ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for paying more attention to deep urban history to understand the connection between racial capitalism and urban space. By excavating the “plantation history” of Atlanta, a city in southern USA, I develop “abolitionist ecology” to understand who decides who will have access to or be excluded from resources of the environment. This combines African-American political thought with urban political ecology (UPE) to enrich contemporary struggles for antiracist socionatural change. My motivation lies in understanding how abolitionist ideas, gained in part from experiences of hard-fought direct action, can better illustrate how race and urban nature are intertwined.
