The Animal and African American History

Abstract

From the Middle Passage to the Black Lives Matter movement today, the animal carries a long-standing tradition of intersecting with African American life in American history. The proximity between the animal and the African American subject, which points back to the chattel (etymologically affiliated with cattle) status of the slave in America, carries modern ramifications that are increasingly being addressed in scholarships and publications. The “animal turn,” which refers to the fast-growing interest in human-animal relationships across the humanities and social sciences, has opened a new platform for questions of race and the nonhuman within the context of an America impacted by slavery. This article retraces the itinerary of the animal presence alongside the black subject in American history and includes key concepts and authors related to animal studies and black studies. The resources are divided into five parts. The first focuses on Intersectionality, the theoretical apparatus that has enabled scholars to establish connections among gender, racial, and species discrimination. The intersectional approach initially appeared within a litigious legal framework in the United States, as it was used to address the combination of racism and sexism. The concept has since expanded to include other forms of oppression, including so-called speciesism, a form of discrimination against animals said to be analogous to sexism and racism. The second part focuses on the literature that has addressed, and at times questioned, the practice of analogizing animals with blacks. Though it is not new—it was part of a 19th-century scientific racism discourse that justified slavery—the analogizing practice has more recently been used to compare the condition of black slaves then with the modern exploitation of animals. The third segment revisits the historical role of watchdogs used as a repressive tool against blacks in American history from the plantation era in the American South to the race riots and demonstrations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The fourth part centers on the relation between breed specific legislation and institutionalized racism in America, specifically on pit bulls and African Americans. The fifth part deals with the prominent contribution of blacks in the history of horse managing and horse racing in the American South, first, as slaves and, following the Civil War and into the Jim Crow Era, as trainers.