Tag: Atlantic Slavery
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The Role of Lourenço da Silva Mendonça in Challenging the Atlantic Slave Trade

When studying the key abolitionists of the Atlantic slave trade, we often think of European figures like William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp. However this negates the efforts of African individuals, such as Lourenço da Silva Mendonça, who made extraordinary efforts to combat the Atlantic slave trade. Louisa Steijger analyses Mendonça’s legacy in an…
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Beyond Harlem: The Domestic and Transnational Impact of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a deeply impactful cultural and intellectual movement concerned with widening black consciousness. Edie Christian traces its various domestic and transnational ramifications.
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Medicine as Autonomy: An Analysis of Enslaved Africans in Seventeenth Century Barbados and Jamaica

Between the years 1440 and 1720, two million enslaved Africans were forcefully shipped to the Americas. During this time the practice of medicine played a critical role in the survival and wellbeing of these slaves, but most importantly, provided them with agency. Nadja Dixon examines this medical expertise.
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Beyond the Beads and Feathers: Unpacking the Subversive Potential of Carnival in the Atlantic World

Beyond the colour and conviviality, Carnivals have served as a means for participants to challenge oppression through performance. Angela Davis explores the history of this tradition and the sociocultural changes it has driven.
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Editing the Jamaica Reader: A Conversation with Professor Diana Paton and Professor Matthew Smith

Professor Diana Paton and Professor Matthew Smith sit down with Retrospect’s EIC, Jamie Gemmell, to discuss their new volume: The Jamaica Reader: History, Culture, Politics.
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Redefining Humanity: Political Philosophy in African British Anti-Slavery Literature

Written by Charlie Horlick. Ottobah Cugoano’s writing has been typically framed as a slave narrative, yet it is perhaps more than that. Part political economy, part meditation on morality, it should be integrated into the canon of eighteenth-century philosophy.
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Review: Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World, Jessica Marie Johnson (2020)

Written by Jamie Gemmell. Dr. Jessica Marie Johnson’s 2020 book explores the lives of black women in colonial Louisiana. Beginning in West Africa and moving through colonial rule to the formation of the USA to produce a history of the Atlantic world.
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Book One to Book Two: Writing Histories of Atlantic Slavery

Professor Vincent Brown joined Retrospect for an interview titled, “Book One to Book Two: Writing Histories of Atlantic Slavery.” Here, we offer an edited transcript of the conversation
