This work explores the role that ideas about Africa played in the development of a specifically American identity among free blacks in the United States, from the early nineteenth century to the Civil War. Previous studies of the writings of free blacks in the Revolutionary period, and of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which was devoted to removing them back to an African homeland, have suggested that black discussions of Africa virtually disappeared after 1816, when the colonization movement began. However, as this work illustrates, the letters, books, newspapers, and organizational records produced by free blacks in the antebellum era tell a different story. The narrative of the ancestral homeland free blacks created in the late eighteenth century, when the Atlantic slave trade still supplied slaves to the United States, was one that emphasized the connections between Africa and its scattered descendants throughout the Americas. After the establishment of the ACS in 1816 free blacks’ dialogue related to the land of their ancestors did not disappear, but it did change dramatically. As this study reveals, the overarching impact of colonization, racial pseudo-science, and racism generally in the antebellum period, made Africa a subject that free black leaders and writers could not avoid. They had to talk about it. Paradoxically, they found that they needed to validate Africa, even as they rejected it. Free black Americans found themselves faced with the tasks, ultimately, of legitimizing their African origins, even as they spurned the idea of Africa as home.

Magister Artium - MA / The novel Philida by André P, Brink is classified in the genre of slave novel. The novel tells the story of a slave woman, Philida, who lodged a complaint with the Slave Protector because she and her children were about to be sold to a new master. In this study I will look at how the author, Brink, uses different narrative strategies to give an authentic voice to Philida. Amongst these strategies are the unique voice of the character Philida, multiple narrators, language use and the creative use of historical and archival sources. The study will focus on the characterization of Philida and the depiction of aspects of slavery. It will also explore the voices of other characters such as Frans Brink, Cornelis Brink and Ouma Nella. The theoretical basis of the study is informed by aspects of narratology, postcolonialism and feminism.

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This dissertation looks at slavery in early Mesopotamia (ca. 3200-1595 BC) in the longue durée and establishes theoretical foundations for interpreting the data preserved in the extant sources. Rather than attempting to define slavery, the forms the social institution took from proto-history into the historical era of early Mesopotamia are contextualised, while identifying the broader social changes which might explain the non-linear evolution of the practice. After considering the difficulty of defining the term ‘slave’ in relation to early Mesopotamia in general and numerous attempts to approach the problem, this work moves beyond definition, attempting to historicise slavery. To achieve this, slavery in early Mesopotamia is considered in the high points of the record in relation to key diagnostic features. The acquisition of slaves is studied alongside the release of slaves, demonstrating the numerous ways people in early Mesopotamia could be reduced to some form of bondage or slavery, while there remained relatively few means by which a person could experience upward movement out of slavery, opportunities which were reduced further for foreign and houseborn slaves. The following discussion of the economics of slavery seeks to place the question in an historical context of modern scholarship before assessing the motivations, benefits, and risks of owning slaves in early Mesopotamia. After this chapter which looks at slavery from the perspectives of the elite, the subsequent chapter attempts to move beyond the elite bias of the documentation to understand history from the bottom, by studying flight and the related means of coercion. By considering the ways in which runaways were pursued and the risks members of the lower stratum community were willing to take for a change in status, the discussion presents a way forward to understanding slavery in early Mesopotamia. These diagnostic features of slavery reveal a traceable non-linear evolution of slavery in early Mesopotamia.

Through the passing of time we gain perspective of the past and thus we gain knowledge. Through the interpretation of this knowledge we can inform and evaluate our visions of and goals for the future. ‘Our knowledge of time lies in the very heart of our humanity. We learn from the past, we pass on that wisdom to the future, that has been the bedrock of our civilisation’ (OXLEY, P., & KAKU, M.,2007). This knowledge, also known as our cultural heritage, can take numerous forms such as literature, art, architecture, traditional dances, festivals, folk tales, cuisine, etc. Our cultural heritage is to be preserved for posterity and ‘should be protected and made publicly available, subject to requirements of security and privacy, and where this is culturally appropriate’ (Burra Charter,1999:Article 32). The phenomenon of slavery forms part of the cultural heritage of the world, Mauritius and specifically the Le Morne peninsula. Following the area’s inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a need arose for an Interpretation Centre to provide more information on the culturally significant area’s history. For the design of this facility, this thesis study proposes an experiment in interaction of space and emotion, where the container interacts with the user and induces sensations associated with the artefacts, taking the form of multi-media exhibitions, therefore using a variety of tools to induce a holistic, subjective and objective learning experience. Through this proposal the cultural heritage is to be interpreted and displayed to inform contemporary concepts and visions of the future amongst locals and tourists alike. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

M.A. / The study of South African history has developed considerably over the last number of years to incorporate new ideas, approaches, and styles. However, the standard works on South African historiography continue to provide a reader with very little beyond a descriptive framework to allow historians to locate their work within the body of South African historical knowledge. This dissertation attempts to address this shortcoming by encouraging and advocating a more analytical approach to the field of historiography. Here, the approach taken is the same as that taken by Hayden White in writing his work Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. At the same time, a stronger focus is placed on the role of historical context. To demonstrate the advantages of this type of analysis, of analytical historiography over the traditional conception of historiography, I have chosen the example of South African slavery under Dutch administration, 1652 – 1795. The question that this work then attempts to answer is: How can our understanding of South African Slave Historiography be enlightened by the use of Analytical Historiography? The work is divided into two, with the first section dealing with the theoretical and methodological requirements of the work. The second deals with the Whiteian analysis of a number of works on slavery at the Cape before 1795.1 This is followed by the final analysis and conclusion.

This dissertation examines the social history of Atlantic and American free and unfree labor by focusing on the production and consumption of the means of light from the colonial period to the end of the nineteenth century. Drawing from archives across the country, I reconstruct the ground-level experiences and struggles of the living (and dying) bringers of lights--those American lucifers--and the worlds they made in the process. / History

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo reconstituir e investigar algumas ações abolicionistas ocorridas no município de Jacareí na década de 1880, especialmente através da atuação de indivíduos que protagonizaram dois marcos da história desse movimento na localidade: o ato de expulsão de abolicionistas ocorrido em 26 de novembro de 1883 e a fundação do Clube Abolicionista em agosto de 1887. A partir da análise de fontes documentais produzidas pela Polícia, pela Justiça, em suas instâncias municipais e provinciais, e por escravocratas e abolicionistas da localidade podemos identificar as distintas formas de atuação dos sujeitos das ações abolicionistas naqueles momentos específicos, em 1883 e 1887, e as diferentes percepções que tais agentes tinham sobre a legitimidade da escravidão e da propriedade escrava. / This paper aims to reconstruct and investigate some abolitionists actions that occurred in the Jacareí municipality in the 1880s, especially through the actions of individuals who leaded two milestones in the history of this movement in the locality: the expulsion of abolitionists occurred in November 26th of 1883 and the foundation of the Clube Abolicionista in August of 1887. Through the analysis of documentary sources produced by the Police, Justice, in their municipal and provincial authorities, and by the slaves owners and abolitionists of the locality, we can identify the different forms of operation adopted by the subjects of the abolitionism actions in those specific moments of 1883 and 1887, and the different perceptions that these agents had on the legitimacy of slavery and the slave ownership.

Using postmodern techniques and slave perspectives, late 20th century African-American authors Octavia Butler, Sherley Anne Williams, Toni Morrison, and Phyllis Alesia Perry complexify representations of enslaved women in American literature in novels termed “neo-slave narratives”. Revising sentimentalism, exoticization and appropriation, primarily by white authors, these authors emphasize slavery’s negative legacies, memorialization of slave sacrifice and culture, and female strength and agency. Contemporary white authors, wrestling with the traumatic history of slavery and white complicity, emulate neo-slave narrative authors, using communities of women and white empathy with the enslaved female body to join the reevaluation of slavery representations. In what I term “Reparational Literature”, contemporary white authors return to a slave setting to negotiate white guilt, to “repair” wrongs, and to explore modes of cross-racial interaction that recognize privilege. This involves destabilizing the white subject and emphasizing acknowledgement and empathy to resolve problems. Enslaved characters are agents rather than objects or surrogates, and their role in allowing the white women access to their wisdom, recognizing white contrition, and offering forgiveness is crucial to the novel’s resolution. Literature and art are often on the forefront of societal change; Reparational Literature signifies transformation in white consciousness as legal, economic, and symbolic reparations become more widely accepted. Reflecting Foucault’s idea of the body as a site of struggle and Womanist ideas of universalism and connection to the community, these writers present the enslaved female body as the place to remember and repair slavery’s negative impact, a locus for acknowledging and merging the violence of the past and hope for the future. In Valerie Martin’s Property, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings, Tara Conklin’s The House Girl, and Pam Durban’s So Far Back, the white woman who is given access to the symbolic language of the enslaved woman’s natural world, to hear and see the language of her enduring body, frees herself from the artificial influences of slaveholding. These authors continue the long tradition of the black body as a symbol, but I argue that they do so with an awareness of the position of whiteness and appreciation for slave sacrifice and subjectivity. / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation consists of three essays investigating the historical roots of economic development and inequality in the US South. The first essay examines the impact of slavery on long-run development. Using county-level data from the US South, I show that slavery has impeded long-run development through the human capital channel. The mechanism involves labor market institutions and their impact on demand for human capital. I find that the history of slavery hindered integration of black workers into the labor market. Moreover, border-county analyses show that selective application of laws and regulations was a primary tool for impeding labor market integration. Through estimating the relative return to education for each county, I further argue that blacks in a region with a greater legacy of slavery had fewer incentives to invest in human capital. The second essay studies the long run effects of cotton agriculture focusing on a novel aspect of structural change. I show that cotton specialization in the late 19th century had long-run negative impact on local development, and the negative relationship became only evident in the second half of the 20th century. I argue that the change was caused by the mechanization of cotton production. After cotton mechanization, cotton labor with low human capital was relocated to local manufacturing. In response to the inflow of cotton labor, there was a decline in labor productivity in manufacturing which persisted through directed technical change. Using census data, I show that initial cotton specialization reduces demand for skills in manufacturing even to this day. The third essay addresses the legacy of cotton agriculture on economic inequality. Using the Gini index of household income, I show that initial cotton specialization increased long-run economic inequality at the county level. Moreover, evidence from the census data indicates that cotton specialization increased wage inequality exclusively in the local service sector, without any effects on the other non-agricultural sectors. As an explanation, I argue that wage inequality in the service sector increased due to expansion of employment in low-wage occupations followed by a decrease in their wage level.