Coates frames enslavement as the originating system of plunder

Evidence

Then he spoke about all the ways it still impacts us today, using the concept of plunder, which enslavement was based on. He urged universities that are pursuing this study of enslavement not to limit it to enslavement. … “Enslavement is the originating system of plunder, but it birthed all sorts of systems of plunder that haunt us to this very day,” Coates said. … He went on to define plunder as “taking from somebody else to benefit another group of people. It is the act of taking and putting people into a box so you can more efficiently rob them,” he said, and this time, instead of feeling ill, I understood the reason I felt ill. Harvard was continuing to plunder Renty and Delia, and now me and Shonrael, at this very moment. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 623

Categorization

• DEFINE: Coates defines plunder as taking from one group to benefit another, and frames enslavement as the first in a chain of related systems.
• XREF: Links to the reader’s reading purpose on property law as the afterlife of slavery — plunder as the doctrinal mechanism.