Slave Research Articles

O desafio da atenção integral à saúde e da emancipação de trabalhadores escravizados

Abstract Introduction: contemporary forms of slave labour have different impacts on occupational health, requiring new and emancipatory care practices. Objective: to analyze the theoretical and practical dimensions of the health-disease-care process and workers’ emancipation in a context of enslavement. Methods: this essay problematizes theoretical and conceptual aspects of the health-work-slavery relationship, emphasizing the importance of broadening the concept of worker beyond wage-earning relations. Results: the article presents a critical review of Brazilian experiences in supporting the emancipation of enslaved workers and a critical reading of the ‘National Flow of Assistance to Victims of Slave Labor,’ highlighting the pressing challenge of developing new health care routes and the role of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) and of the workers’ health, especially for post-rescue moments, to overcome the risk of re-enslavement and reduce social vulnerabilities. Conclusion: the continuous struggle to expand and strengthen emancipatory strategies requires the leadership and organisation of workers, connecting unions, social, gender and racial struggles as struggles for freedom and dignity. Fights for health that promote the construction of territories free from slave labor, containing a set of actions to ensure basic conditions for a dignified life and the exercise of freedom.

They Were Free: The Clear Error at the Core of Prigg v. Pennsylvania

The archives of the Historical Society of Harford County in Maryland contain the records of the 1837 freedom trial of Margaret Morgan, the central character in Prigg v. Pennsylvania. These documents reveal stunning evidence of the life of freedom lived by Margaret and her six children whose status as enslaved persons was simply assumed by Justice Joseph Story in his Prigg opinion, which nationalized slavery and established a federally protected right for slaveholders to recapture enslaved persons. This paper argues that based on the testimony presented by Margaret during her 1837 freedom trial in Harford County, even under the laws of Maryland, Margaret presented sufficient evidence for her and her six children, Lucy, Elizabeth, Hester, Amanda, Charles, and infant daughter, Margaret Ann, to be adjudged free. Consequently, the Maryland jury filled with slaveholders who concluded Margaret and her six children were all slaves committed clear error – a clear error that Justice Story later rubber stamped as the full story in Prigg v. Pennsylvania. By reviewing Margaret’s evidence proving that she and her six children were all free, the unconscionable reality that Prigg v. Pennsylvania was a fabricated test case is exposed. The reason that the evidence of Margaret’s life of freedom is sitting in the records of a Maryland historical society and never made it into the Supreme Court record is due to a series of sinister negotiations between the governments of Maryland and Pennsylvania that resulted in a special verdict stipulating as “fact” the falsehood that Margaret was a “slave for life.” In seeking to aggrandize federal power, Justice Story relied on this lie that Margaret was a “slave for life” to preempt state personal liberty laws, nationalize slavery, and subordinate the status of black Americans to a “species of property” subject to seizure and kidnapping into slavery on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.

Between Empires: Women’s Resistance and Domestic Slavery in the Libyan Territories in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

In 1854, Fekiriyeh and Renghi Sefa, two enslaved girls from the Sudan, fled their enslaver, Ahmed Pasha, and sought refuge in the house of the British Consul in Salonica. Their ordeal had begun weeks earlier when they were loaded onto a ship and transported from the Ottoman Tripoli to the Greek port city. To evade the Ottoman prohibition on slave trafficking within the Empire, the Pasha furnished them with manumission papers. On arrival in Salonica, the Pasha confiscated the documents and destroyed them. After Ahmed Pasha revoked their freedom, the two girls absconded, showing up at the door of the British Consul.This article examines historical cases of enslaved women and girls, like Fekiriyeh and Renghi Sefa, who escaped their enslavers and sought refuge or help from various political authorities in Ottoman and post-Ottoman Libya or connected territories. These cases were often marked by trafficking, enslavement, abuse, sale, and an eventual quest for emancipation, By analyzing the interactions between enslaved individuals, European and Ottoman authorities, and Muslim households, this study highlights the gendered nature of slavery in North Africa.Contrary to conventional top-down perspectives, this research emphasizes the importance of the individual actions of enslaved women in seeking alternative authorities, such as foreign consulates, to adjudicate their claims. Despite opposition to the trans-Saharan slave trade and the slave trade within the Ottoman Empire before its disintegration after the First World War, British representatives avoided getting involved in cases of domestic slavery in Libya. Italian authorities would continue a similar policy after annexing the territory in 1911. Notwithstanding this reluctance, enslaved girls and women learned through various networks how to find sympathetic forums for their grievances. Evaluating the policies of British Consuls, Italian abolitionists, and the Italian colonial government, this paper argues that the actions of enslaved women, rather than male policymakers, were central to changing the status of enslaved individuals and eventually contributing to abolition.The focus on the experiences of girls like Fekiriyeh and Renghi Sefa exemplifies the importance of documenting enslaved girls' and women's lives and experiences. While the ultimate fate of these women and girls post-manumission remains unknown, their courageous efforts to resist enslavement contribute to a broader understanding of the intricacies of abolition in Libya and the larger Ottoman World in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

MODERN SLAVERY AND THE EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKET DYNAMICS

Many people think of slavery as a matter of the past with little relevance to today's world. But nonetheless, this institution continues to constitute a thriving research field for sociologists, historians, and economists. The present paper examines the issue of modern slavery as related to forced labour and labour exploitation, analyses the labour legislation of the European Union, and gathers several cases of forced labour/ labour exploitation involving Romanian workers. The purpose of the present paper is achieved using content analysis, a qualitative research method. The results suggested that, despite the European Union's extensive labour regulations, it still encounters situations of forced labour/ labour exploitation where basic worker rights and protection are not upheld; the findings highlight the need for greater consideration, further research, and solutions for this issue, together with special concern towards the clear distinctions between forced labour and labour exploitation.

How Have Changes to the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act Affected the Conceptualization of 'Race' and Racism in Society?

Modern slavery, as an increasingly incessant problem around the world and in the United Kingdom especially, is driven by and influenced by many different factors. As such, this paper focuses on the changes towards the 2015 United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act (UKMSA) and how those changes can be applied to analyze and explain how the conceptualization of ‘race’ and racism are affected by issues such as Brexit and COVID-19. Little previous research has been completed on the correlation between those above factors, and so this paper will provide guidance for future research and for policy-makers to consider the different elements that affect modern slavery and human trafficking. This paper also includes a literature review whereby different pieces of literature are analyzed to gain a better-rounded understanding on the different topics, concepts, and themes that are present in United Kingdom modern slavery research. It was useful to compare the annual changes to the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act from 2015 to 2022. Then, statistics from the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics were gathered to address the total number of potential modern slavery cases there were in the United Kingdom, starting from 2015, as that was when the first revision of the UK Modern Slavery Act was officially published. In the future, research can focus on how to disperse precise information on ways to prevent and spot modern slavery as a bystander and on ‘race’ and racism as social constructs, to reduce and eventually eliminate the issue of modern slavery.

DARWIN NO BRASIL: A DIVULGAÇÃO CIENTÍFICA EM QUADRINHOS

ABSTRACT: This article aims to analyze the comic book “Darwin: no Brasil”. The magazine in question is a comic approach that aims to show children and teenagers some ideas about the naturalist and his journey in Brazil of the 19th century. In the work analyzed, the serious figure takes on a different version of most materials, with a profusion of colors printed on paper with a higher quality than that of comic books. It is not easily found on magazine stands, but rather in physical and virtual bookstores. For the analysis of the magazine, some pages were investigated with the purpose of indicating how the comic artist uses visual resources in combination with verbal language, and how they complement each other, contributing to the propagation of the scientific message. The results indicated the complexity of disseminating scientific knowledge in a compact verbal-visual format. As a strategy to communicate the naturalist's journey to readers, the author created a narrative with a visual and linguistic nature in the comics. The attempt to present scientific questions in comics fulfilled the purpose of conveying part of Darwin's story in Brazil, exploring the emotions, but did not provoke reflections, possibly due to the author's intentions in discussing the issues of slavery as well as Darwin's view of the Brazilian society at the time. However, the reflections presented should not be seen as a rejection to the work “Darwin in Brazil”, but as a precaution for those who make the material available to children and adolescents.

Norwegians in the Slave Trade: Unveiling Hidden Histories of Colonialism and Enslavement

Abstract: Per Ivar Hjeldsbakken Engevold and Kari Lie Dorer‘s work in progress, Norwegians in the Slave Trade: Unveiling Hidden Histories of Colonialism and Enslavement , delves into the complex history of how Denmark-Norway became a participant in the trade of enslaved peoples and colonization. Over the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, Norwegians and Danes played a role in the trafficking of enslaved Africans, with Danish ships transporting nearly 100,000 enslaved individuals from Africa to European possessions in the Caribbean. Hjeldsbakken Engevold and Lie Dorer‘s research emphasizes the often-omitted Norwegian roles within the Danish colonial empire and the lasting impacts of this involvement on Norway‘s colonial legacy on contemporary issues of racism. Their in-progress book project explores the roles Norwegians played in the slave trade, from the elite to those coerced into participation. Intended for a general audience, the publication aims to provide a nuanced understanding of Norway‘s role in colonialism outside its borders. It discusses Norwegian involvement in Southeast Asia, West Africa, the Caribbean, and Northern Europe, offering a comprehensive overview that ties together the pieces of Norwegian and Norwegian-American history in a unique manner. Because of this difficult and underrecognized history, the authors stress its importance.

A GÊNESE DO COMBATE: AÇÕES DE REPRESSÃO À ESCRAVIDÃO CONTEMPORÂNEA NO BRASIL (1985-1995)

This article aims to analyze the actions of public agents aimed at combating contemporary slave labor on agribusiness farms located in the interior of Piauí and Maranhão, between 1985 and 1995. Initially, we address the conditions to which the workers were subjected. enslaved workers caught during inspections, highlighting the exhausting working hours, debt mechanisms and the precariousness of accommodation and food provided by companies. Next, we demonstrate the attitudes of scouts and managers of rural properties committed to compromising inspections, as well as the articulations established between different institutions to make operations viable and overcome recurring difficulties in the historical context, characterized by the lack of effective policies to combat the problem. Regarding these questions, we sought support in the research of Ricardo Rezende Figueira (2004), Ângela de Castro Gomes and Regina Beatriz Guimarães Neto (2018). Furthermore, we made use of a variety of empirical materials, such as: newspaper sources, mainly the newspapers Diário do Povo and O Estado, inspection reports and publications from the International Labor Organization (ILO).

『엄마가 수놓은 길』에 나타난 흑인 여성 서사

This study closely analyzes the lives and history of African American women depicted in Jacqueline Woodson's Show Way. Through a sequential examination of text and illustrations on each page, the research traces the life journey of African American women. Special attention is given to the 'quilt' as a means chosen by Woodson to address the challenging theme of the 'slavery system.' The focus is on how the messages conveyed in the picture book interact with the traditional 'quilt' of African American women. By exploring the quilt in addressing the issue of slavery, this study aims to enhance children's understanding of historical events and human rights issues. The analysis, particularly of the quilt, is expected to offer profound insights into the history of resistance and hope among African American women. Show Way successfully achieves Woodson's goal of passing down the stories of Black women to the next generation, and its active integration into American literary education addressing the lives and histories of African American women is anticipated.

Islamic Law Overview of Mu'athah Buying and Selling at STIBA Makassar

This study aims to determine the practice of mu'athah buying and selling at STIBA Makassar and elaborate the procedures and laws for carrying out each mu'athah buying and selling transaction without any supervision from the seller. This study used a qualitative descriptive research method with a phenomenological approach. The data collection methods used were observation, interviews, and documentation. The data sources in this study were STIBA Makassar students, sellers of refilled water gallons, buyers, lecturers, and administrators as informants; the sources of primary data and documents in the form of data or tables of information as the secondary data. The results found a basis for the philosophy of mu'athah buying and selling, which existed during the period of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions until now because the ulama would not have different opinions regarding the law if mu'athah buying and selling transactions never existed. The practice of mu'athah buying and selling at STIBA Makassar often involves theft, and the suspect tends to return the thing during the fifth semester and above. The law of mu'athah buying and selling is permissible according to most ulama based on the evidence from the QS. Ali-Imran/3:41 and a hadith narrated by a Jewish enslaved people. The problem that occurs from the practice of buying and selling at STIBA Makassar is not due to problems with the contract, but there are problems out of the contract; when the vendible is often lost, it means that there is a theft and it is illegitimate.

Religion et esclavage en Amérique à travers l’Histoire de l’esclavage aux Etats-Unis de Claude Fohlen

The history of America at large and that of slavery in particular cannot be told without sound reference to religion. Indeed, the practice of Christianity imposed by the masters was a key tool for to get the slaves busy when they were not at work, on Sundays mainly, and white pastors resorted to interpretation of the bible aiming at getting the black slaves to accept and adapt to their condition. Yet, from adaptation to the white man’s religion, the black slaves found motives for fight and resistance. Claude Fohlen’s L’Histoire de l’Esclavage en Amérique has explored the functioning of slavery in America, along with the importance of religion in the process. The present paper seeks to highlight the meaning of religion to both the slave master and the slaves themselves, and how it served both the white master’s control over slaves, and the slaves’ fight for emancipation. The study has been conducted under the New Criticism theory, an approach that focuses primarily on the text itself, avoiding outside influences such as historical and biographical information that might drive the reader from the essential meaning of the text. Keywords: America, Slavery, Religion, Domination, Emancipation

Empires, Nations and the Question of Territorial Sovereignty in the Greek Archipelago during the Greek Revolution

Based mainly on the correspondence between the local religious and secular authorities, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) in Rome, representatives of the French and Austrian governments and the Greek insurgents, this article demonstrates how the story of the Catholic community of Syros describes the making of a new frontier but also the shaping of a new territorial conception of sovereignty where multiple agents and jurisdictions co-existed next to each other for centuries. The so-called “Pope’s Island” was the only one with a solid Roman Catholic majority among its inhabitants. After the outbreak of the Greek revolt, Syros declared its neutrality and became a safe haven for Orthodox refugees fleeing from Ottoman reprisals, especially after the Chios massacres in April 1822. By 1825, around 30,000 (mainly Orthodox) refugees had taken over the port, which in the meantime became a Christian “Eldorado” of legal trade and illegal traffic of all sorts, including piracy booties and slave labour.

CRIMEAN TATARS AMONG THE OTTOMAN COSSACKS (1853–1877)

The Eastern War (1853–1856) was an important watershed in the history of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar peoples, creating new realities for their cooperation in the fight against Russian imperialism. One of the most striking examples of such cooperation was the participation of the Crimean Tatars at the 1st Regiment of the Ottoman Cossacks actions. The Ottoman Cossacks were a military unit led by Mykhailo Chaikovskyi (Mehmed Sadyk Pasha), who united representatives of many enslaved peoples in the struggle for liberation in alliance with European powers and as part of the liberal-reformed Ottoman army. The Ottoman Cossacks had an intellectual influence on nation-building in the European part of the Ottoman Empire. The unit's leadership believed that liberation was possible with the participation of the Ottoman Empire. For the first time, the enslaved peoples received patronage from the top leadership of the Ottoman Empire, which was reflected primarily in the creation of the Cossack Brigade and the formulation of the idea of Cossack autonomy in South East Europe.

Sustainable Manufacturing: A Review and Framework Derivation

As sustainability in manufacturing becomes increasingly important, numerous concepts, new technologies, and use cases for improving and assessing sustainability in manufacturing environments are emerging. However, there is a lack of a framework that shows an easy way to identify relevant topics for action in the field of sustainable manufacturing. The purpose of this publication is to provide a structure for the topic of sustainable manufacturing, to contribute to the understanding and classification of ongoing activities, and to identify starting points for future research and development. Within this publication, an extensive literature review is presented. A framework for sustainable manufacturing that acts as a call for action for academia and operations management in the industry alike is derived from this literature review. The framework is intended for Western countries, as, within this framework, aspects such as the elimination of enslaved persons and child labor in production are assumed to be implemented through legal regulations already. Details of the framework are elaborated, and its application is discussed. This publication contributes to a common, clear understanding of sustainability and the different aspects of sustainability in manufacturing.

Legislative Theater and Modern Slavery: Eploring a Hyperlocal Approach to Combatting Human Trafficking

Since 2018, Act for Change (AfC), a Ghanaian applied theater company, has been using Boalian theater techniques to address issues of modern slavery and human trafficking in their community. Here, using the framework of Boal’s Legislative Theater, we discuss the ways in which AfC has developed Boal’s work, innovating it within a specific context to find new and powerful ways of using performance to engage with intractable issues of modern slavery and human trafficking. Focussing on the specific dynamics of a single community, this article explores how employing a ‘hyperlocal’ approach in James Town, Accra, enables a focus on the local stories that highlight how modern slavery and human trafficking operate. More specifically, while using a Marxist-Freiran framework and by engaging with Augusto Boal’s concepts of Legislative and Forum Theater, this article focuses on how performance methodologies can engage with complex international issues by developing intra-local dialogue and partnerships at the local level. The goal here is not to argue that community action can act as a replacement for statutory instruments or state-led initiatives, but that they are a potentially significant and under-developed complementary tool in the fight against modern slavery, as they place the community and the survivor at the center of change. By taking this approach, we aim to reflect on how theories of legislative theater can aid the development of a hyperlocal methodology and how the project in James Town exemplifies modern legislative theater practice. 

Selecting from the Writings of John Woolman: ‘On Christian Moderation’

In 1816 the Friends Tract Association published an excerpt from John Woolman’s first antislavery essay Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes with every reference to slavery edited out. The editors wanted to highlight Woolman’s ‘general’ message, that those who maintained their health, lived humbly and served God were rewarded with true happiness. In the excerpt, using biblical citations and an invocation of the early Quaker colonisation of the Delaware Valley, Woolman asserted that God rewards his servants. The excerpt successfully highlights this easily overlooked feature of Woolman’s lifelong ministry, but by omitting Woolman’s discussion of slavery it violated his original intention. The excerpt appeared in the last year of Quaker consensus on the issue of slavery. The editors believed they could set the issue aside because they thought the Quakers were in agreement on it, but shortly after their excerpt appeared the Quaker consensus on slavery fell apart. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .

Dismantling the Sentimental in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp

Abstract: In this essay, I analyze Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Dred to show how Stowe’s confrontation with Protestant religious institutions in the 1850s led her to deconstruct the sentimental techniques she had previously relied on in Uncle Tom’s Cabin . Scrutinizing Presbyterian leaders’ response to slavery both at a public camp meeting and at a private gathering of Northern and Southern ministers, Stowe assigns the main responsibility for slavery to Protestant ministers fearful of losing cultural power amid the intense denominational competition of the nineteenth century. In particular, she shows how the clergy justified silence on the issue of slavery by assigning slavery to a secular, civil sphere and narrowly defining the Christian church’s realm as purely spiritual, even as those same clergy advanced a nationalist political agenda.

TRADE RELATIONS AND SLAVERY BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF XIVA AND THE STATES OF IRAN

This article was published on the basis of theoretical and comparative analysis of data recorded in scientifically based literature, archival documents and written sources on the trade relations between Khiva Khanate and the state of Iran and the issues of slavery in Khiva Khanate. Also, the status of Iranian slaves in Khiva Khanate and the price of slaves in the markets were covered based on scientifically based literature.

“Her Infant at Her Breast”: Breastfeeding as Survival and Resistance in Colonial Haiti

Abstract: This article analyzes published sources, archival records, and prints and paintings to show that, over the course of the eighteenth century, white colonists in Saint-Domingue attempted unsuccessfully to dehumanize enslaved persons by exploiting their breasts as sources of productive and reproductive labor and by disfiguring them by means of brands. Enslaved women and men resisted that control. Despite being branded, enslaved persons ran away. Knowing the tremendous cultural and social value accorded to their breasts, enslaved women, whether as mothers or othermothers, pursued a strategy of subversive breastfeeding. By so doing, they nurtured children and sustained survival, including fugitive networks. Ultimately, these Black mothers impacted how freedom was defined and imagined both during and long after the Haitian Revolution. These findings contribute to histories of the breast, the Haitian Revolution, intimate labor, and the body. They make visible women and their decisions in challenging enslavement.

“Servants not Soldiers”: The Origins of Slavery in the United States Army, 1797–1816

Abstract: This article illuminates a lesser-explored aspect of the United States as a “slaveholding republic.” Between 1816–1861, the U.S. Army relied on thousands of enslaved persons who served as officers' servants. In 1816, Congress authorized allowances, rations, and bonuses for officers' private servants while putting an end to the practice of soldiers serving as servants. This legislative move effectively subsidized and incentivized military slaveholding. The paper delves into the political circumstances and legislative maneuvers that led Congress to institutionalize military slavery, establishing mechanisms to sustain, fund, and expand the number of enslaved servants. Military slavery developed gradually with the foundation, bureaucratization, and professionalization of an American military peace establishment. It evolved from 1797 to 1816 through competing policy objectives, resulting in a long-lasting bureaucratic workaround euphemistically termed "servants not soldiers." Facing public criticism over officers’ abuse of soldiers’ labor, the army “outsourced” officers’ servants through a dual process of privatization and racialization, differentiating between “public” and “private” service, between free, white soldiers and enslaved, black servants. Though serving slaveholders’ interests, the adopted solution was a product of bureaucratic contingencies and ad-hoc decision-making and not a policy orchestrated by a cabal of enslavers. Interestingly, a basic question of reimbursement led somewhere unanticipated, ending in government-sponsored enslaved servitude. Acknowledging this contingency does not excuse the actions but underscores how slavery was often "solved" through institutional accommodation rather than political or moral opposition. Thus, slavery directly impacted the U.S. Army, a central national institution, altering the military system at its pivotal, formative moments.