Voyeur in the Torrid Zone: John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, 1773–1838

Abstract

This article reads John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam through the literary and scientific cultures of natural history, demonstrating how Stedman's acts of sexual domination and exploitation in Suriname are veiled in the rhetoric of science. Tracing the complex ways enslaved African women were recast and erased by Stedman and his editors illuminates how naturalist print culture contributed to the long-standing history of violence against women in the colonial Americas.