This fascinating work, written by a professor of political science with expertise in the area of cultural contestation in places of ethnic tension, is an exciting addition to the growing literature about the history of slavery in the northern United States. I anticipated that this book would be about the conceptualization, evolution and practice in the northern states of the system of slavery, but this is not the case. Rather, and more innovatively, this work shows how sites of slavery and the slave trade in the North have, over the centuries, been places of collective forgetting as the North's claim to an abolitionist heritage erased its history of slavery. Ross traces examples of community initiatives designed to reverse this process, helping to acknowledge the existence and legacy of slavery in the North.

In the twenty-first century, in the United States awareness has increased of the significance and meaning of sites of enslavement, and this change has played out differently in the northern and southern US. The North has been slower to acknowledge that it, too, has a slave past, and only recently have this silence and erasure been challenged, both by scholars and by the black community and its allies. As late as 2014, the presence on Bryn Mawr's campus in Pennsylvania of the most northerly tobacco plantation of the eighteenth century was brought to light, while attempts to memorialize George Washington's stay in Philadelphia were criticized for clumsily forgetting the presence of his enslaved staff. American slavery's shifting locus into the southern states away from the North began in the antebellum period and has continued for almost two centuries. This silencing of black experience has important implications for many in the black community who feel that their past is rendered unimportant, and that the inequalities they still face are thus taken out of context.

For people of the African diaspora, the importance of their stories has driven community activism around important places of slavery. An example of this, and of the tensions that surround these places, was the campaign in the early 1990s concerning the lower Manhattan African burial ground. The local black community was angry that a primarily white team were involved in the excavation and redevelopment of this sacred ground, and that the integrity of burials was needlessly destroyed. But on a positive note, because of this project, slavery in New York City became much more visible, and popular participation in preserving this history was enhanced.

In chapter 1, Ross explores the unique nature of collective historical memory, showing that it is different in nature to individual memory. Engaging with the notion of a deliberate shared construction of the past, Ross argues that place has a significant part to play. He develops the notion of sacred sites to include nonreligious places, such as Pearl Harbor, that have existential importance for Americans. In chapter 2, Ross shows how enslavement in the North has been ignored. Ironically, those doing much to highlight its existence are reactionary southerners who use evidence of northern slavery to argue that “you guys did the same thing” (50). Ross highlights the problematic nature of much historical abolitionist thinking which opposed slavery but had no consideration for the enslaved and no desire to bring the freedmen equality. But Ross acknowledges that African Americans in the North also had little incentive to remember the slave past as they sought to reinvent themselves as free and full citizens. In tacit collusion with whites, the black community did not dwell on this unhappy period, replete with traumatic and painful memories.

In chapters 4 and 5, Ross explores the case study of the enslaved Africans who, in the years from 1790 to 1797, lived and worked in George Washington's house in Philadelphia. The contentious legacy of this historical site illustrates how ineffectual efforts at memorialization can bring further pain and trauma to the black community. The presence of enslaved Africans in the house encouraged local activists to campaign for their stories to be brought to the fore. This campaign developed into criticisms of the heritage project for itself having little black representation. There was controversy over the design and content of the interpretive display panels at the site, while others contended that the stories of slave quarters should not be included at all, preferring to focus on the Revolutionary War history. The final decision was made to focus on the story of slavery, but even then critics suggested that the story of their experience was portrayed as unrealistically happy. Ross argues that the site is a powerful reminder of Washington's slave-ownership, but that its layout allows the hurrying tourist to easily miss the message about enslavement.

Ross also reviews successful African American interventions in memorialization of slavery such as the Toni Morrison Society's Bench by the Road project, and an improving representation of enslavement at Monticello. But he acknowledges that realistically, in most sites, North and South, heritage professionals have “annihilated” or “trivialized” the presence of slavery (184). Part of the problem in the North is that plantations there were less likely to have distinct slave quarters. And perhaps for this reason, in the North burial grounds have become an important locus for cultural contestation. For the black community, according to Ross, these places evoke both joyous and painful responses. Different groups struggle for a stake in the built environment of their town and it is easy for archaeology to become a weapon in these struggles. Ross concludes that the dialogue is beginning to change as the number of African American voices in public life becomes greater. The social and cultural historical turns have also facilitated a revisiting of the stories of those of the African diaspora. He highlights projects such the Toni Morrison Society's Bench in the Road as evidence that, thanks to activists at the grass roots, the history of slavery is a more visible presence in the landscape of the United States. In the epilogue, he discusses the representation of slavery in the North at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. The theme appears prominently in the first-floor gallery, with, amongst other detailed accounts, the story of Rhode Island's slave-trading DeWolf family. Ross concludes that telling this story in the sacred location of the National Mall is a symbolic step in the right direction.