Description
Book Synopsis Linked by declarations of emancipation within the same five-year period, two countries shared human rights issues on two distinct continents. In this book, readers will find a case-study comparison of the emancipation of Russian serfs on the Yazykovo Selo estate and American slaves at the Palmyra Plantation. Although state policies and reactions may not follow the same paths in each area, there were striking thematic parallels. These findings add to our understanding of what happens throughout an emancipation process in which the state grants freedom, and therefore speaks to the universality of the human experience.
Despite the political and economic differences between the two countries, as well as their geographic and cultural distances, this book re-conceptualizes emancipation and its aftermath in each country: from a history that treats each as a separate, self-contained story to one with a unified, global framework.
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Notes on the Text
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I: The Pre-Treatment Period
- 1. Rural Muses, Unfree People, and the Abolitionist Impulse
- 2. Emancipation Comes to Russia and America
- Part II: Planting and Plowing
- 3. Liberation: Conditions, Expectations, and Resistance
- 4. Regulating Freedom: Contracts and Agreements
- Part III: Tending and Reaping Freedom
- 5. Understanding Contextual Realities: Background to the Post-Emancipation Story at Yazykovo Selo and Palmyra Plantation
- 6. Reaping Freedom: Management, Labor, and Productivity in the Midst
- of Liberation
- Part IV: Gleaning and Taking Stock
- 7. The Meaning of Freedom in Daily Life
- 8. The Meaning of Freedom in a Global Context
- Epilogue
- Glossary
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
