I argue that a broad reading of the infrastructure landscape of the contemporary United States opens space to see how slavery affects our current geographies. By focusing on infrastructure—the roads, ports, rail lines, and buildings, among other examples—built by enslaved people, we can locate slavery in contemporary landscapes. By focusing on the built environment, we can also understand the centrality of slavery in making the U.S. nation-state. Perhaps most geographically significant, the modern infrastructure landscape built through enslaved labor generates existing wealth for individuals and corporations. If, for instance, the infrastructure built through slavery is still generating income, are there ways to capture that income and redistribute it to individuals or communities through reparative justice frameworks? This approach to addressing inequities within the U.S. economy can serve as a form of reparations and might help address fundamental economic inequities within the United States.

我认为，广泛阅读当代美国的基础设施景观可以打开空间，了解奴隶制如何影响我们当前的地理环境。通过关注由奴隶建造的基础设施——道路、港口、铁路线和建筑物等——我们可以在当代景观中找到奴隶制。通过关注建筑环境，我们还可以理解奴隶制在美国民族国家建设中的核心地位。也许最具地理意义的是，通过奴役劳动力建造的现代基础设施景观为个人和企业创造了现有财富。例如，如果通过奴隶制建造的基础设施仍在产生收入，有没有办法通过补偿性司法框架获取这些收入并将其重新分配给个人或社区？这种解决美国经济内部不平等的方法可以作为一种赔偿形式​​，并可能有助于解决美国内部的根本经济不平等问题。