"In Black Ecologies of Zone A, Ayasha Guerin considers the colonial foundations of New York Citys landfill development from the seventeenth- to nineteenth-century, tracing how conquest, slavery, and capitalism have physically altered coastal environments and ecological relations. Looking at various "patches" of this geography over three centuries, Guerin argues that understanding the making of this zone and the peoples and species who have both been extracted from and survived in and with its changing ecology requires us to understand the centuries of dwelling, settlement and occupation proceeding the creation of this official designation. Black Ecologies of Zone A turns to environmental and labor histories, maps, law, archeology, geology, fiction, memoir, slave notices, and theoretical work in Black and Indigenous studies to tell a longer story about the racial anthropocene responsible for Zone A as well as the knowledges and people who lived and responded to these conditions in varying and rich ways"-- Provided by publisher.