Exploring Enslaved Resistance
Seminar Questions
- What is "resistance"? What kinds of resistance did enslaved people employ? Why does it matter so much to historians?
- Think back to the readings on manumission for week 3. Are there any circumstances under which we could think of manumission as resistance?
- How have gender historians problematised the definitions of resistance?
- What was the impact of the Haitian Revolution on Cuba?
- Was enslaved rebellion and warfare in Brazil and Cuba an African or a creole phenomenon?
- What was the background for the Malê revolt in Bahia? What was its significance after 1835?
- What is Reis' diagnosis of the role of ethnic divisions? Do you agree?
Readings: choose two of:
- Ada Ferrer, “Cuban Slavery & Antislavery,” in Josep M. Fradera and Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, eds., Slavery & Antislavery in Spain’s Atlantic Empire (Oxford: Bergahn, 2013).
- Manuel Barcia, The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825: Cuba and the Fight for Freedom in Matanzas (LSU Press, 2012), introduction [we have e-book but restricted to 1 user at a time]
- Aisha Finch, Rethinking Slave Rebellion in Cuba: La Escalera and the Insurgencies of 1841-1844 (UNC Press, 2015), "Introduction," pp 1-20; Chapter 5, "And the Women Also Knew: The Gendered Terrain of Insurgency," pp. 141-167. [We also have this as an e-book @ Library but restricted to one user at a time]
- Reis, João José. "Slave Resistance in Brazil: Bahia, 1807-1835." Luso-Brazilian Review, 25:1 (1988), pp. 111-144.
Further reading:
- Craton, Michael. Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies. Cornell University Press, 1982. [e-book at library]
- “Preface,” pp 11-18, and “Introduction,” pp. 19-28
- Chapter 19, “Creolization and Resistance,” pp. 241-266
- Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2005.
[e-book @ Library; ch 5 is available on library scans page]:
"Preface";
Chapter Five, “New World,” pp. 115-31.
Craton, Testing the Chains, Chapter 22, “The Baptist War: The Jamaican Rebellion of 1831-1832,” pp. 291-321 [e-book @ Library]