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors | Eric Foner
The web of Atlantic trading routes and solidarity among maritime workers, many of them Black, meant fugitive slaves’ chances of reaching freedom below deck were better than over land.
www.nybooks.com
October 3, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
Took about 20 years. And I never thought a book about enslavers using deputization to give themselves policing power would be relevant to our times. But we are where we are.

My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder.

a.co/d/29c7EIP
September 29, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
FBI's domestic terror watchlist expected to DOUBLE in size as a result of NSPM-7, the new presidential directive targeting "anti-Christian," "anti-capitalism" and "anti-American" speech:
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nsp...
Trump’s NSPM-7 Alarms Law Firms While Congress Is Silent
Domestic terror watchlist to double, sources say
www.kenklippenstein.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM
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Feeling hopeless about giving shape to my academic career in a country where I can potentially lose my job at any time.
September 28, 2025 at 3:34 AM
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I know it's hard to do but you have to tune out the constant & I mean constant torrent of criticisms on social media re: activism & organizing. If you don't, it can stop you from trying to do any activism or organizing. Most of the critics aren't doing any organizing themselves so keep trying things
September 21, 2025 at 11:35 PM
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Reposted by Sean Gallagher
This was such a great convo with @danieldenvir.bsky.social & @alfatau.bsky.social! Please check it out!
September 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
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The crux of civil disobedience is partly the jails can’t hold everybody, so break their capacity and make them look stupid. History echoes itself
I'm just an ordinary First Amendment lawyer but I'm pretty sure you can't transform "protesting the president" into criminal activity by recharacterizing it as "inflicting harm on the United States."
Deputy AG Blanche: RICO is available to all kinds of organizations committing crimes and committing wrongful acts… So is it sheer happenstance that individuals show up at a restaurant where the president is trying to enjoy dinner and accost him with vile words?
September 17, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by Sean Gallagher
"Multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are on lockdown after receiving threats, including Alabama State University, Virginia State University, Hampton University in Virginia, Southern University in Louisiana, and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia." abc13.com/post/multipl...
'Chilling reminder': At least 6 historically Black universities on alert amid threats
At least six historically Black colleges enacted lockdowns after receiving threats, amid heightened concerns following recent campus violence at Utah Valley University.
abc13.com
September 12, 2025 at 6:48 AM