Slavery, enslaved persons and abolition of slavery Books

Book SynopsisPlaces women's labour at the centre of the antebellum slave trade, focusing particularly on slave traders' ability to profit from enslaved women's domestic, reproductive, and sexual labour. Alexandra Finley shows how women's work was necessary to the functioning of the slave trade, and thus to the spread of slavery to the Lower South.

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Book SynopsisTold from the vantage point of the prisoners themselves, this book weaves together untold but devastatingly important truths from the histories of labour, civil rights, and politics in the United States as it narrates the transition from prison plantations of the past to the mass incarceration of today.

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Book SynopsisDemonstrating how crimes, convictions, and clemency functioned within a slave society that upheld the property interests of white Virginians, Tamika Nunley reveals the frequency with which owners preferred to keep the accused in bondage, which allowed them, behind the veil of paternalism, to continue to benefit from Black women's labour.Trade ReviewThe Demands of Justice, by delving into the lives of enslaved women who were accused of capital crimes, poses important questions about the nature of justice and clemency in antebellum Virginia. Anyone who is interested in the history of slavery, race, and gender in the Americas, legal history, or southern history should read this book."—Evan C. Rothera, The Civil War Monitor

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Book SynopsisSituates famous and lesser-known eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Haitian revolutionaries, pamphleteers, and political thinkers within the global history of ideas, showing how their systems of knowledge and interpretation took centre stage in the Age of Revolutions.Trade Review[A] magisterial recounting of Haiti's intellectual history . . . . The book is the latest in Daut's constellation of works on the Caribbean intellectual tradition, and Daut is herself one of the most dynamic contemporary voices on Haiti."—Laurent Dubois, Los Angeles Review of Books

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Book SynopsisAlys Eve Weinbaum investigates the continuing resonances of Atlantic slavery in the cultures and politics of human reproduction that characterize contemporary capitalism, showing how black feminist thought offers the best means through which to understand the myriad ways slavery continues to haunt the present.Trade Review"Weinbaum's book is both a contribution to a rich Black feminist theoretical archive on reproductive politics and a celebration of work by Black feminist scholars—particularly Black feminist legal scholars, including Dorothy Roberts and Anita Allen—who have long considered the intersections of surrogacy, slavery, and logics of property.… Weisenbaum's original and incisive text gives us new tools to think about reproductive freedom and reminds us that any idea of reproductive freedom requires Black feminist theoretical innovation and imagination." -- Jennifer C. Nash * Modern Language Quarterly *"Ultimately, The Afterlife of Reproductive Slavery does not disappoint. It does the job of demonstrating the complex connections between the gendered and racialised reproductive exploitation and extraction during the historical Atlantic slave trade period and today exceedingly well." -- Gina Marie Longo * Feminist Encounters *"The book offers much-needed critical perspectives on the racializing processes at the center of reproductive labor and commodification. . . . Ulitmately, Weinbaum's analysis shows the importance of thinking historically and offers insights into the ways in which gendered, racialized, and sexualized forms of oppression that have roots in slavery continue to motivate biocapitalism today." -- Daisy Deomampo * Catalyst *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Human Reproduction and the Slave Episteme 1 1. The Surrogacy/Slavery Nexus 29 2. Black Feminism as a Philosophy of History 61 3. Violent Insurgency, or "Power to the Ice Pick" 88 4. The Problem of Reproductive Freedom in Neoliberalism 111 5. A Slave Narrative for Postracial Times 147 Epilogue. The End of Men and the Black Womb of the World 177 Notes 187 Bibliography 243 Index 275

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Book SynopsisIn The Afterlife of Reproductive Slavery Alys Eve Weinbaum investigates the continuing resonances of Atlantic slavery in the cultures and politics of human reproduction that characterize contemporary biocapitalism. As a form of racial capitalism that relies on the commodification of the human reproductive body, biocapitalism is dependent upon what Weinbaum calls the slave episteme—the racial logic that drove four centuries of slave breeding in the Americas and Caribbean. Weinbaum outlines how the slave episteme shapes the practice of reproduction today, especially through use of biotechnology and surrogacy. Engaging with a broad set of texts, from Toni Morrison''s Beloved and Octavia Butler''s dystopian speculative fictionto black Marxism, histories of slavery, and legal cases involving surrogacy, Weinbaum shows how black feminist contributions from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s constitute a powerful philosophy of history—one that provides the means throughTrade Review"Weinbaum's book is both a contribution to a rich Black feminist theoretical archive on reproductive politics and a celebration of work by Black feminist scholars—particularly Black feminist legal scholars, including Dorothy Roberts and Anita Allen—who have long considered the intersections of surrogacy, slavery, and logics of property.… Weisenbaum's original and incisive text gives us new tools to think about reproductive freedom and reminds us that any idea of reproductive freedom requires Black feminist theoretical innovation and imagination." -- Jennifer C. Nash * Modern Language Quarterly *"Ultimately, The Afterlife of Reproductive Slavery does not disappoint. It does the job of demonstrating the complex connections between the gendered and racialised reproductive exploitation and extraction during the historical Atlantic slave trade period and today exceedingly well." -- Gina Marie Longo * Feminist Encounters *"The book offers much-needed critical perspectives on the racializing processes at the center of reproductive labor and commodification. . . . Ulitmately, Weinbaum's analysis shows the importance of thinking historically and offers insights into the ways in which gendered, racialized, and sexualized forms of oppression that have roots in slavery continue to motivate biocapitalism today." -- Daisy Deomampo * Catalyst *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Human Reproduction and the Slave Episteme 1 1. The Surrogacy/Slavery Nexus 29 2. Black Feminism as a Philosophy of History 61 3. Violent Insurgency, or "Power to the Ice Pick" 88 4. The Problem of Reproductive Freedom in Neoliberalism 111 5. A Slave Narrative for Postracial Times 147 Epilogue. The End of Men and the Black Womb of the World 177 Notes 187 Bibliography 243 Index 275

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Book SynopsisChoice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016Reveals the lived experience of slaves in eighteenth-century Boston Instead of relying on the traditional dichotomy of slavery and freedom, Hardesty argues we should understand slavery in Boston as part of a continuum of unfreedom. In this context, African slavery existed alongside many other forms of oppression, including Native American slavery, indentured servitude, apprenticeship, and pauper apprenticeship. In this hierarchical and inherently unfree world, enslaved Bostonians were more concerned with their everyday treatment and honor than with emancipation, as they pushed for autonomy, protected their families and communities, and demanded a place in society.Drawing on exhaustive research in colonial legal records including wills, court documents, and minutes of governmental bodies as well as newspapers, church records, and other contemporaneous sources, Hardesty masterfully reconstructs an eighteenth-century ATrade ReviewHardesty’s excursion through wills, probate, court records, newspapers, etc., is a provocative study of slavery and dependence in eighteenth-century Boston. Rather than examine black life in early America from the point of view of slavery or freedom, Hardesty advances an alternative paradigm, one that suggests that a better way to understand the institution would perhaps be to examine it as part of the larger Atlantic world where other systems of labor (i.e., Amerindian slavery, indentured servitude, and pauper apprenticeship) existed alongside racial slavery in a continuum of unfreedom or dependency. Within this broader context, he challenges traditional dichotomies about slave resistance and agency. -- African American ReviewHardesty challenges generalized images of Atlantic enslavement by uncovering actions and experiences that move beyond dichotomies such as slavery/freedom and black/white[This] work adds new dimensions to enslavement in New England, but also in the larger Atlantic world. * The Journal of Global Slavery *In this five-chapter study, Hardesty uses “an early modern, transnational lens” to recast the classic dichotomy of slavery and freedom in eighteenth-century Boston. Hardesty’ central argument is that “colonial-era slavery should be understood as a continuum of unfreedom”, suggesting that the binary of slavery and freedom is not an accurate way to describe the status of Africans in early Boston … Carving an archive out of colonial records meant to silence and suppress the black voice is not an easy task. Yet, through legal records, Hardesty is able to vividly reconstruct not only the lives of individuals but also a complicated social structure … the presentation of primary source material on the status of African Americans in Boston is commendable -- The Journal of African-American HistoryWell written and meticulously researched, this outstanding book is an important contribution to the understanding of slavery, New England history, Colonial America, and the 18thCentury Atlantic world. * Choice Connect *For too long, slaves in colonial America have been essentialized as freedom fighters. Jared Hardesty reveals in this path-breaking study that autonomy was what slaves strived for, not freedom. Instead of revolting against their bondage, Boston's slaves tried to improve their condition by joining Protestant churches, using the law, and rising in protest against workplace iniquities. Hardesty throws their lives into sharp relief by portraying them as part of a society marked by many forms of unfreedom. -- Wim Klooster,Clark UniversityIn this delightful work, Jared Hardesty places the experiences of Boston slaves within the wider Atlantic world, while also illuminating their lives within the context of eighteenth century New England. Unfreedom is the most significant contribution to slavery studies in New England since the publication of Joanne Pope Melishs seminal Disowning Slavery in 1998. -- Harvey Amani Whitfield,University of VermontJared Hardesty's Unfreedom is a seminal study of enslaved life in colonial and revolutionary Boston. While many scholars have explored this topic in great depth, Hardesty provides a new conceptual framework for understanding the lived experiences of enslaved Africans, moving beyond a focus on resistance as a means of achieving freedom. Through meticulous research, Hardesty has reconstructed the everyday lives, motivations, desires, and social worlds of those in bondage. This study is a must read for anyone interested in slavery, African American culture, and early American history. -- Christopher Cameron,University of North Carolina at CharlotteThis book offers a fresh and inventive interpretation of what much previous scholarship has dismissed as a relative lack of resistance of New England slaves to their enslavement, an argument that has in turn supported the myth of northern slavery as a 'mild' institution. Hardesty provides a rich and detailed account of the efforts of enslaved people in Boston to obtain a measure of control over their lives. Rather than trying to attack slavery as a status, or even to end their own enslavement, many slaves strove to obtain public recognition, leverage against their masters, literacy, recognition of the legitimacy of their families, and material privileges. These efforts should not be characterized as accommodation, Hardesty argues, but as a powerful kind of resistance by which slaves not only reshaped the conditions of their own existence but redefined the terms and limits of bondage. -- Joanne Pope Melish,University of Kentucky

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Book SynopsisChoice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016Reveals the lived experience of slaves in eighteenth-century Boston Instead of relying on the traditional dichotomy of slavery and freedom, Hardesty argues we should understand slavery in Boston as part of a continuum of unfreedom. In this context, African slavery existed alongside many other forms of oppression, including Native American slavery, indentured servitude, apprenticeship, and pauper apprenticeship. In this hierarchical and inherently unfree world, enslaved Bostonians were more concerned with their everyday treatment and honor than with emancipation, as they pushed for autonomy, protected their families and communities, and demanded a place in society.Drawing on exhaustive research in colonial legal records including wills, court documents, and minutes of governmental bodies as well as newspapers, church records, and other contemporaneous sources, Hardesty masterfully reconstructs an eighteenth-century ATrade ReviewHardesty’s excursion through wills, probate, court records, newspapers, etc., is a provocative study of slavery and dependence in eighteenth-century Boston. Rather than examine black life in early America from the point of view of slavery or freedom, Hardesty advances an alternative paradigm, one that suggests that a better way to understand the institution would perhaps be to examine it as part of the larger Atlantic world where other systems of labor (i.e., Amerindian slavery, indentured servitude, and pauper apprenticeship) existed alongside racial slavery in a continuum of unfreedom or dependency. Within this broader context, he challenges traditional dichotomies about slave resistance and agency. -- African American ReviewHardesty challenges generalized images of Atlantic enslavement by uncovering actions and experiences that move beyond dichotomies such as slavery/freedom and black/white[This] work adds new dimensions to enslavement in New England, but also in the larger Atlantic world. * The Journal of Global Slavery *In this five-chapter study, Hardesty uses “an early modern, transnational lens” to recast the classic dichotomy of slavery and freedom in eighteenth-century Boston. Hardesty’ central argument is that “colonial-era slavery should be understood as a continuum of unfreedom”, suggesting that the binary of slavery and freedom is not an accurate way to describe the status of Africans in early Boston … Carving an archive out of colonial records meant to silence and suppress the black voice is not an easy task. Yet, through legal records, Hardesty is able to vividly reconstruct not only the lives of individuals but also a complicated social structure … the presentation of primary source material on the status of African Americans in Boston is commendable -- The Journal of African-American HistoryWell written and meticulously researched, this outstanding book is an important contribution to the understanding of slavery, New England history, Colonial America, and the 18thCentury Atlantic world. * Choice Connect *For too long, slaves in colonial America have been essentialized as freedom fighters. Jared Hardesty reveals in this path-breaking study that autonomy was what slaves strived for, not freedom. Instead of revolting against their bondage, Boston's slaves tried to improve their condition by joining Protestant churches, using the law, and rising in protest against workplace iniquities. Hardesty throws their lives into sharp relief by portraying them as part of a society marked by many forms of unfreedom. -- Wim Klooster,Clark UniversityIn this delightful work, Jared Hardesty places the experiences of Boston slaves within the wider Atlantic world, while also illuminating their lives within the context of eighteenth century New England. Unfreedom is the most significant contribution to slavery studies in New England since the publication of Joanne Pope Melishs seminal Disowning Slavery in 1998. -- Harvey Amani Whitfield,University of VermontJared Hardesty's Unfreedom is a seminal study of enslaved life in colonial and revolutionary Boston. While many scholars have explored this topic in great depth, Hardesty provides a new conceptual framework for understanding the lived experiences of enslaved Africans, moving beyond a focus on resistance as a means of achieving freedom. Through meticulous research, Hardesty has reconstructed the everyday lives, motivations, desires, and social worlds of those in bondage. This study is a must read for anyone interested in slavery, African American culture, and early American history. -- Christopher Cameron,University of North Carolina at CharlotteThis book offers a fresh and inventive interpretation of what much previous scholarship has dismissed as a relative lack of resistance of New England slaves to their enslavement, an argument that has in turn supported the myth of northern slavery as a 'mild' institution. Hardesty provides a rich and detailed account of the efforts of enslaved people in Boston to obtain a measure of control over their lives. Rather than trying to attack slavery as a status, or even to end their own enslavement, many slaves strove to obtain public recognition, leverage against their masters, literacy, recognition of the legitimacy of their families, and material privileges. These efforts should not be characterized as accommodation, Hardesty argues, but as a powerful kind of resistance by which slaves not only reshaped the conditions of their own existence but redefined the terms and limits of bondage. -- Joanne Pope Melish,University of Kentucky

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Book SynopsisHow American symbols inspired enslaved people and their allies to fight for true freedomIn the early United States, anthems, flags, holidays, monuments, and memorials were powerful symbols of an American identity that helped unify a divided people. A language of freedom played a similar role in shaping the new nation. The Declaration of Independence's assertion that all men are created equal, Patrick Henry's cry of Give me liberty, or give me death!, and Francis Scott Key's star-spangled banner waving over the land of the free and the home of the brave, were anthemic celebrations of a newly free people. Resonating across the country, they encouraged the creation of a republic where the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was universal, natural, and inalienable.For enslaved people and their allies, the language and symbols that served as national touchstones made a mockery of freedom. Deriding the ideas that infused the republic's founding, they enTrade Review"As Clavin demonstrates in this superb, highly readable book, enslaved Americans and their abolitionist allies rejected false icons by demanding an honest, literal interpretation of patriotic symbols. In the process, these men and women crafted a discourse that justified and stirred revolutionary violence in the name of Black liberation and a more egalitarian republic. Astute and original." -- Douglas R. Egerton, Lincoln Prize–winning author of Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America"With thorough research and keen insight, Clavin offers a powerful corrective to misguided assumptions about the nature of American nationalism. In their words and deeds, in their songs and images, enslaved people and their abolitionist allies claimed the revolutionary symbols of the United States. Clavin’s action-packed account reorients antebellum history and reminds us of America’s enduring radical traditions." -- Benjamin L. Carp, author of The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution"The struggle by enslaved people and their allies against human bondage took many forms, and Symbols of Freedom shows how the opponents of slavery made the symbols and language of American nationalism vital to that fight. Inspired by an American revolutionary tradition that made even violent resistance necessary and just in the pursuit of freedom, they rejected slavery with a forcefulness rooted in ideas about the promise of the United States conjured by its flag, its holidays, and the soaring rhetoric of its founding. At a historical moment when nationalism and patriotism seem like suspect notions steeped in reactionary politics, Clavin reminds us that they hold the potential for radical change." -- Joshua D. Rothman, author of The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America"As contemporary battles over Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project show, educators, politicians, and citizens alike need new scholarly work that speaks to the complex relationship between race and nation-building in early American history. This will surely be an insightful and impactful book on the racialized making and meaning of American nationalism." -- Angela F. Murphy, author of The Jerry Rescue: The Fugitive Slave Law, Northern Rights, and the American Sectional Crisis"An accessible and engaging discussion of how nationalist symbols were used by enslaved people and antislavery activists to expand the struggle for racial justice. Symbols of Freedom is a highly valuable contribution to the current discussions of patriotism and historical artifacts, and the way in which a nation chooses to tell its own complex story. This is an essential read." -- Richard Newman, author of Abolitionism: A Very Short Introduction"Clavin argues persuasively that the nation’s iconic national symbols and images fueled and shaped slave and anti-slavery resistance before the Civil War. A deeply researched, generously illustrated perspective on antebellum America." * Kirkus Reviews *"In an era where many people in the U.S are protesting racism, this book is important reading for audiences of all levels to gain an understanding of past symbols of freedom and resistance and a way of looking forward." * Library Journal (starred) *

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Book SynopsisAsks how we can better understand a politics of refusalWriting a new story of Black politics, Jump emerges from the practice of enslaved Africans jumping overboard off their slavers' ships. Reading against the narrative that depoliticizes and denigrates the leaps of the enslaved as merely suicidal symptoms of chattel slavery and the Middle Passage, Sam C. Tenorio demonstrates how bringing these jumps to bear on the foundations of Black politics allows us to rethink a politics of refusal.In a period of increasing political mobilization against police brutality and mass incarceration, Jump attends to the layers of confinement that constitute the racial and gendered hierarchies of the antiblack world. Centering radical acts too often relegated to the periphery of Black politics, Tenorio proposes a Black anarchist politics of refusal that helps us to think dissent anew.Tracing iterations of the jump through the carceral wake of the slave ship, Teno

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2021 René Wellek Prize, given by the American Comparative Literature AssociationWinner, 2021 Barbara Perkins and George Perkins Award, given by the International Society for the Study of NarrativeHonorable Mention, 2020 James Russell Lowell Prize, given by the Modern Language AssociationArgues that the slave narrative is a new world literary genre In Runaway Genres, Yogita Goyal tracks the emergence of slavery as the defining template through which current forms of human rights abuses are understood. The post-black satire of Paul Beatty and Mat Johnson, modern slave narratives from Sudan to Sierra Leone, and the new Afropolitan diaspora of writers like Teju Cole and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie all are woven into Goyal's argument for the slave narrative as a new world literary genre, exploring the full complexity of this new ethical globalism. From the humanitarian spectacles of Kony 2012 and #BringBackOurGirls through gothic literature, Runaway Genres unravels, for instance, how aTrade ReviewA richly textured and startlingly original meditation on the meaning and uses of contemporary ‘neo-slave narratives.’ Displaying an impressive analytical sophistication and historical depth, Yogita Goyal reveals how these new narratives open a window onto a range of contemporary global developments, from human trafficking to illegal immigration, child soldiering to forced marriage, debt bondage to domestic servitude. Essential and timely, Runaway Genres cements Yogita Goyal’s position as one of the most gifted intellectuals of her generation. -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American OriginalIn Runaway Genres, Yogita Goyal brings a totally new perspective to the study of slavery and race and their effects on the global imagination. Combining a mastery of the archive of slavery with careful arguments and nuanced theoretical claims, this book is bound to transform the way we think about American literature, endowing it with a fresh transnationalism. -- Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor of English, Princeton UniversityA persuasive argument not only for slave narratives’ enduring relevance but for their particular urgency in our historical moment. … In this essential contribution to the field, Goyal lays bare the recursive pain of U.S. slavery, the challenges of writing and reading its ‘unspeakable’ horrors, and what is at stake when we analogize slave narratives with contemporary crises across the globe. * Black Perspectives *Argues that analogies to slavery do not adequately explain modern-day abuses ... Goyal provides examples of recent African and African American novelists who have exploded this sentimental framework. In place of inevitable freedom, they offer more complicated and unsettling endings. * Choice *Any library that considers itself a research library should procure a copy of this impressive study, which makes a significant contribution to the fields of American, African, African American, and comparative literary studies. * Papers on Language and Literature *Runaway Genres, compendious, astute, and relentlessly skeptical, is an agenda-setting book for a new mode of comparative literacy and a more politically attuned conception of the global novel. -- Rita Barnard, University of Pennsylvania * Cultural Critique *

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Book SynopsisRewrites the history of slave resistance by placing it for the first time in the context of military and diplomatic wrangling between Britain and the United States.Trade Review"Highly recommended." -- J.R. Wendland * CHOICE *""Now that the old feudal order is experiencing a resurgence with the assistance of wealth, a corporate media and official historians, Gerald Horne, one of our most original historians, reminds us of the alliance of Africans, Europeans and Native Americans that fought against its antecedent anachronism. In this brilliant, stunning book, Horne shows us how the issue of slavery still intrudes upon our national discussions." -- Ishmael Reed,John D. MacArthur Fellow"Gerald Horne's book is a tribute to the international struggle of Africans for human dignity. It also reveals the unstated fears and unearths the historical justification in the souls of white folksrecognizing the institutional silence that this book aims to pierce." * Black Agenda Report *"Gerald Hornes Negro Comrades of the Crown is a major addition to this scholarship, principally because of its authors vast erudition. Horne is a remarkable researcher and goes deeper than anyone before into the minutiae of AngloAmerican diplomatic relations on this vexed topic." * Journal of the Early Republic *"Although not the easiest read, Horne's book is a valuable contribution on a subject of profound interest and significance." * Journal of American History *"Hornes work provides readers with a new framework to imagine diplomatic relationships between world powers in the nineteenth century, something especially important as historians begin to blend racial, cultural, and social history with diplomatic history in an effort to globalize American history... Hornes meticulously researched monograph will provoke thought and discussion on the relationship between the peculiar institution and diplomacy in this important and growing field of study." * H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 Rebellious Africans: How Caribbean Slavery Came to the Mainland 2 Free Trade in Africans? Did the Glorious Revolution Unleash the Slave Trade? 3 Revolt! Africans Conspire with the French and Spanish 4 Building a "White" Pro-Slavery Wall: The Construction of Georgia 5 The Stono Uprising: Will the Africans Become Masters and the Europeans Slaves? 6 Arson, Murders, Poisonings, Shipboard Insurrections: The Fruits of the Accelerating Slave Trade 7 The Biggest Losers: Africans and the Seven Years' War 8 From Havana to Newport, Slavery Transformed: Settlers Rebel against London 9 Abolition in London: Somerset's Case and the North American Aftermath 10 The Counter-Revolution of 1776 Notes IndexAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisThis biographical dictionary recovers the stories and illuminates the lives of enslaved Black people in the Maritimes.Trade Review"Whitfield’s work, the result of a deep immersion in the existing record, confronts and transcends the limitations of its disparate sources, using individual entries to collect and interpret biographical information about the lives of 1,465 people enslaved in the Maritimes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries." -- Nina Reid-Maroney, Huron University College * H-Net Reviews *“The Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes has opened the door for scholars to answer the many questions Whitfield has helped illuminate. Thus, Whitfield’s crowning achievement lies not only in capturing the lives and experiences of otherwise marginalized people, especially in New Brunswick, but also in providing an entry point for generations of scholars seeking to further our understanding of slavery and the individuals who were ensnared by it.” -- G. Patrick O’Brien, University of Tampa * Journal of NB Studies *“Biographical Dictionary is a beautiful, sad, and poignant telling of the lives of those enslaved, created from a wide variety of sources … A treasure chest for anthropologists, sociologists, and historians who can process the raw data, this book is sure to provide work for years to come in these fields.” -- Rod Clare, Elon University * American Review of Canadian Studies *Table of ContentsForeword by Donald Wright Historical Overview: Black Slavery in the Maritimes Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes

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Book Synopsis 2022 WHA W. Turrentine Jackson Award for best first book on the history of the American West 2022 WHA David J. Weber Prize for the best book on Southwestern History In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Texas—a hotly contested land where states wielded little to no real power—local alliances and controversies, face-to-face relationships, and kin ties structured personal dynamics and cross-communal concerns alike. Country of the Cursed and the Driven brings readers into this world through a sweeping analysis of Hispanic, Comanche, and Anglo-American slaving regimes, illuminating how slaving violence, in its capacity to bolster and shatter families and entire communities, became both the foundation and the scourge, the panacea and the curse, of life in the borderlands. As scholars have begun to assert more forcefully over the past two decades, slavery was much more diverse and widespread in North America than previously recognized, eTrade Review“Paul Barba’s new book engages [conversations about the history of slavery and violence in Texas with] deep research, analytical precision, and an impassioned argument. . . . Unflinching.”—Paul Conrad, Journal of Southern History"Country of the Cursed and the Driven is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the subject and a must-read for everyone interested in the history of the US borderlands."—Jorge E. Delgadillo Núñez, H-LatAm"A thought-provoking book."—Alice Baumgartner, Hispanic American Historical Review"Barba makes a forceful argument that challenges existing scholarship to not excuse kinship slavery as less inhumane than chattel slavery nor to divide them into different histories."—Noelle Buffo, Chronicles of Oklahoma“Deeply researched and covering a vast chronology, Country of the Cursed and the Driven offers a powerful new interpretation of Texas history through a narrative centered on the enslavement of both Natives and peoples of African descent.”—Karl Jacoby, author of Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History“Texas history is too often broken into Spanish, Comanche, Mexican, and Anglo eras. Paul Barba demonstrates that the trauma of slavery sewed all of these ragged pieces together like a suture. A dark, deep, compelling book.”—Brian DeLay, author of War of a Thousand Deserts“This is a detailed, unrelenting history of how violence, especially slaving and slaveholding violence, shaped Texas. Paul Barba’s work provides excellent environmental and geopolitical contexts, especially in explaining the dynamics of Native intergroup relations within Texas and on the periphery.”—Alan Gallay, author of The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670–1717“By focusing on the overlapping slaving practices of Anglo Americans, Comanches, and Hispanic society from the colonial to national periods, Country of the Cursed and the Driven provides a new lens for viewing the transformation of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. . . . It effectively brings together ethnic history through a borderlands framework while providing a comprehensive history of Texas.”—Todd W. Wahlstrom, author of The Southern Exodus to Mexico: Migration across the Borderlands after the American Civil War“[In addition to] meticulous research, Barba shows that all too often historians separate Anglo, Hispanic, and Comanche histories when, in fact, the only way to truly understand any of these borderlands cultures is through their interconnectedness. His specificity regarding semantics is quite helpful, as is his knack for making readers think outside the box.”—Whitney Snow, Kansas HistoryTable of ContentsList of Maps and TablesAcknowledgments Introduction. "Cursed and Driven, Traded, as Slaves . . . O, What a Country"Part I: Slave Raiders and Their Cycles of Violence, 1500s–1760s 1. "Obliged to Punish and Conquer These Indians": Slavery and the Hispanic Path to Colonization in Texas, pre-1717 2. "Blinded by the Craving for Slaves": Slavery and the Quest for Spanish Dominion in Native Country, 1718–1760 3. "Reduced to Peace . . . by the Attacks of the Comanches": Slavery and the Comanche Emergence in the Texas Borderlands, 1706–1767Part II: Strange and Violent Bedfellows, 1760s–1836 4. "Companions on Campaign": The Spanish-Comanche Battle for Texas, 1760s–1820 5. "Honest People . . . from Hell Itself:" Anglo-American Colonization and the Rise of Chattel Slavery in Texas, 1800–1836Part III: Violent Confluences in the Age of Anglo-Slaving Supremacy, 1836-1860 6. "De Overseer Shakes a Blacksnake Whip over Me": Consolidating an Anti-Black Colonial Regime, 1836–1860 7. "They Should Have Been Entirely Destroyed": Comanche Raiding, Slaving, and Trading in the Age of Anglo Colonial Ascendance, 1836–1860 Epilogue. "A Malady without Cure"BibliographyNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Captives: How Stolen People Changed the World archaeologist Catherine M. Cameron provides an eye-opening comparative study of the profound impact that captives of warfare and raiding have had on small- scale societies through time. Cameron provides a new point of orientation for archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and other scholars by illuminating the impact that captive-taking and enslavement have had on cultural change, with important implications for understanding the past. Focusing primarily on indigenous societies in the Americas while extending the comparative reach to include Europe, Africa, and Island Southeast Asia, Cameron draws on ethnographic, ethnohistoric, historic, and archaeological data to examine the roles that captives played in small-scale societies. In such societies, captives represented an almost universal social category consisting predominantly of women and children and constituting 10 to 50 percent of the population in Trade Review“In this ambitious and learned work, award-winning archaeologist Catherine Cameron explores how violence against the few may transform the cultures of the many.”—James Brooks, author of Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands “[Captives] could have a significant impact on archaeological studies.”—Eric E. Bowne, Journal of Anthropological Research "Cameron accomplishes exactly what she set out to do: opening up a new space for investigation and laying out an agenda for further research. . . . She makes it clear that Captives is intended not to be the final word but, rather, the opening salvo. Archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and ethnohistorians should heed her call."—Matthew Kruer, Ethnohistory"This is a well-written text. . . . Equally accessible to advanced undergraduate students and researchers, with a wide range of studies and well-structured approach to captives as social beings that are organized in a coherent manner throughout. It should be the starting point for anyone seeking to understand the various facets of captive-taking and the lives of captives in small-scale societies."—Liza Gijanto, Historical Archaeology"[Captives] is useful for scholars in many fields interested in the topic, for classroom use, and the public. It is a significant contribution to the topic of captives and slaves, which remains urgent as we struggle with our own national legacy of slavery, as well human trafficking across the world and down the street."—Kenneth M. Ames, Oregon Historical Quarterly“This moving book helps us understand: What was it like to be a slave? A slave-owner? How does slavery affect society? It demonstrates that archaeology—the social science of the past—can ask big questions about the human experience.”—Michelle Hegmon, professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and editor of The Archaeology of the Human Experience“Captives challenges archaeologists to broaden their scope of inquiry to recognize the temporal depth, geographical breadth, and nearly universal presence of captives in small-scale societies of the past. Catherine Cameron’s comparative approach to captives lays the groundwork, methodologically and theoretically, for understanding the lives of captives, their social locations, and their significance as agents of change in societies of all scales throughout human prehistory and, indeed, into the present.”—Brenda J. Bowser, associate professor of anthropology at California State University–Fullerton, coeditor of Cultural Transmission and Material Culture: Breaking Down Boundaries "Captives: How Stolen People Changed the World challenges archaeologists to consider captive-taking, an ancient and almost universal practice in human history, as a significant mode of cultural transmission and a source of culture change. . . . Here Cameron provides a framework that enables archaeologists to investigate the nature and scale of the roles that captives have played in small-scale societies."—David H. Dye, American Antiquity"Captives is foremost an invitation to begin to see the past in a new way—to make visible individuals who have long been made invisible in archaeological interpretations but have nonetheless been there all along."cLydia Wilson Marshall, KIVA: Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History"This book will be an eye-opener for archaeology."—European Journal of ArchaeologyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. The Captive in Space, Time, and Mind 2. Captive Taking in Global Perspective 3. The Captive as Social Person 4. Captives and the Creation of Power 5. Captives, Social Boundaries, and Ethnogenesis 6. Captives and Cultural Transmission 7. Captives in Prehistory Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisA Frail Liberty traces the paradoxical actions of the first French abolitionist society, the Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of Blacks), at the juncture of two unprecedented achievements of the revolutionary era: the extension of full rights of citizenship to qualifying free men of color in 1792 and the emancipation decree of 1794 that simultaneously declared the formerly enslaved to be citizens of France. This society helped form the revolution’s notion of color-blind equality yet did not protest the pro-slavery attack on the new citizens of France. Tessie P. Liu prioritizes the understanding of the elite insiders’ vision of equality as crucial to understanding this dualism. By documenting the link between outright exclusion and political inclusion and emphasizing that a nation’s perceived qualifications for citizenship formulate a particular conception of racial equality, Liu argues that the treatment and status diTrade Review"In this provocative study, Tessie P. Liu raises important and uncomfortable questions about the nexus of race and citizenship during the French and Haitian Revolutions."—Lauren R. Clay, H-France Review"Richly documented and thoroughly researched, this volume will bring together seasoned scholars and students of French colonial history and postcolonial studies, as well as historians of the Atlantic world."—Hélène B. Ducros, EuropeNow“This work is important for several reasons: It further complicates our understanding of republican citizenship in revolutionary France by focusing on colonialism, race, and merit. Second, in citing Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Tessie P. Liu highlights the role of the colonies in shaping metropolitan discourse. Third, she elevates the importance of the passive citizen to examine universality and merit. Liu also highlights the role that Amis des Noirs played in framing political debates, even if they were not often successful in their pursuits. Their credit is much deserved and well overdue.”—Erica Johnson Edwards, author of Philanthropy and Race in the Haitian Revolution“Tessie P. Liu brings new insights to two major events in French and world history, the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, and uses these histories to explore broader questions of democracy, political representation, and race. Moreover, Liu uses colonial history to illustrate and ultimately reshape how we see the history of metropolitan France. This is an outstanding work of scholarship: original, thought provoking, thoroughly researched, and well argued.”—Tyler Stovall, coeditor of The Black Populations of France: Histories from Metropole to ColonyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Alchemy of Merit 1. Sympathy Ink: Staging Humanity in a Revolutionary Empire 2. An Ebullient Summer: The Amis des Noirs Organize to Fight the Slave Trade 3. Children of a Common Father: Free People of Color as Objects of Sympathy 4. Who Belongs as Citizens? The Antinomies of Rights and Freedom 5. Facing Insurrection: Free Colored Rights or Emancipation 6. “What Kind of Free Is This?” Probationary Citizens and the Dilemmas of General Liberty 7. Can the Old Colonies Be Saved? “Disfigured Slaves” and the New Abolitionism 8. The Hermeneutics of Freedom and Violence: Justifying Slavery after Emancipation Conclusion: The Allure and Tragedy of Meritorious Belonging Epilogue: Forgotten Promises of Representative Democracy Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis 2022 WHA W. Turrentine Jackson Award for best first book on the history of the American West 2022 WHA David J. Weber Prize for the best book on Southwestern History In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Texas—a hotly contested land where states wielded little to no real power—local alliances and controversies, face-to-face relationships, and kin ties structured personal dynamics and cross-communal concerns alike. Country of the Cursed and the Driven brings readers into this world through a sweeping analysis of Hispanic, Comanche, and Anglo-American slaving regimes, illuminating how slaving violence, in its capacity to bolster and shatter families and entire communities, became both the foundation and the scourge, the panacea and the curse, of life in the borderlands. As scholars have begun to assert more forcefully over the past two decades, slavery was much more diverse and widespread in North America than previously recognized, eTrade Review“Paul Barba’s new book engages [conversations about the history of slavery and violence in Texas with] deep research, analytical precision, and an impassioned argument. . . . Unflinching.”—Paul Conrad, Journal of Southern History"Country of the Cursed and the Driven is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the subject and a must-read for everyone interested in the history of the US borderlands."—Jorge E. Delgadillo Núñez, H-LatAm"A thought-provoking book."—Alice Baumgartner, Hispanic American Historical Review"Barba makes a forceful argument that challenges existing scholarship to not excuse kinship slavery as less inhumane than chattel slavery nor to divide them into different histories."—Noelle Buffo, Chronicles of Oklahoma“Deeply researched and covering a vast chronology, Country of the Cursed and the Driven offers a powerful new interpretation of Texas history through a narrative centered on the enslavement of both Natives and peoples of African descent.”—Karl Jacoby, author of Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History“Texas history is too often broken into Spanish, Comanche, Mexican, and Anglo eras. Paul Barba demonstrates that the trauma of slavery sewed all of these ragged pieces together like a suture. A dark, deep, compelling book.”—Brian DeLay, author of War of a Thousand Deserts“This is a detailed, unrelenting history of how violence, especially slaving and slaveholding violence, shaped Texas. Paul Barba’s work provides excellent environmental and geopolitical contexts, especially in explaining the dynamics of Native intergroup relations within Texas and on the periphery.”—Alan Gallay, author of The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670–1717“By focusing on the overlapping slaving practices of Anglo Americans, Comanches, and Hispanic society from the colonial to national periods, Country of the Cursed and the Driven provides a new lens for viewing the transformation of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. . . . It effectively brings together ethnic history through a borderlands framework while providing a comprehensive history of Texas.”—Todd W. Wahlstrom, author of The Southern Exodus to Mexico: Migration across the Borderlands after the American Civil War“[In addition to] meticulous research, Barba shows that all too often historians separate Anglo, Hispanic, and Comanche histories when, in fact, the only way to truly understand any of these borderlands cultures is through their interconnectedness. His specificity regarding semantics is quite helpful, as is his knack for making readers think outside the box.”—Whitney Snow, Kansas HistoryTable of ContentsList of Maps and TablesAcknowledgments Introduction. "Cursed and Driven, Traded, as Slaves . . . O, What a Country"Part I: Slave Raiders and Their Cycles of Violence, 1500s–1760s 1. "Obliged to Punish and Conquer These Indians": Slavery and the Hispanic Path to Colonization in Texas, pre-1717 2. "Blinded by the Craving for Slaves": Slavery and the Quest for Spanish Dominion in Native Country, 1718–1760 3. "Reduced to Peace . . . by the Attacks of the Comanches": Slavery and the Comanche Emergence in the Texas Borderlands, 1706–1767Part II: Strange and Violent Bedfellows, 1760s–1836 4. "Companions on Campaign": The Spanish-Comanche Battle for Texas, 1760s–1820 5. "Honest People . . . from Hell Itself:" Anglo-American Colonization and the Rise of Chattel Slavery in Texas, 1800–1836Part III: Violent Confluences in the Age of Anglo-Slaving Supremacy, 1836-1860 6. "De Overseer Shakes a Blacksnake Whip over Me": Consolidating an Anti-Black Colonial Regime, 1836–1860 7. "They Should Have Been Entirely Destroyed": Comanche Raiding, Slaving, and Trading in the Age of Anglo Colonial Ascendance, 1836–1860 Epilogue. "A Malady without Cure"BibliographyNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Pinkster King and the King of Kongo presents the history of the nation's forgotten Dutch slave community and free Dutch-speaking African Americans from seventeenth-century New Amsterdam to nineteenth-century New York and New Jersey. It also develops a provocative new interpretation of one of America's most intriguing black folkloric traditions, Pinkster. Jeroen Dewulf rejects the usual interpretation of this celebration of a 'slave king' as a form of carnival. Instead, he shows that it is a ritual rooted in mutual-aid and slave brotherhood traditions. By placing these traditions in an Atlantic context, Dewulf identifies striking parallels to royal election rituals in slave communities elsewhere in the Americas, and he traces these rituals to the ancient Kingdom of Kongo and the impact of Portuguese culture in West-Central Africa.Dewulf's focus on the social capital of slaves follows the mutual aid to seventeenth-century Manhattan. He suggests a much stronger i

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Book SynopsisAnalyses whether the roles for adolescent female characters of colour are changing or whether they remain re-creations of traditional slave narrative roles. Further, the chapters explore if trauma, healing, and activism are enacted in this genre.

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Book SynopsisIn the midst of calls for the removal of Confederate monuments across the South, tens of thousands of museums, buildings, and other historical sites currently comprise a tourist infrastructure of the southern heritage industry. Louisiana, one of the most prominent and frequently visited states that benefit from this tourism, has more than sixty heritage sites housed in former slave plantations. These sites contain the remains, restorations, reconstructions, and replicas of antebellum slave cabins and slave quarters. In the Shadows of the Big House: Twenty-First-Century Antebellum Slave Cabins and Heritage Tourism in Louisiana is the first book to tackle the role, treatment, and representation of slave cabins at plantation museum sites in contemporary heritage tourism. In this volume, author Stephen Small describes and analyzes sixteen twenty-first-century antebellum slave cabins currently located on three plantation museum sites in Natchitoches, Louisiana: Oakland Plantation

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Book SynopsisIn the midst of calls for the removal of Confederate monuments across the South, tens of thousands of museums, buildings, and other historical sites currently comprise a tourist infrastructure of the southern heritage industry. Louisiana, one of the most prominent and frequently visited states that benefit from this tourism, has more than sixty heritage sites housed in former slave plantations. These sites contain the remains, restorations, reconstructions, and replicas of antebellum slave cabins and slave quarters. In the Shadows of the Big House: Twenty-First-Century Antebellum Slave Cabins and Heritage Tourism in Louisiana is the first book to tackle the role, treatment, and representation of slave cabins at plantation museum sites in contemporary heritage tourism. In this volume, author Stephen Small describes and analyzes sixteen twenty-first-century antebellum slave cabins currently located on three plantation museum sites in Natchitoches, Louisiana: Oakland Plantation

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Book SynopsisThe first collection to address the myriad legacies of African chattel slavery in the writings and personal history of one of the twentieth century’s most incisive authors on US slavery and the long ordeal of race in the Americas.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship from the New York Academy of History.In Liberty''s Chain, David N. Gellman shows how the Jay family, abolitionists and slaveholders alike, embodied the contradictions of the revolutionary age. The Jays of New York were a preeminent founding family. John Jay, diplomat, Supreme Court justice, and coauthor of the Federalist Papers, and his children and grandchildren helped chart the course of the Early American Republic. Liberty''s Chain forges a new path for thinking about slavery and the nation''s founding. John Jay served as the inaugural president of a pioneering antislavery society. His descendants, especially his son William Jay and his grandson John Jay II, embraced radical abolitionism in the nineteenth century, the cause most likely to rend the nation. The scorn of their elite peersand racist mobsdid not deter their commitment to end southern slavery and tTrade ReviewScrupulously documented and lucidly written, this is an eye-opening look at the complex legacy of slavery in America. * Publishers Weekly *David Gellman's Liberty's Chain is an elegantly written study of slavery across several generations of the Jay family of New York, which offers an important intervention into several literatures on race and slavery in U.S. history * Journal of the Early Republic *Gellman is a crisp writer who directs both his central characters and his large supporting cast with clarity and economy without sacrificing intellectual heft or moral complexity. * The Wall Street Journal *David N. Gellman Liberty's Chain is an elegantly written study of slavery across several generations of the Jay family of New York, which offers an important intervention into several literatures on race and slavery in U.S. history. * Journal of the Early Republic *Gellman's account kept this reviewer—admittedly not always an enthusiastic reader of studies about white founders—engrossed to the very last page. * William & Mary Quarterly *Table of ContentsPrologue: Founding Part One: Slavery and Revolution 1. Disruptions 2. Rising Stars 3. Negotiations 4. Nation-Building 5. Mastering Paradox 6. Sharing the Flame Part Two: Abolitionism 7. Joining Forces 8. A Conservative on the Inside 9. Breaking Ranks 10. The Condition of Free People of Color 11. Soul and Nation Part Three: Emancipation 12. Uncompromised 13. Parting Shots 14. Civil Wars 15. Reconstructed Epilogue: Reckoning

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Book SynopsisHow can the simple choice of a men's suit be a moral statement and a political act? When the suit is made of free-labor wool rather than slave-grown cotton. In Moral Commerce, Julie L. Holcomb traces the genealogy of the boycott of slave labor from its seventeenth-century Quaker origins through its late nineteenth-century decline. In their failures and in their successes, in their resilience and their persistence, antislavery consumers help us understand the possibilities and the limitations of moral commerce. Quaker antislavery rhetoric began with protests against the slave trade before expanding to include boycotts of the use and products of slave labor. For more than one hundred years, British and American abolitionists highlighted consumers' complicity in sustaining slavery. The boycott of slave labor was the first consumer movement to transcend the boundaries of nation, gender, and race in an effort by reformers to change the conditions of production. The movementTrade ReviewMoral Commerce will appeal to a broad range of readers, from students in upper division undergraduate college courses to graduate students to informed readers in general. This account should certainly be read by every scholar of both American and British antislavery, black nationalism, African recolonization, and social reform movements. * H-Pennsylvania *In this important, scholarly and highly detailed new book, Julie L. Holcomb carefully examines how the Free Produce Movement took shape: its history, scope and remit, successes, failures, key players and complex organisation.... The combination of broader brushstrokes and fine detail, drawn from a wealth of primary sources, will provide fascinating reading for both specialist and non-specialist readerships. * Quaker Studies *The most carefully contextualized, thorough history of the "free-produce" movement, which boycotted goods made by slave labor and pushed to market free-labor-made products, persuasively argues for the historical importance of the free-produce minority within the minority of abolitionists. * Journal of American History *In this important, scholarly, and highly detailed new book, Julie L. Holcomb examines the successes and failures of the free produce movement.... Contributes considerably to our understanding of the ideologies, mechanisms, and impacts of free produce.... Richest in its meticulous exploration of free produce within American culture. * Winterthur Portfolio *A fascinating account that brings new sources and perspectives to bear on Quaker abolitionist activism.... Persuasively situates the history of abolitionist boycotts within the dynamic context of Quaker criticisms of transatlantic consumer culture and moral repugnance in the face of slavery's brutality. * American Historical Review *Holcomb demonstrates how the movement forced otherwise neutral parties to take a side in the debate, ensuring the discussion around free-labor goods remained relevant to the antislavery plight. Her study is a significant addition to the historiography of the free-labor movement, and her excellent work is a must-read for anyone interested in the study of the antislavery movement and Quakerism. * Reading Religion *Moral Commerce: Quakers and the Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy meticulously chronicles the transformation of mid-seventeenth-century Biblically-based Quaker opposition to consuming commodities produced from slave labor to an international movement equally grounded in spiritual and secular concerns. * The North Carolina Historical Review *Moral Commerce touches on labor, political, social, and cultural history in eight wide-ranging chapters of less than 300 pages. Holcomb provides readers with an engaging and concise narrative that, among other things, examines a key question that the book sets out to answer; that is, to what extent was the boycott a Quaker movement? * The Journal of African American History *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Principle Both Moral and Commercial 1. Prize Goods: The Quaker Origins of the Slave-Labor Boycott 2. Blood-Stained Sugar: The Eighteenth-Century British Abstention Campaign 3. Striking at the Root of Corruption: American Quakers and the Boycott in the Early National Period 4. I Am a Man, Your Brother: Elizabeth Heyrick, Abstention, and Immediatism 5. Woman's Heart: Free Produce and Domesticity 6. An Abstinence Baptism: American Abolitionism and Free Produce 7. Yards of Cotton Cloth and Pounds of Sugar: The Transatlantic Free-Produce Movement 8. Bailing the Atlantic with a Spoon: Free Produce in the 1840s and 1850s Conclusion: There Is Death in the Pot!

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2022 Phillis Wheatley Book Award, Historical-Academic NonfictionIn Chained to History, Steven J. Brady centers slavery in America''s preCivil War foreign relations. From the aftermath of the American Revolution, Brady examines how slavery influenced military, economic, and moral diplomatic challenges. He demonstrates how slavery intertwined with America''s foreign policy, affecting trade, extradition treaties, and military alliances.Brady highlights the constraints on American policymakers, who, despite an international shift toward abolition, were limited by the proslavery interests of the Democratic Party. As global powers abolished slavery, the American stance became increasingly untenable.From the Age of Revolutions through the Civil War, slavery consistently shaped US relations with the Atlantic World and beyond. Chained to History explores this crucial issue comprehensively, revealing how the practice of humTrade ReviewWritten with objectivity and precision, Chained to History makes an important contribution by depicting how the distinct worldview of enslavers twisted US foreign policy in troubling ways. * The Foreign Service Journal *This international history illustrates the multidirectional thrusts of slavery in US diplomacy. * Choice *Chained to Slavery traces the influence of slavery on American foreign policy through a series of critical events in US history. With clear use of evidence and strong organization, Stephen J. Brady compellingly demonstrates that slavery and international relations were inextricably connected throughout the first century of US history. * The Journal of Southern History *With Chained to History, Stephen Brady makes a signal contribution to nineteenth-century history: producing a comprehensive, well-written, and authoritative one-volume account of the impact of Black slavery on early US statecraft. * Civil War Book Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Speaking of Slavery 1. "Things Odious or Immoral": Britain, Spanish Florida, and Slaves Unfettered 2. "'Tis Ill to Fear": American Responses to the Haitian Revolution 3. "Separate from Foreign Alliances": Limiting Connections and Commitments 4. "Fully Meets Its Responsibility": The Limits of American Unilateralism 5. "Only Cowards Fear and Oppose It": Texas and Cuba 6. "Its Peculiar Moral Force": Lincoln, Emancipation, and Colonization Epilogue: American Foreign Relations Unchained

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Book SynopsisJewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World represents the first collective attempt to reframe the study of colonial and early American Jewry within the context of Atlantic History. From roughly 1500 to 1830, the Atlantic World was a tightly intertwined swathe of global powers that included Europe, Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean. How, when, and where do Jews figure in this important chapter of history? This book explores these questions and many others. The essays of this volume foreground the connectivity between Jews and other population groups in the realms of empire, trade, and slavery, taking readers from the shores of Caribbean islands to various outposts of the Dutch, English, Spanish, and Portuguese empires.Jewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World revolutionizes the study of Jews in early American history, forging connections and breaking down artificial academic divisions so as to start writing the history of an

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Book SynopsisFor centuries, slaveholding was a commonplace in Brazil among both whites and people of color. Abolition was only achieved in 1888, in an unprecedented, turbulent political process. How was the Abolitionist movement (1879-1888) able to bring an end to a form of labor that was traditionally perceived as both indispensable and entirely legitimate? How were the slaveholders who dominated Brazil's constitutional monarchy compelled to agree to it? To answer these questions, we must understand the elite political world that abolitionism challenged and changed—and how the Abolitionist movement evolved in turn. The Sacred Cause analyzes the relations between the movement, its Afro-Brazilian following, and the evolving response of the parliamentary regime in Rio de Janeiro. Jeffrey Needell highlights the significance of racial identity and solidarity to the Abolitionist movement, showing how Afro-Brazilian leadership, organization, and popular mobilization were critical to the movement's identity, nature, and impact.Trade Review"This is the first comprehensive history of Brazilian abolitionism that underscores Afro-Brazilians' central role in achieving emancipation. Based on an impressive array of archival sources and new information, Needell's book explains in detail why Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery in the Americas and how, unlike in the United States, emancipation did not provoke a Civil War."—Ana Lucia Araujo, Howard University"Needell offers a compelling reappraisal of the political drama surrounding the abolition of slavery in Brazil, placing the dance between formal institutions and popular mobilization at the story's center.This comprehensive analysis of Afro-Brazilians' critical role in the eventual victory of abolitionism, capping decades of painstaking archival work, should become the new standard for the field."—Zephyr Frank, Stanford UniversityThis excellent study supplies a fresh and timely account of events that still challenge us."—Robin Blackburn, Hispanic American Historical Review"Beyond offering vital information about what happened, this work is valuable for its analysis, which links a traditional narrative of high politics in the late Empire of Brazil with an examination of how popular forces, particularly Afro-Brazilian political mobilization, factored into the history....Highly recommended."—J. M. Rosenthal, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Another Political World 1. The Land of the Dead: The Imperial Capital, 1822-1871 2. The Alliance with the Future: The Movement Emerges, 1872<->1881 3. Retreat, Renewal, and the "New Phase," 1882-1883 4. The Field of Agramante: The Liberals Attempt Reform, 1884-1885 5. The Fate of the Black Race: Radicalization and Its Containment, 1885-1888 6. Sacred Abolition: The Triumph, 1888 7. Legacies and Oblivion

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Book SynopsisDuring the age of empire, European and American colonists perpetrated one of history’s most monstrous crimes: slavery. Millions of Africans were subjected to forced abduction, misery and death as part of the brutal Atlantic slave trade. However, since the perpetrators are long dead, should current generations make reparation for this historic injustice? In this book, Janna Thompson uses three case studies – France’s treatment of Haiti, Britain’s role in the African slave trade, and the plight of African Americans ‒ to address these questions. She makes a nuanced case for the necessity of reparations, but argues that the exact form they take should vary from case to case, depending on factors both principled and practical. This engaging book is a highly readable introduction to the issues for students and general readers grappling with the complexities of reparative justice and our responsibility for the darkest aspects of our past.Trade Review‘This excellent book does a highly impressive job of making an important and substantive contribution to the literature on historic injustice.’Daniel Butt, University of Oxford‘Janna Thompson makes a persuasive argument for reparations for slavery in the cases of Haiti, African Americans, and African victims of the British slave trade. This is an excellent short teaching text for courses on transitional justice and those dealing with contemporary political problems.’Rhoda Howard-Hassman, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityTable of Contents Contents Preface Chapter 1: Slavery and Reparation Chapter 2: Should Current Generations Make Reparation for Slavery? Chapter 3: What is Owed? Conclusion: The Future of Reparation

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Book SynopsisDuring the age of empire, European and American colonists perpetrated one of history’s most monstrous crimes: slavery. Millions of Africans were subjected to forced abduction, misery and death as part of the brutal Atlantic slave trade. However, since the perpetrators are long dead, should current generations make reparation for this historic injustice? In this book, Janna Thompson uses three case studies – France’s treatment of Haiti, Britain’s role in the African slave trade, and the plight of African Americans ‒ to address these questions. She makes a nuanced case for the necessity of reparations, but argues that the exact form they take should vary from case to case, depending on factors both principled and practical. This engaging book is a highly readable introduction to the issues for students and general readers grappling with the complexities of reparative justice and our responsibility for the darkest aspects of our past.Trade Review‘This excellent book does a highly impressive job of making an important and substantive contribution to the literature on historic injustice.’ Daniel Butt, University of Oxford‘Janna Thompson makes a persuasive argument for reparations for slavery in the cases of Haiti, African Americans, and African victims of the British slave trade. This is an excellent short teaching text for courses on transitional justice and those dealing with contemporary political problems.’ Rhoda Howard-Hassman, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityTable of Contents Contents Preface Chapter 1: Slavery and Reparation Chapter 2: Should Current Generations Make Reparation for Slavery? Chapter 3: What is Owed? Conclusion: The Future of Reparation

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Book SynopsisIn The Enslaved and Their Enslavers, Edward Pearson offers a sweeping history of slavery in South Carolina, from British settlement in 1670 to the dawn of the Civil War. For enslaved peoples, the shape of their daily lives depended primarily on the particular environment in which they lived and worked, and Pearson examines three distinctive settings in the province: the extensive rice and indigo plantations of the coastal plain; the streets, workshops, and wharves of Charleston; and the farms and estates of the upcountry. In doing so, he provides a fine-grained analysis of how enslaved laborers interacted with their enslavers in the workplace and other locations where they encountered one another as plantation agriculture came to dominate the colony. The Enslaved and Their Enslavers sets this portrait of early South Carolina against broader political events, economic developments, and social trends that also shaped the development of slavery in the region. For example, the outbreak of the American Revolution and the subsequent war against the British in the 1770s and early 1780s as well as the French and Haitian revolutions all had a profound impact on the institution’s development, both in terms of what enslaved people drew from these events and how their enslavers responded to them. Throughout South Carolina’s long history, enslaved people never accepted their enslavement passively and regularly demonstrated their fundamental opposition to the institution by engaging in acts of resistance, which ranged from vandalism to arson to escape, and, on rare occasions, organizing collectively against their oppression. Their attempts to subvert the institution in which they were held captive not only resulted in slaveowners tightening formal and informal mechanisms of control but also generated new forms of thinking about race and slavery among whites that eventually mutated into pro-slavery ideology and the myth of southern exceptionalism.

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Book SynopsisBeyond 1619 brings an Atlantic and hemispheric perspective to the year 1619 as a marker of American slavery’s origins and the beginnings of the Black experience in what would become the United States by situating the roots of racial slavery in a broader, comparative context. In recent years, an extensive public dialogue regarding the long shadow of racism in the United States has pushed Americans to confront the insidious history of race-based slavery and its aftermath, with 1619—the year that the first recorded enslaved persons of African descent arrived in British North America—taking center stage as its starting point. Yet this dialogue has inadvertently narrowed our understanding of slavery, race, and their repercussions to the U.S. context. Beyond 1619 showcases the fruitful results when scholars examine and put into conversation multiple empires, regions, peoples, and cultures to get a more complete view of the rise of racial slavery in the Americas. Painting racial slavery’s emergence on a hemispheric canvas, and in one compact volume, provides historical context beyond the 1619 moment for discussions of slavery, racism, antiracism, freedom, and lasting inequalities. In the process, this volume shines new light on these critical topics andillustrates the centrality of racial slavery, and contests over its rise, in nearly every corner of the early modern Atlantic World. Contributors: John N. Blanton, Jesse Cromwell, Erika Denise Edwards, Rebecca Anne Goetz, Rana Hogarth, Chloe L. Ireton, Marc H. Lerner, Paul J. Polgar, Brett Rushforth, Casey Schmitt, Jenny Shaw, James Sidbury.

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Book SynopsisIn The Captive Sea, Daniel Hershenzon explores the entangled histories of Muslim and Christian captives—and, by extension, of the Spanish Empire, Ottoman Algiers, and Morocco—in the seventeenth century to argue that piracy, captivity, and redemption helped shape the Mediterranean as an integrated region at the social, political, and economic levels. Despite their confessional differences, the lives of captives and captors alike were connected in a political economy of ransom and communication networks shaped by Spanish, Ottoman, and Moroccan rulers; ecclesiastic institutions; Jewish, Muslim, and Christian intermediaries; and the captives themselves, as well as their kin. Hershenzon offers both a comprehensive analysis of competing projects for maritime dominance and a granular investigation of how individual lives were tragically upended by these agendas. He takes a close look at the tightly connected and ultimately failed attempts to ransom an Algerian Muslim girl sold into slavery in Livorno in 1608; the son of a Spanish marquis enslaved by pirates in Algiers and brought to Istanbul, where he converted to Islam; three Spanish Trinitarian friars detained in Algiers on the brink of their departure for Spain in the company of Christians they had redeemed; and a high-ranking Ottoman official from Alexandria, captured in 1613 by the Sicilian squadron of Spain. Examining the circulation of bodies, currency, and information in the contested Mediterranean, Hershenzon concludes that the practice of ransoming captives, a procedure meant to separate Christians from Muslims, had the unintended consequence of tightly binding Iberia to the Maghrib.Trade Review"[A] thoroughly researched, clearly structured, convincingly argued and richly documented monograph on slavery in the early modern western Mediterranean . . . It is time to follow the stories of how enslaved people shaped the communities at home and abroad, and Hershenzon's book will be an indispensable part of this enterprise." * Bulletin of Spanish Studies *"The breadth and depth of research, the insight with which Hershenzon draws out the significance of the sources, and the clarity of his writing all make this an impressive and convincing book." * Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies *"Daniel Hershenzon persuasively shows how captivity both tore slaves from their communities and connected those communities across the Western Mediterranean. Extensively researched and bracingly argued, The Captive Sea demonstrates the agency and impact of captives in an enduringly entangled Mediterranean world." * Barbara Fuchs, University of California, Los Angeles *"A serious, probing look at early modern Mediterranean slavery. Daniel Hershenzon locates new and highly personalized sources within the vast bureaucratic archives of Spain and then wields them to identify and theorize the expectations and logics of behavior that underlay the captives' struggles to obtain freedom." * James Amelang, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid *

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Book SynopsisWould there have been a Frederick Douglass if it were not for Betsy Bailey, the grandmother who raised him? Would Harriet Jacobs have written her renowned autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, if her grandmother, a free black woman named Molly Horniblow, had not enabled Jacobs’ escape from slavery? In Black Elders, Frederick C. Knight explores the experiences of African Americans with aging and in old age during the eras of slavery and emancipation. Though slavery put a premium on young labor, elders worked as caregivers, domestics, cooks, or midwives and performed other tasks in the margins of Southern and Northern economies. Looking at black families, churches, mutual aid societies, and homes for the aged, Knight demonstrates the pivotal role of elders in the history of African American community formation through Reconstruction. Drawing on a wide array of printed and archival sources, including slave narratives, plantation records, letters, diaries, meeting minutes, and state and federal archives, Knight also examines how blacks and whites, men and women, the young and the old developed competing ideas about age and aging, differences that shaped social relations in coastal West and West Central Africa, the Atlantic and domestic slave trades, colonial and antebellum Southern slave societies, and emancipation in the North and South. Black Elders offers a unique window into the individual and collective lives of African Americans, the day-to-day struggles they waged around their experiences of aging, and how they drew upon these resources to define the meaning of family, community, and freedom.Trade Review"By centering the politics of age and eldership from the height of the Atlantic slave trade through the Civil War, Black Elders offers a new and important contribution to the study of Black life in slavery and freedom." * Erica Armstrong Dunbar, author of Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge *"With the publication of Black Elders, Frederick C. Knight has made a remarkable contribution to the study of slavery and freedom, introducing ‘the politics of age’ as a principal lens of analysis. Beginning the story in West Africa and following it into North America via the transatlantic trade, he shows how the African-descended, through slavery, post-emancipation, and even into more contemporary times, fought to retain, reclaim, and refashion the saliency and meaning of ‘the elders’ within their community. Drawing from a range of primary sources, Knight allows us to hear the voices of those long rendered voiceless. It is a compelling story that Knight tells well, skillfully and movingly. Black Elders is a must read." * Michael A. Gomez, author of African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa *"Spanning continents and centuries, Black Elders is the first comprehensive history of Black elderhood as lived experience and cultural ideal. Frederick C. Knight offers a transformative history of slavery and freedom that recognizes the importance of Black elders as leaders who held together multigenerational families, spurred community development, and passed down wisdom. This extensively researched and beautifully written book should be required reading for everyone interested in African American history and culture, age studies, or what it means to grow old." * Corinne T. Field, author of The Struggle for Equal Adulthood: Gender, Race, Age, and the Fight for Citizenship in Antebellum America *

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Book SynopsisHow media shapes our actions and feelings about race Amid fervent conversations about antiracism and police violence, Media and the Affective Life of Slavery delivers vital new ideas about how our feelings about race are governed and normalized by our media landscape. Allison Page examines U.S. media from the 1960s to today, analyzing how media culture instructs viewers to act and feel in accordance with new racial norms created for an era supposedly defined by an end to legal racism.From the classic television miniseries Roots to the edutainment video game Mission 2: Flight to Freedom and the popular website slaveryfootprint.org, Media and the Affective Life of Slavery provides an in-depth look at the capitalist and cultural artifacts that teach the U.S. public about slavery. Page theorizes media not only as a system of representation but also as a technology of citizenship and subjectivity, wherein race is seen as a problem to be solved. Ultimately, she argues that visual culture works through emotion, a powerful lever for shaping and managing racialized subjectivity. Media and the Affective Life of Slavery delivers compelling, provocative material and includes a wealth of archival research into such realms as news, entertainment, television, curricula, video games, and digital apps, providing new and innovative scholarship where none currently exists. Trade Review "Allison Page’s Media and the Affective Life of Slavery powerfully analyzes how television, film, and new media use slavery to socialize viewers into racialized understandings of American citizenship. Through film, television, apps, and video games, she shows how media representations of slavery underwrote forms of liberal and neoliberal subjectivity. This is one of the most brilliant takes on the intersections between media, affect, citizenship, and race; we would do well to study its insights." —Roderick A. Ferguson, Yale University "Allison Page’s Media and the Affective Life of Slavery offers a compelling and much needed archival media history of how the national story America tells itself about itself is renewed."—International Journal of Communication "The core of Media and the Affective Life of Slavery is painful and profound but essential to an understanding of the multidisciplinary legacy and impact of slavery in the culture of the United States."—Information and Culture "Media and the Affective Life of Slavery is an exciting book that breaks new ground even as it participates in some of the most enduring conversations in the field."—Television and New Media Table of ContentsIntroduction: Racial Formation and Post–Civil Rights Governance1. “The Restless Black Peril”: Race, Television Documentary, and Emotion2. Feeling Slavery: Roots and Pedagogies of Emotion3. Choosing Freedom: Empathy and Agency4. “How Many Slaves Work for You?” Algorithmic Governance and GuiltConclusion. Refusing Prescription: Kara Walker and Black Feminist Cultural ProductionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisHow media shapes our actions and feelings about race Amid fervent conversations about antiracism and police violence, Media and the Affective Life of Slavery delivers vital new ideas about how our feelings about race are governed and normalized by our media landscape. Allison Page examines U.S. media from the 1960s to today, analyzing how media culture instructs viewers to act and feel in accordance with new racial norms created for an era supposedly defined by an end to legal racism.From the classic television miniseries Roots to the edutainment video game Mission 2: Flight to Freedom and the popular website slaveryfootprint.org, Media and the Affective Life of Slavery provides an in-depth look at the capitalist and cultural artifacts that teach the U.S. public about slavery. Page theorizes media not only as a system of representation but also as a technology of citizenship and subjectivity, wherein race is seen as a problem to be solved. Ultimately, she argues that visual culture works through emotion, a powerful lever for shaping and managing racialized subjectivity. Media and the Affective Life of Slavery delivers compelling, provocative material and includes a wealth of archival research into such realms as news, entertainment, television, curricula, video games, and digital apps, providing new and innovative scholarship where none currently exists. Trade Review "Allison Page’s Media and the Affective Life of Slavery powerfully analyzes how television, film, and new media use slavery to socialize viewers into racialized understandings of American citizenship. Through film, television, apps, and video games, she shows how media representations of slavery underwrote forms of liberal and neoliberal subjectivity. This is one of the most brilliant takes on the intersections between media, affect, citizenship, and race; we would do well to study its insights." —Roderick A. Ferguson, Yale University "Allison Page’s Media and the Affective Life of Slavery offers a compelling and much needed archival media history of how the national story America tells itself about itself is renewed."—International Journal of Communication "The core of Media and the Affective Life of Slavery is painful and profound but essential to an understanding of the multidisciplinary legacy and impact of slavery in the culture of the United States."—Information and Culture "Media and the Affective Life of Slavery is an exciting book that breaks new ground even as it participates in some of the most enduring conversations in the field."—Television and New Media Table of ContentsIntroduction: Racial Formation and Post–Civil Rights Governance1. “The Restless Black Peril”: Race, Television Documentary, and Emotion2. Feeling Slavery: Roots and Pedagogies of Emotion3. Choosing Freedom: Empathy and Agency4. “How Many Slaves Work for You?” Algorithmic Governance and GuiltConclusion. Refusing Prescription: Kara Walker and Black Feminist Cultural ProductionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisExplores the representation of slave revolt in video games—and the trouble with making history playableKill the Overseer! profiles and problematizes digital games that depict Atlantic slavery and “gamify” slave resistance. In videogames emphasizing plantation labor, the player may choose to commit small acts of resistance like tool-breaking or working slowly. Others dramatically stage the slave’s choice to flee enslavement and journey northward, and some depict outright violent revolt against the master and his apparatus. In this work, Sarah Juliet Lauro questions whether the reduction of a historical enslaved person to a digital commodity in games such as Mission US, Assassin’s Creed, and Freedom Cry ought to trouble us as a further commodification of slavery’s victims, or whether these interactive experiences offer an empowering commemoration of the history of slave resistance. Forerunners is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital works. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.Trade Review"Sarah Juliet Lauro’s questions are urgent, compelling, perhaps even unthinkable. Lauro invites us to sit and think what it means to play critically."—Gamers with Glasses"Lauro does a fantastic job of problematizing playable history, as well as helping see the way that these games 'refuse to allow the player mastery of the subject,' even against intentions of the developers."—Ethnic and Racial Studies

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Book SynopsisThe Black Lives Matter movement has exposed the state violence and social devaluation that Black populations continue to suffer. Police shootings and incarceration inequalities in the US and UK are just two examples of the legacy of slavery today. This book offers a criminological exploration of the case for slavery and anti-Black racism reparations in the context of the enduring harms and differential treatment of Black citizens. Through critical analysis of legal arguments and reviewing recent court actions, it refutes the policy perspectives that argue against reparations. Highlighting the human rights abuses inherent to and arising from slavery and ongoing racism, this book calls for governments to take responsibility for the impact of ongoing racialized injustice.Table of Contents1. Black Lives Matter: The Legacy of Slavery 2. Slavery and Reparations: A Criminological View 3. Reparations Litigation: An Overview 4. Victims of Slavery and Reparations: Who Suffers? 5. A Comparative Analysis of Reparations 6. Unjust Enrichment and the Socio-Legal Case for Reparations 7. The ‘Value’ of Reparations? 8. The Nature of Reparations 9. Reparations in the 21st Century: Contemporary Debates and Issues on Reparations

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Book SynopsisThe Black Lives Matter movement has exposed the state violence and social devaluation that Black populations continue to suffer. Police shootings and incarceration inequalities in the US and UK are just two examples of the legacy of slavery today. This book offers a criminological exploration of the case for slavery and anti-Black racism reparations in the context of the enduring harms and differential treatment of Black citizens. Through critical analysis of legal arguments and reviewing recent court actions, it refutes the policy perspectives that argue against reparations. Highlighting the human rights abuses inherent to and arising from slavery and ongoing racism, this book calls for governments to take responsibility for the impact of ongoing racialized injustice.Table of Contents1. Black Lives Matter: The Legacy of Slavery 2. Slavery and Reparations: A Criminological View 3. Reparations Litigation: An Overview 4. Victims of Slavery and Reparations: Who Suffers? 5. A Comparative Analysis of Reparations 6. Unjust Enrichment and the Socio-Legal Case for Reparations 7. The ‘Value’ of Reparations? 8. The Nature of Reparations 9. Reparations in the 21st Century: Contemporary Debates and Issues on Reparations

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Book SynopsisExamines the establishment, growth, and evolution of slavery in the United States as it impacted women – enslaved and free, African American and white, wealthy and poor, northern and southern.

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Book SynopsisBefore the Civil War, slaveholders made themselves into the most powerful, most deeply rooted, and best organized private interest group within the United States. Not only did slavery represent the national economy's second largest capital investment, exceeded only by investment in real estate, but guarantees of its perpetuation were studded throughout the U.S. Constitution. The vast majority of white Americans, in North and South, accepted the institution, and pro-slavery presidents and congressmen consistently promoted its interests.In ""Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War"", James Brewer Stewart explains how a small group of radical activists, the abolitionist movement, played a pivotal role in turning American politics against this formidable system. He examines what influence the movement had in creating the political crises that led to civil war and evaluates the extent to which a small number of zealous reformers made a truly significant political difference when demanding that their nation face up to its most excruciating moral problem.In making these assessments, Stewart addresses a series of more specific questions: What were the abolitionists actually up against when seeking the overthrow of slavery and white supremacy? What motivated and sustained them during their long and difficult struggles? What larger historical contexts (religious, social, economic, cultural, and political) influenced their choices and determined their behavior? What roles did extraordinary leaders play in shaping the movement, and what were the contributions of abolitionism's unheralded ""foot soldiers""? What factors ultimately determined, for better or worse, the abolitionists' impact on American politics and the realization of their equalitarian goals?Trade ReviewJim Stewart is one of the foremost scholars of American abolitionism and the most astute analyst of the relationship between the abolition movement and party politics. In this remarkably coherent and cohesive volume of essays, he convincingly overturns the idea that the abolitionist movement was largely a white one, as well as the notion that abolitionism was marginal to political parties and did little or nothing to bring about secession and the eventual end of slavery. - John Stauffer, Harvard University ""Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War is not simply a useful work that could easily be incorporated into graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on abolitionism and African American history, it is also a statement of the remarkable work and career of one abolitionism's finest modern students."" - Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College

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Book SynopsisA sourcebook for understanding an uprising that continues to incite historical debate. In the fall of 1739, as many as one hundred enslaved African and African Americans living within twenty miles of Charleston joined forces to strike down their white owners and march en masse toward Spanish Florida and freedom. More than sixty whites and thirty slaves died in the violence that followed. Among the most important slave revolts in colonial America, the Stono Rebellion also ranks as South Carolina's largest slave insurrection and one of the bloodiest uprisings in American history. Significant for the fear it cast among lowcountry slaveholders and for the repressive slave laws enacted in its wake, Stono continues to attract scholarly attention as a historical event worthy of study and reinterpretation. Edited by Mark M. Smith, ""Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt"" introduces readers to the documents needed to understand both the revolt and the ongoing discussion among scholars about the legacy of the insurrection. Smith has assembled a compendium of materials necessary for an informed examination of the revolt. Primary documents - including some works previously unpublished and largely unknown even to specialists - offer accounts of the violence, discussions of Stono's impact on white sensibilities, and public records relating incidents of the uprising. To these primary sources Smith adds three divergent interpretations that expand on Peter H. Wood's pioneering study Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. Excerpts from works by John K. Thornton, Edward A. Pearson, and Smith himself reveal how historians have used some of the same documents to construct radically different interpretations of the revolt's causes, meaning, and effects.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents an international comparative study of a mode of emancipation that worked to reinforce the institution of slavery. Manumission - the act of freeing a slave while the institution of slavery continues - has received relatively little scholarly attention as compared to other aspects of slavery and emancipation. To address this gap, editors Rosemary Brana-Shute and Randy J. Sparks present a volume of essays that comprise the first-ever comparative study of manumission as it affected slave systems on both sides of the Atlantic. In this landmark volume, an international group of scholars consider the history and implications of manumission from the medieval period to the late nineteenth century as the phenomenon manifested itself in the Old World and the New. The contributors demonstrate that although the means of manumission varied greatly across the Atlantic world, in every instance the act served to reinforce the sovereign power structures inherent in the institution of slavery. In some societies only a master had the authority to manumit slaves, while in others the state might grant freedom or it might be purchased. Regardless of the source of manumission, the result was viewed by its society as a benevolent act intended to bind the freed slave to his or her former master through gratitude if no longer through direct ownership. The possibility of manumission worked to inspire faithful servitude among slaves while simultaneously solidifying the legitimacy of their ownership. The essayists compare the legacy of manumission in medieval Europe; the Jewish communities of Levant, Europe, and the New World; the Dutch, French, and British colonies; and the antebellum United States, while exploring wider patterns that extended beyond a single location or era. They also document the fates of manumitted slaves, some of whom were accepted into freed segments of their societies; while others were expected to vacate their former communities entirely. The contributors investigate the cultural consequences of manumission as well as the changing economic conditions that limited the practice by the eighteenth century to understand better the social implications of this multifaceted aspect of the system of slavery.

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Book SynopsisIn this definitive study of the African diaspora in North America, Toyin Falola offers a causal history of the western dispersion of Africans and its effects on the modern world. The African diaspora is arguably the most important event in modern African history. From the fifteenth century to the present, millions of Africans have been dispersed -- many of them forcibly, others driven by economic need or political persecution -- to other continents, creating large communities with African origins living outside their native lands. The majority of these communities are in North America. This historic displacement has meant that Africans are irrevocably connected to economic and political developments in the West and globally. Among the known legacies of the diaspora are slavery, colonialism, racism, poverty, and underdevelopment, yet the ways in which thesesame factors worked to spur the scattering of Africans are not fully understood -- by those who were part of this migration or by scholars, historians, and policymakers. In this definitive study of the diaspora in NorthAmerica, Toyin Falola offers a causal history of the western dispersion of Africans and its effects on the modern world. Reengaging old and familiar debates and framing new ones that enrich the discourse surrounding Africa, Falola isolates the thread, running nearly six centuries, that connects the history of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, and current migrations. A boon to scholars and policymakers and accessible to the general reader, the book explores diverse narratives of migration and shows that the cultures that migrated from Africa to the Americas have the capacity to unite and create a new pan-Africanist movement within the globalized world. Toyin Falolais the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association and serves as the vice president of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. His previous books published by the University of Rochester Press include The Power of AfricanCultures and Nationalism and African Intellectuals.Trade Review[A] rich and engaging work that should be read and discussed by all interested in how lessons from Africa's past and present connects to the future of African and other diaspora communities across the globe. -- William Ackah * AFRICA AT LSE *A highly valuable stimulation to confront the issue of race, its intimate relationship with modernity, and its structuring effects on past and present globalization processes. * H-SOZ-KULT *Not only a significant scholarly contribution to African-American studies but also an invaluable addition to existing studies on globalization, international politics and development. Because of its accuracy of facts and simplicity of styles, this book is a must-read for scholars and students of African and African-American studies as well as people seeking general knowledge on contemporary global history, government, economics and politics. * UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS CENTRE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES *This tour de force shows mastery of the literature and the themes that connect Africa to its diaspora. A gift that will be well appreciated by both academics and nonacademics. -- -- Edmund Abaka, associate professor of history, University of MiamiIn The African Diaspora, Falola provides a comprehensive report on continental and intercontinental African migrations and displacements, past and present. Students of African history and economics, Africana migration, critical race theory, and development studies will find it hard to ignore this enriching contribution to global Africana scholarship. Even more significant are the invaluable policy insights that policy researchers and makers can garner from Falola's gem. -- -- Tunde Bewaji, professor of philosophy, University of the West IndiesIn this fascinating book, Toyin Falola, the most prolific and celebrated African historian of his generation, offers us an erudite and engaging study of African Atlantic diasporas from slavery to Obama. It brilliantly weaves together accounts of the old and new diasporas' political, social, cultural, intellectual, and artistic histories and of their enduring resilience and complex connections to their African homeland. This book immeasurably expands the analytical contours of the field of African diaspora studies. An impressive achievement. -- -- Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Presidential Professor of African American Studies and History and dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, Loyola Marymount University

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Book SynopsisThe story of one Ohio senator's impact on the early abolition movement More than 175 years after his death, Senator Thomas Morris has remained one of the few early national champions of political and constitutional antislavery without a biography devoted to him. In this first expansive study of Morris's life and contributions, David C. Crago persuasively argues that historians have wrongly marginalized Morris's role in the early antislavery movement.Morris was the first member of the US Senate to defend abolitionist positions in that body. Confronted with Southern demands for Congressional action to silence abolitionists and endorse slavery, he asserted that a proslavery interpretation of the Constitution was a distortion of the text. Instead, he argued, the Constitution neither identified people as property nor granted Congress the power to establish slavery in the territories or the District of Columbia. Although far outside the 1830s political consensus, Morris's ideas were quickly adopted by the nascent antislavery movement and became the cornerstone of antislavery political beliefs.Ultimately expelled from the Ohio Democratic Party and denied reelection to the Senate, within a decade his ideas would shape the core principles of both the Free-Soil and Republican Parties' platforms. The Creation of a Crusader fills an important gap in understanding the early American antislavery movement and sheds light on Morris's overlooked yet significant influence.Trade Review"David Crago's splendid biography of Thomas Morris is truly a major contribution to the history of American politics. In his time, Morris, a stalwart antislavery pioneer, loomed so large that many thought his reputation would be immortal. With imagination, unstinting research, and analytical clarity, Crago has written a rare life study that illuminates the entire antislavery political tradition."—Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln "This impressive study seeks to return Ohio senator Thomas Morris, who for a brief time became a central figure in political abolitionism, to his rightful place in the history of American antislavery." —Jonathan Earle, author of Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824–1854"With the determination of a detective and the craft of a historian, law professor David Crago restores antebellum Ohio senator Thomas Morris to the meteoric presence he had in his own time—a hard-money Jacksonian in 1836 who broke from his party, who became the first public figure to denominate and denounce the aggrandizing 'Slave Power,' who reversed himself to argue that the Constitution never sanctioned humans as property, and who by 1842, as the vice presidential candidate of the Liberty Party, declared that Congress had the power and the obligation to abolish slavery to achieve the Declaration's equal justice for all."—Sydney Nathans, author of To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker

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