Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Fugitive slaves and agency”

Cette étude s’inscrit dans le courant de l’historiographie étatsunienne s’intéressant à l’agentivité des esclaves, en choisissant un angle pour répondre à une question principale : de quelle façon l’action des esclaves fugitifs a-t-elle exercé une influence sur le processus d’émancipation au cours de la guerre de Sécession ? Cette recherche s’est intéressée à la façon dont l’action des fugitifs qui gagnaient les lignes de l’armée et les navires de la marine avait conduit, au tout début de la guerre, l’exécutif et les républicains au Congrès à élaborer des stratégies pour émanciper certains esclaves par nécessité militaire. Elle a apporté une connaissance plus détaillée de la contribution militaire des fugitifs, ou contrebandes, lors d’opérations amphibies, une contribution parfois cruciale. Au Congrès, les républicains ont pu mettre ces contributions en valeur, dénoncer les commandants hostiles aux fugitifs et déterminer qu’il était nécessaire d’incorporer les esclaves émancipés dans le service militaire. L’émancipation n’était pas seulement fondée sur un principe moral, l’Union était redevable aux esclaves fugitifs, dans un contexte militaire dégradé
This study is part of the trend of historiography in the United States interested in slave agency, by choosing an angle to answer a main question: how did the action of fugitive slaves exert an influence on the process of emancipation during the Civil War? This research focused on how the action of fugitives who made their way to the lines of the army and the ships of the navy had led, at the very beginning of the war, the executive branch and Republicans in Congress to develop strategies to emancipate some slaves out of military necessity. It provided a more detailed knowledge of the military contribution of fugitives, or contrabands, during amphibious operations, a contribution that was sometimes crucial. In Congress, Republicans were able to highlight these contributions, denounce commanders hostile to fugitives, and determine that it was necessary to incorporate emancipated slaves into military service. Emancipation was not only based on a moral principle, the Union was indebted to the fugitive slaves, in a degraded military context

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2010.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iii, 213 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-213).

This dissertation is a systematic investigation of fugitive slave advertisements aiming to understand the nature of fugitives’ rebelliousness in Georgia and Maryland between 1790 and 1810. Hitherto, historical inquiry pertaining to slave fugitivity has focused on other states and other times. This study provides a close reading of 5,567 advertisements pertaining to runaway slaves and analyses extracted data pertaining to the prosopography of 1,832 fugitives and their fugitivity. Its main research questions focus on advertisements as manifest records of rebellion. Who were the fugitives? What do the fugitive slave advertisements reveal about enslaved people’s contestation of slaveholders’ authority? The principal findings are as follows. First, the typography and iconography of fugitive slave advertisements were expressly intended to undermine the individualism and agency of enslaved people. Second, with regard to Georgia and Maryland, while there were spikes between 1796 and 1798 and 1800 and 1801, fugitivity was a daily occurrence, and thus a normative act of rebellion distinct from insurrection. Third, quantitative analysis indicated fugitives were typically young males, in their twenties, likely to escape at any time of the year; Georgia fugitives were more likely to escape in groups. Fourth, qualitative analysis of advertisers’ descriptions of fugitives revealed evidence of challenges to their authority. Depictions of fugitives’ character and remarks or notes on their behaviour constitute evidence of observed characteristics. From the advertisers’ perspective slaves were at their most dangerous when they could read and write or when they were skilled in deception. The “artful” fugitive in particular possessed many skills, sometimes including literacy, which could be used to defy the power that kept him or her in subjection. Fifth, further investigation established clear linkages between literacy and fugitives’ rebelliousness. Qualitative studies to date speak of slave literacy’s theoretical liberating and empowering effects but do not provide tangible accounts of who the literate slaves were or consider literacy as a factor in rebelliousness. The dissertation identified 36 literate slaves in Maryland and 9 in Georgia, and statistical analysis suggested 3.6 percent of US fugitive slaves were literate. Finally, it was evident that literacy was part of a larger contest to circumvent slaveholder authority and attain self-empowerment. Fugitivity itself was the outcome of a history of contestation that might be hidden from history were it not for the advertisements themselves.

This paper explores fugitive slave advertisements from the pages of the New Orleans Argus in 1828. As the main repository for runaway slave advertisements in New Orleans at the time, the Argus played a critical role in policing and surveillance of the city’s enslaved population just as New Orleans was becoming the largest slave market in the South. Using the Argus as well as historians’ accounts of the city, this thesis argues that as the market in enslaved people grew, slave owners depended upon local jailers in tandem with papers like the Argus, to police the enslaved population. The large volume of these advertisements, however, also testifies to enslaved people’s frequent rejection of bondage. This thesis is designed primarily as an index of the existing ads for 1828 with the aim of assisting further research into these sources.

In the antebellum period Richmond, Virginia newspapers ran advertisements for runaway slaves. Most of the ads concerned individuals absconded from outlying counties, distant regions of the state, or nearby states. These short notices have been used frequently to describe and discuss runaways and the link between flight and freedom in Virginia. In contrast to the brief newspaper entries the Daybook of the Richmond Police Guard, 1834--1844 provides names and detailed descriptions of nine hundred-thirty-five runaways all of whom lived in the city and were reported within the city precincts during one ten year period. The Daybook is a hand written record consisting of entries made by the Watchmen on duty each day. its pages are "A Memorandum of Robberies and Runaways" for the whole city and in addition to fugitive slaves list lost and stolen clothing, food, textiles, bank notes, fires and murder. Chapter 1 discusses the historiography of runaway slaves and the ways that the Daybook data allows a close examination of African American resistance in an urban setting. Chapter 2 explores the geography and look of the city of Richmond in the 1830s and early 40s. Chapter 3 closely examines the fugitives themselves, and Chapter 4 explores the context of laws and restrictions under which the black population, slave and free, lived. Chapter 5 describes the varied strategies the enslaved population, bound in kinship and friendship to the free black population, used to successfully hide within the city and segues into the transcribed complete text of the Daybook of the Richmond Police Guard. 1834--1844.

Historians of the American South have been diverse in their descriptions of the master-slave relationship over the last half-century, and have engaged in lengthy discussions in an attempt to answer the intricate question of what life was like between slaves and their masters. The phenomenon of slave runaways has perhaps offered the most convincing evidence of the troubles on southern plantations, which has been used in recent decades to emphasize negotiation and agency in the shaping of master-slave relations. The last twenty years have been consequently marked by a plethora of studies that accentuate non-traditional slave holding as it becomes clearer that masters had to compromise with their human chattel. Through an examination 9,975 runaway slave advertisements and 943 testimonies of former slaves, this study illustrates how black bondsmen absented themselves so to negotiate the terms of their working and living conditions. It traces the acts of individual slave runaways in place of broader generalizations that have for a long time contributed to some of the myths and legends of American slavery through examination of the many reasons that slaves chose to stay in bondage.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, YEAR.
Title from screen (viewed on August 26, 2009). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Jane E. Schultz, Jonathan R. Eller, Robert Rebein. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:22:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tereza Martins Godinho.pdf: 4770122 bytes, checksum: 29ec984f8e5f09abab58b9055bd3587a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-17
Fundação Carlos Chagas
This research was done at, located at the cities of Cavalcante, Teresina and Monte Alegre, northeast of the State of Goiás. As from references of Anthropological Theory, tried to describe this Hiding-place of fugitive Negro Slaves and its people considering their caracteristics of identity, of culture, social, economical and historical. Investigated and analyzed above all the role of women, through their cultural atitudes and routine, foccusing the relations they have with themselves, with their partners, with their group and with their past, trying to understand the meaning of " being a woman" in this context. The method used was open country work, preceded of bibliographical survey associated to research of documents
Esta pesquisa foi realizada no quilombo kalunga, localizado nos municípios de Cavalcante, Teresina e Monte Alegre, nordeste do Estado de Goiás. A partir de referenciais da teoria antropológica, buscou descrever este quilombo e sua gente nas suas características identitárias, culturais, sociais, econômicas e históricas. Investigou e analisou sobretudo o lugar da mulher, através de suas práticas culturais e sua rotina, enfocando as relações que estabelecem entre si, com seus parceiros, com seu grupo e com seu passado procurando compreender o sentido do ser mulher nesse contexto. O método utilizado foi o trabalho de campo, precedido de levantamento bibliográfico e associado à pesquisa de documentos

Este estudo propõe uma hipótese que considera fundamental a atuação linguística conjunta dos cabo-verdianos e dos judeus sefarditas e seus escravos na gênese e no desenvolvimento do papiamentu. A justificativa para a pesquisa reside no fato de que, a despeito de ser um tema discutido na literatura, ainda se trata de um assunto controverso entre os estudiosos, havendo até o momento, pelo menos, quatro hipóteses diferentes. Maduro (1965), Rona (1970) e Munteanu (1996), por exemplo, defendem que o papiamentu seria um crioulo de base espanhola, tendo seus elementos portugueses introduzidos posteriormente pelos judeus sefarditas e seus escravos. Já Lenz (1928) e Martinus (1996) consideram o papiamentu como resultado da relexificação de um crioulo ou protocrioulo afroportuguês falado por escravos trazidos da África. De acordo com Goodman (1996 [1987]) e Smith (1999), por seu turno, o papiamentu seria um crioulo de base portuguesa, surgido a partir de um dialeto judeo-português da comunidade sefardita e seus escravos. Por fim, Jacobs (2012) considera que o papiamentu teria se originado a partir do crioulo falado na ilha de Santiago, no arquipélago de Cabo Verde, sendo mais tarde levado para Curaçao. Analisando as hipóteses, observou-se que duas apresentam argumentos e fatos linguísticos evidenciáveis, a saber, as relações com o kabuverdianu (especialmente, a variedade de Santiago) e a participação dos judeus sefarditas e seus escravos. A fim de decidir a favor de uma das hipóteses, itens lexicais e funcionais das variedades setecentistas e oitocentistas do papiamentu e do kabuverdianu clássicos, bem como do papiamentu sefardita, foram comparados, resultando em convergências nos níveis lexicais e funcionais. De um lado, a grande quantidade de elementos derivados do português no papiamentu clássico seria uma evidência de que esses itens representaram um papel basilar no desenvolvimento da língua, de outro, as convergências lexicais e funcionais uma vez que há uma menor probabilidade de substituição dos itens funcionais (em virtude de sua opacidade semântica) (MATRAS, 2009) não podem ser explicadas por acaso. Já as similaridades com o kabuverdianu clássico confirmariam seu parentesco linguístico. No que diz respeito ao papel da comunidade sefardita e seus escravos, observou-se que a expressão linguística dos judeus também faz parte da estrutura geral do papiamentu clássico, deixando marcas inclusive na variedade moderna. Tendo em vista o material documental dos séculos xviii e xix, escolher uma única hipótese resultaria em um quadro parcial, sendo necessário postular uma convergência de hipóteses, que consiste não somente na reunião de duas hipóteses (a cabo-verdiana e a sefardita), mas na proposta de um novo cenário para se explicar a gênese e o desenvolvimento do papiamentu. Dentro dessa perspectiva, é importante considerar que, em situações de contato, as línguas continuam se influenciando mutuamente ao longo dos tempos (PERINI-SANTOS, 2015), sendo necessária, portanto, uma análise que privilegie a contribuição dos falantes de diferentes línguas em diversas sincronias. Assim, seguindo Faraclas et al. (2014), uma convergência de elementos linguísticos cabo-verdianos e dos sefarditas e seus escravos deve ser considerada nos estudos sobre a formação e desenvolvimento do papiamentu.
This study proposes a hypothesis considering fundamental the joint linguistic agency of Cape Verdeans and Sephardic Jews and their slaves for the genesis and development of Papiamentu. The rationale for the study lies in the fact that, despite being a topic discussed in the literature, it is still a controversial subject among scholars. So far, there are at least four different hypotheses. Maduro (1965), Rona (1970) and Munteanu (1996), for example, argue that Papiamentu is a Spanish-based Creole and that its Portuguese elements were later introduced by Sephardic Jews and their slaves. On the other hand, Lenz (1928) and Martinus (1996) consider Papiamentu a result of a relexification of a Creole or an African-Portuguese Proto-Creole language spoken by the slaves brought from Africa. According to Goodman (1996 [1987]) and Smith (1999), Papiamentu was a Portuguese-based Creole emerged from a Judeo- Portuguese dialect of the Sephardic community and its slaves. Finally, Jacobs (2012) considers that Papiamentu would have originated from the Creole spoken on Santiago island, in the Cape Verde Islands, and was later taken to Curacao. By analyzing the hypotheses, it was observed that two of them have arguments and linguistic facts capable of being evidenced: relations with Cape Verdean Creole (especially the Santiago variety) and the participation of Sephardic Jews and their slaves in it. In order to decide in favor of one of these hypotheses, lexical and functional items of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century varieties of Classic Papiamentu, Classic Cape Verdean Creole and Sephardic Papiamentu were compared, resulting in convergences at the lexical and functional levels. On the one hand, the large number of elements derived from Portuguese in Classic Papiamentu would evidence that these items played a fundamental role in the development of the language. On the other hand, lexical and functional convergence as it is less likely to replace functional items (by virtue of their semantic opacity) (MATRAS, 2009) cannot be explained by mere chance. Similarities with Classic Cape Verdean Creole confirm their linguistic kinship. Regarding the role of the Sephardic community and its slaves, it was observed that the linguistic expression of Jews was also part of the overall structure of Classic Papiamentu, leaving marks even in its modern variety. Given the eighteenth and nineteenth-century documentation, choosing a single hypothesis would result in a partial picture. It is necessary to postulate a convergence of hypotheses, which consists not only in uniting two hypotheses (Cape Verdean and Sephardic), but also in the proposal of a new scenario to explain the genesis and the development of Papiamentu. Within this perspective, it is important to consider that, in contact situations, languages continue to influence each other over time (PERINI-SANTOS, 2015), requiring therefore an analysis that favors agency on the part of speakers of different languages in different synchronies. Thus, following Faraclas et al. (2014), a convergence of linguistic elements of Cape Verdean Creole and of the languages of Sephardic Jews and their slaves must be considered in studies on the formation and development of Papiamentu.

This thesis examines how the law dealt with international fugitives. It focuses on formal extradition and the cross-border abduction of wanted criminals by police officers and other state officials. Debates over extradition and abduction reflected important issues of state power and civil liberty, and were shaped by currents of thought circulating throughout the imperial, Atlantic, and common law worlds. Debates over extradition involved questioning the very basis of international law. They also raised difficult questions about civil liberties and human rights. Throughout this period escaped American slaves and other groups made claims for what we would now call refugee status, and argued that their surrender violated codes of law and ideas of justice that transcended the colonies and even the wider British Empire. Such claims sparked a decades-long debate in North America and Europe over how to codify refugee protections. Ultimately, Britain used its imperial power to force Canada to accept such safeguards. Yet even as the formal extradition system developed, an informal system of police abductions operated in the Canadian-American borderlands. This system defied formal law, but it also manifested sophisticated local ideas about community justice and transnational legal order. This thesis argues that extradition and abduction must be understood within three overlapping contexts. The first is the ethos of liberal transnationalism that permeated all levels of state officials in British North America/Canada. This view largely prioritised the erosion of domestic barriers to international cooperation over the protection of individual liberty. It was predicated in large part on the idea of a common North American civilization. The second context is Canada’s place in the British Empire. Extradition and abduction highlight both how British North America/Canada often expounded views on legal order radically different from Britain, but also that even after Confederation in 1867 the empire retained real power to shape Canadian policy. The final context is international law and international legal order. Both extradition and abduction were aspects of law on an international and transnational level. As a result, this thesis examines the processes of migration, adoption, and adaptation of international law.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The complicated state wherein ex-slaves found themselves, as depicted in the narratives of Bibb, Jacobs, and others, problematizes the dualistic relationship between North and South that the genre’s structural components work to enforce, forging an odyssey that, although sometimes still spiritual in nature, does not offer the type of resolutions that might easily persuade fellow slaves to abandon their masters and seek a similarly ambiguous identity in the so-called “free” land of the North. For blacks and especially fugitive slaves, such restrictive legal provisions provided an “uncertain status” where, writes William Andrews, “the definition of freedom for black people remained open.” In those slave narratives that dare to depict the limits of liberty in the North, this “open” status is particularly reflected in the texts’ discursive terrain itself, which portends a series of candid observations and brutal details that actively work to deconstruct any sort of mythological pattern associated with the slave narrative genre, thereby offering a more expansive view of the experience for most fugitive slaves. The Life of William Grimes, a particularly frank and brutal diary of a man’s trials within and without slavery, is one such slave narrative, depicting a journey that, while more consistent with the general experience of ex-slaves in the antebellum U.S., often works outside the parameters of traditional, straight-forward slave narratives like Douglass’s. “I often was obliged to go off the road,” Grimes admits at one point in his autobiography, and although his remark refers to the cautious path he must tread as a fugitive slave, it might just as well describe the thematic and structural characteristics of his open-ended autobiography. Reputedly the first fugitive slave narrative, the publication of Grimes’s Life in 1825 initiated the beginning of a genre whose path had not yet been forged, which likely contributed to its fluid nature. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Grimes’s self-expressed testimony of injustice under slavery was about five years ahead of its time; it wouldn’t be until the 1830s that the U.S. antislavery movement would begin to consciously seek out ex-slaves to testify to their experience in bondage. Once this literary door was open, however, antislavery sentiment became for many early African American authors “a ready forum” for self-expression. Whereas in twenty years’ time Douglass would take full advantage of this opportunity by drawing inspiration from a number of already established narratives, Grimes as an author found himself singularly “off the road” and essentially alone in new literary territory, uncannily reflecting his sense of alienation and helplessness in the North after escaping from slavery aboard a cargo ship in 1815.