Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"This original work adds an important new voice to conversations about slavery, disability, and medical history. Exceptional analysis of an understudied topic" --
Library Journal (starred review)
"Addressing an often-overlooked aspect of the experiences of enslaved people, Barclay intricately examines the connection between racism, disabilities and slavery, as well as the legacy it left behind, in this important and well-researched volume." --
Ms. Magazine"
The Mark of Slavery is not simply a study of disability discourse. Rather, the book examines disability as both a discourse about race and slavery and as a lived experience affecting the lives of thousands of enslaved people." --
Black Perspectives"While many of the racist and ableist discourses seemed to be contradictory and nonsensical, Barclay skillfully demonstrates how each of the narratives work together to create a larger, long-standing co-constitution of Blackness, disability, and dependency. . . . After reading this book, it is near impossible to consider race in America as anything separate from disability and ableism. . . . Compelling." --
Ethnic and Racial Studies"Jenifer Barclay offers us a powerful, deeply researched, and rich study of the meanings of disability in the antebellum South. The sheer breadth of literature that this work speaks to is impressive. . . .
The Mark of Slavery is a critical intervention into fields that have ignored or marginalized disability." --
American Nineteenth Century History"Barclay's study is a well-researched investigation of nineteenth-century cultural debates on race and the body. Disability scholarship has flourished in recent years, and Barclay's book is a welcome contribution to the field." --
Journal of Southern History"Highly recommended." --
Choice"Barclay's deft handling of disability through her archival research, the brilliance of her scholarship on the ways that blackness becomes synonymous with disability, her skillful use of Black Critical Disability Studies as a methodological framework, and clear and persuasive prose allows us greater insight into the debilitating effects of slavery as a disabling device for its victims."--Deirdre Cooper Owens, author of
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology
