Surviving slavery: oppression and social rebirth in the urban British Atlantic, 1680-1807
Date
2017
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The project examines the formation of enslaved black societies in the urban British Atlantic. Captives formed societies while holding onto memories of their homeland constituting a process of social rebirth. It was through social rebirth that bondspeople were able to avoid social death, despite pervasive dehumanization. How did enslaved families and communities act as resources for social and physical survival in Anglo-American cities? And how did these cities act as sites of captive oppression and subjugation? These are the questions central to the study. The lived experiences of bondspeople in mainland and Caribbean port cities are used as windows into the complexities of social rebirth. The project begins with the expansion of slavery in British America and concludes with the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Analyzing the process of social rebirth in early cities reveals the brutality of urban bondage and the remarkable resiliency of urban bondspeople.
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Keywords
Slavery, British Atlantic, Social rebirth, Cities