Subject Of Slavery Research Articles

The Iron Fettered Weight of All Civilization: The Project of Barbara Chase-Riboud's Narratives of Slavery

The Iron Fettered Weight of All Civilization:The Project of Barbara Chase-Riboud's Narratives of Slavery Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (bio) In three important ways, Barbara Chase-Riboud stands out from the post-civil rights generation of writers who produced contemporary narratives of slavery. First, over the course of almost a quarter-century, from the publication of Sally Hemings in 1979 to Hottentot Venus in 2003, she has consistently focused each of her five novels on the subject of slavery; no other writer has so insistently made slavery the primary topic and setting of her entire narrative oeuvre. Second, Chase-Riboud has expanded the geographical scope of American writers taking up the subject of slavery. She has explored the dynamic of enslavement in the usual settings chosen by American writers—ships during the transatlantic voyage and American plantations in the South—as well as places not usually associated with narratives of slavery—New England and Philadelphia. Even more significantly, though, she has brought an unparalleled attention to the practice and effects of slavery in Africa and Europe and Asia. Again, no other novelist of her generation has attempted to understand the global scope of slavery with the kind of attention Chase-Riboud has devoted to the subject. Third, in the course of a quarter-century and five novels devoted to the subject of slavery, Chase-Riboud has produced the most extended, searching, and subtle meditations on the curious place of enslaved people in the dynamic of power. Indeed, her five novels can be said to be nothing less than lyrical and candid examinations of the profound dialectic Hegel described between "slave" and "master" in The Phenomenology of Mind. These three distinctive accomplishments—her career-long focus on slavery, her attention to global manifestations of enslavement, and her pointed Hegelian meditations on the master-slave dialectic—suggest to me that there is another way to read the total body of Chase-Riboud's prose fiction. Rather than seeing each novel as a discrete work concerned with particular characters and examining specific conditions (which of course each novel is), we can also see them all together as ongoing ruminations in the large-scale philosophical project on which Chase-Riboud is embarked, a project in which her primary subject is precisely the complex, fragile, and contradictory dynamic of the master-slave dialectic. I do not wish to suggest that we should ignore or downplay Chase-Riboud's works as distinct novels, with distinct subjects, but rather that we can deepen our understanding of the trajectory of her work by probing into the dynamic she makes central to each of her novels. Nor am I suggesting that Chase-Riboud is attempting to produce a universal or uniform formula explaining the master-slave dialectic whenever and wherever it is manifest. Rather, Chase-Riboud's scope (different cultures, different national and international settings, different systems of enslavement) is meant to demonstrate both the shared and unique imperatives that drive some to claim ownership over others. [End Page 758] In this paper, I will attempt to trace the major terms of her project—the way she teases out implications of the master-slave dialectic—by looking at her first, second, and fifth novels. In these three works—Sally Hemings, Valide (1986), and Hottentot Venus—Chase Riboud explores three different kinds of enslavement and asks three related but different questions about the meaning of slavery and its effects. In Sally Hemings, Chase-Riboud examines the master-slave dialectic within a personal relationship; her primary question in that novel is how slavery distorts human and sexual intimacy. In Valide, she explores the ironies and contradictions in a society in which slavery is imbricated with power, not as the necessary precondition of power (mastery) but rather as an involved agency in the structure of power. In Hottentot Venus, Chase-Riboud exposes the deeper meanings resonating from the coincidental rise of scientific knowledge and slavery during the European Enlightenment. In these three novels, Chase-Riboud delineates the various and devious ways slavery is involved in personal relationships, cultural systems, and epistemic models. What makes this a "project," I propose, is Chase-Riboud's nearly-systematic exploration of how slavery as...

A Study Guide for Stephen B. Oates' The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion

THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY is a difficult one for many teachers of American history, who, seeking to avoid controversy and contemporary racial antagonism, sometimes give less than satisfactory attention to this central chapter of the American past. Slavery may be shortchanged in favor of Civil War battlefield heroics as teachers attempt to avoid the phone call from a parent who is concerned that dredging up this dark chapter of American history will exacerbate racial conflict among students and provide them with a negative image of the United States. Some white teachers and students suggest that studying slavery only stirs up resentment by black students and guilt by young whites who have nothing to do with slavery. However, this very argument demonstrates why the institution of slavery must be at the core of the history curriculum, for the shadow which slavery continues to cast upon American society and race relations raises serious questions about the American dream which young people must address as they become active participants in a democratic society. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans underscores this point only too well. If we accept the study of slavery as a given, then what should be covered in this curriculum? Certainly, the role played by slavery in the political debates leading to the Civil War deserves attention, but the

Female circumcision from Africa to the Americas: Slavery to the present

This paper traces the introduction of female circumcision into the Americas from Africa, from the time of the Atlantic slave trade to the present. It provides a review of the literature on the subjects of slavery, slave fertility and sexuality, slave medicine, as well as a review of current laws passed in the United States related to female circumcision. Interview material with a recent African immigrant to the United States who brings her ritual practice with her, documents an example of present-day circumcision practices in the United States. Various factors leading to the continuation or discontinuation of traditional African practices will be discussed. The desire for cultural and ethnic continuation of this practice exists among some individuals and groups amidst the controversy within the United States concerning “genital mutilation” and “genital cutting.” Medical, legal, sexological, historical, anthropological, and traditional African tribal consultation was provided for this research, adding a cross-disciplinary perspective to this topic of current interest. Graphs, maps, and anatomical illustrations provide pictorial support.

The Irish in the South, 1815–1877

One of the most exciting and significant themes in Irish immigrant history has been the importance of local, regional, and even national variations in the experiences of the Irish living in the many countries of what has been called the Irish Diaspora. Over the last thirty years, for example, historians have argued that Irish immigrants fared significantly better in the favorable environments of the American Far West and Midwest or even in Canada and Australia than they did in Boston, the rest of New England, or New York City. Dr. David T. Gleeson's book builds on this previous work as it sets out to explore the question of how and why Irish immigrant experiences in the nineteenth-century American South also differed from those in the Northeast. Gleeson asserts that “native tolerance” of the Irish in the South was one critical reason for such differences (p. 192). He cites several possible reasons for such tolerance, but the most significant and intriguing of them center on the Irish immigrant' enthusiastic endorsement of slavery and white supremacy, which allayed southern native' suspicions of Irish commitments to Catholicism or to Irish nationalism. Gleeson quotes one Protestant southerner who noted approvingly, “Popery …[is] a horrid system,” but the Catholic Church is “the most conservative church in the Union on the subject of slavery” (p. 119).

Putting "His Story Next to Hers": Choice, Agency, and the Structure of Beloved

When, near the end of Beloved, Paul D wants put his story next to Sethe's (273), his desire points the reader toward the structural and, perhaps, thematic core of Toni Morrison's intense and challenging narrative of slavery's effects and aftereffects. Paul D's statement has been cited often in published criticism of the novel, but its suggestiveness has not actually been much explored.1 Putting Paul D's story and Sethe's side by side can, however, restore a rich parallelism that is obscured by the shifting points of view and multiple pasts of the narrative. It also can serve restore Paul D a position of importance in the novel often denied him and give particular prominence the choices Morrison presents and through her characters, mostly, ironically, while they are subject and subjects of slavery and therefore ostensibly without autonomy.2 The most important of these choices comes in the implicit juxtaposition of Sethe's choice of death for her children and herself, rather than return slavery, with Paul D's choice of life when he finds himself in circumstances that

BÖRTE SAGASTER, “Herren” und “Sklaven”: Der Wandel im Sklavenbild türkischer Literaten in der Spätzeit des Osmanischen Reiches, Mîzân: Studien und Texte zur Literatur des Orients, vol. 7 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997). Pp. 201.

The work under discussion is the slightly revised version of the author's Ph.D. dissertation, which she completed in 1995 at the University of Hamburg. Its aim is to show the treatment of the subject of slavery by Ottoman men of letters. In doing so, it investigates the question of when and how the specifically Ottoman attitude toward slavery was influenced by European ideas.

Slave trade in the Sudan in the nineteenth century and its suppression in the years 1877–80

The subject of slavery and the slave trade in the Sudan during the nineteenth century has been discussed in a number of books and articles.' As a rule these do not analyse the struggle to suppress the slave trade itself, but refer mainly to the social and economic aspects of the institution of slavery, and to the various domestic and external political developments that occurred as a result of that struggle during Charles Gordon's Governor-Generalship in the years 1877-80. There exists to date a controversy between the scholars as to Gordon's success in suppressing the slave trade. While he did, according to Richard Hill, succeed in repressing and diminishing the trade, it all but stopped,2 Abbas Ibrahim Muhammad Ali claims that Gordon's policy resulted not only in his own participation in this activity but also, to some extent, in the encouragement of this venture. Hence, whatever measures he did apply toward destroying the traders meant that his achievements were partial and temporary, and lasted for a short time only.3 The need arises therefore to inquire into Gordon's policy and actions toward the issue and to evaluate his success in the struggle against the slave traders. External and domestic factors contributed to the growth and development of the slave trade in the Sudan during the nineteenth century. The external ones emerged from the demand for slaves which came from different parts of the Ottoman empire, especially from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt and Istanbul. This demand coincided with Muhammad Ali's desire to acquire Sudanese slaves in order to incorporate them into his newly built army, which was one of the main reasons behind his conquest of the Sudan in 1820-21. As a result of this combined conjectural pressure, the Turco-Egyptian domination introduced profound socio-economic changes that influenced all the spheres of life of the local population of Sudan, and not only generated a great demand for slaves but stimulated also a large group of Sudanese to turn to trade in them.4 The Turco-Egyptian intervention in the Sudanese economy and the heavy taxes levied on the local agrarian and suburban population resulted

George Fox and Slavery

George Fox and Slavery Kenneth L. Carroll* Quakerism made its way to the West Indies in 1655 and to the North American mainland in 1656 (when Elizabeth Harris labored in Maryland and Mary Fisher and Anna Austin arrived in New England). There were more than seventy visits by "Publishers ofTruth," as the early ministering Friends were often called, to these areas before the 1671 arrival ofGeorge Fox and his large group oftraveling Friends in the West Indies. Quakerism was well established here long before Fox's American labors began, for great numbers of people had already been convinced, including many slaveholders. These pre-1671 Quaker missionaries, so far as is known, remained silent on the subject of slavery. Fox himselfknew quite early that some American Friends owned slaves, both Blacks and Indians. In 1657 he sent out an epistle entitled "To Friends beyond Sea thathave Blacks and Indian Slaves," calling upon such Quakers to be merciful in their treatment ofthose they held in bondage. In this letter he emphasized the equality ofall mankind in the eyes ofGod as well as the freedom which comes through divine power.1 Probably, at this time, Fox thought of American slavery as not too different from the situation of indentured servants in England. Once he came face to face with West Indian slavery as he saw it in Barbados (and later in Jamaica), Fox's deeper awareness of what was involved (both for the slave and the slaveholder) drove him further than simply calling for mercy. After a long and difficult journey from England Fox finally arrived in Barbados on October 3, 1 67 1—quite weak from the illness which had plagued him most ofthe trip. Several days later he was carried to the home of Thomas Rous, one ofthe early Quaker converts on the island, where he remained however, too weak to travel around Barbados. According to his Journal it was not until late October, some weeks after his arrival, that he appeared in his first meeting at Rous's house. On the following day (the 28th) he appointed a women's meeting there, followed (onNovember 2) by a men's meeting also at Rous's home.2 In the three and a halfweeks he had lain ill and undergone his long recovery, Fox had learned enough about American slavery—through observation and conversation—to speak about it both at the women's and men's meetings. Although Fox's Journal says that his message to the men's meeting was on November 2, the Friends House Library manuscript copy of this talk *Kenneth L. Carroll, current president of Friends Historical Association and former president ofthe Friends Historical Society (U.K.), has published widely on both American and British seventeenth-century Quakerism. George Fox and Slavery17 (recorded by John Hall) bears no date.3 The same is true of the printed version published later in Fox's Gospel-Family Order.* There is, however, an American copy of this message which suggests that it was delivered a bit earlier.5 Whatever the date, this address contains his fullest discussion of the duty of Quakers to their slaves: do not slight them, to wit, the Ethiopians, the Blacks now, neither any Man or Woman upon the Face ofthe Earth, in that Christ dyed for all, both Turks, Barbarians, Tartarians, and Ethiopians; he died for Tawn[i]es and for the Blacks as well as for you that are called whites, . . . And therefore now you should preach Christ to your Ethiopians that are in your Families, that so they may be free Men indeed, and be tender ofand to them, and walk in Love, that ye may answerthat ofGod in their Hearts, being (as the Scripture affirms) all ofone Blood & of one Mold, to dwell upon the Face ofthe Earth; for Christ (I say) shed his Blood for them, as well as for you, and tasted Death forthem, as well as for you, and hath appeared unto them, as well as he hath enlightened you, and his Grace hath appeared unto them, as well as it hath appearedto you, and he is a Propitiation for their Sins, as well as for yours; for he is the...

Symbiosis between slavery and feminism in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's Sab?

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's novel Sab (1841) has been subject to many interpretations. Early criticism considered it as little more than a sentimental and shocking romantic story: the impossibly unconventional love of a black slave for a white woman. Later critics have sought to establish Sab as a pioneering antislavery novel. This article will attempt to demonstrate that Avellaneda's main purpose was not to narrate a doomed love, nor to present a denunciation of slavery, but to express her feminist ideology, establishing the parallelism between the situation of black slaves and the oppression of white women in the bourgeois society of her time. However, we cannot say that Avellaneda created a symbiosis between slavery and feminism; the theme of slavery is only a metaphor, doubly shocking because it exposes her own emancipating ideas in an oppressive society that did not forgive those voices which dared to transgress its norms.

Symbiosis Between Slavery and Feminism in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's Sab?

Abstract— Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's novel Sub (1841) has been subject to many interpretations. Early criticism considered it as little more than a sentimental and shocking romantic story: the impossibly unconventional love of a black slave for a white woman. Later critics'have sought to establish Snb as a pioneering antislavery novel. This article will attempt to demonstrate that Avellaneda's main purpose was not to narrate a doomed love, nor to present a denunciation of slavery, but to express her feminist ideology, establishing the parallelism between the situation of black slaves and the oppression of white women in the bourgeois society of her time. However, we cannot say that Avellaneda created a symbiosis between slavery and feminism; the theme of slavery is only a metaphor, doubly shocking because it exposes her own emancipating ideas in an oppressive society that did not forgive those voices ivhich dared to transgress its norms. 0 1997 Society for Latin American Studies.

Imagining Slavery: Toni Morrison and Charles Johnson

The odyssey of African-American throughout twentieth century has been one of loss and reclamation. It's about reclaiming those things which were lost during slavery. --August Wilson The slave narrative, as Hazel V. Carby points out, differs from historical novel of slavery in that prior form is concerned exclusively with how the ex-slaves `wrote [their selves] into being' through an account of condition of being a slave.(1) The contemporary writer, in contrast, can only re-imagine conditions of slavery, and therefore writes in order to connect receding past to living present. This distinction underscores difference between recalling slavery as an ex-slave versus reconstructing slavery as one who would understand how its history continues to shape one's present. Yet to say that slave narrative focuses on how ex-slaves wrote their selves into being is also to imply that ex-slaves had no identity prior to writing it. While not disagreeing with Carby's distinction, I suggest that both forms confront question: how do I reinvent myself in light of my altered circumstance? Seen this way, question of how one connects oneself to (or disconnects oneself from) experience of slavery has been a preeminent concern for all African-American writers from time of slave narratives on. Arnold Rampersad remarks that exploring reality of slavery is necessarily painful for a black American, but only by doing so can he or she begin to understand himself or herself and American and Afro American culture in general.(2) The barrier that one crosses over in moving from slavery to freedom is also point at which continuity of African-American identity is imagined and created. Indeed, one could almost say that whereas writers of slave narratives were intent on inventing their free selves, contemporary African-American writers have been intent on inventing their slave selves. Deborah McDowell noted recently that the subject of slavery has become a kind of literary `free for all,' and one need only think of recent works by Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson, Gloria Naylor, David Bradley, Sherley Anne Williams, Ernest Gaines, Octavia Butler and Ishmael Reed to confirm this impression.(3) Of many novelists who have taken up slavery, I single out Beloved (1987) by Toni Morrison and Oxherding Tale (1982) by Charles Johnson in part because these two writers seem to be offering diametrically opposing views on meaning of slavery, in part because I would like to suggest that Morrison and Johnson may be closer than a first reading would suggest. Both writers explore how African-American identity was forged in crucible of slavery, and how that identity continues to be created today. Their basic difference resides in how they interpret meaning of that ongoing cultural invention, specifically as it relates to American identity. As Jonathan Little notes, Oxherding Tale concludes with a happy mulatto marriage that is without precedent in American fiction.(4) No such ending is imaginable in Beloved or in Morrison's fiction generally. Morrison invokes ghost of slavery in order to illuminate continuity of African-American identity--a community originating in shared experience of slavery. Insofar as she brings slavery to present day, Morrison's African-American community is at once a part of and separate from so-called white American experience. Johnson, on other hand, imagines African-American identity to be irretrievably mixed with other American identities, a happy mongrel. For Johnson, slavery is less a historical presence than a philosophical problem. Although Johnson and Morrison offer differing views of how to view present, each writer understands that meaning of slavery cannot be recaptured, but only re-seen. Molly Abel Travis, who has offered only sustained comparison of Johnson and Morrison thus far, defines them in oppositional terms. …

The Black Press in the “Nadir” of African Americans

On January 31, 1865, Congress passed Thirteenth Amendment Constitution, measure abolish slavery. The next day, New York Times declared America is hereafter be, what it has never been hitherto, thoroughly democratic--resting on human rights as its basis.(1) Similar reactions followed in other leading Northern newspapers and even Baltimore Sun, published in border state and usually mute on subject of slavery, commented that, following vote on amendment, a decidedly uproarious state of things ensued in Congress with much applauding and cheering.(2) By end of year, amendment had been ratified by states, Civil War was over, and daunting task of uniting nation split along sectional and racial lines began.Over next five years, Congress, in an attempt assure that African Americans would enjoy full privileges of American citizenship, passed two more amendments.(3) The Fourteenth, ratified by states in 1868, guaranteed citizenship and equality before law for blacks; and Fifteenth, ratified in 1870, established that voting rights could not be denied because of race or skin color. These amendments were enforced and extended by Civil Rights Acts passed in 1866, 1870, 1871, and 1875.(4) Although these amendments and acts were largely work of few congressional Republicans, they fueled optimism among many African Americans that they would indeed soon enjoy liberty and equality long denied.Instead, last quarter of nineteenth century became what historian Rayford Logan terms the nadir for black Americans.(5) The legalized segregation of blacks and whites, increasing influence of Social Darwinism on Northern leaders, and rise of Booker T. Washington as leading spokesman for his race combined with other social and cultural forces eliminate most of rights and privileges in post-war civil rights legislation, in effect institutionalizing racial inequality in America.(6) This article examines response of black press these developments.(7)Most research on black press in late nineteenth century has been largely descriptive, focusing on great or economic difficulties such editors encountered.(8) Martin E. Dann, however, identified two predominant themes in this era's black press: response white racism and an assertion of self-determination. Dann said black press, by stressing self-respect and racial pride, provided one of most potent arenas in which battle for self-definition could be fought and won.(9)Frankie Hutton and Rodger Streitmatter have made similar arguments; Hutton said that late nineteenth-century black editors continued mission, begun by antebellum editors, to uplift and vindicate people of color in true spirit of American democracy.(10) Further, 1880s and 1890s were marked by large increase in number of black newspapers, many of which were published by editors considered spokesmen for African Americans.(11)In this environment, many historians have argued, black press was increasingly important in shaping and reflecting values and attitudes of African Americans.(12) Therefore, in an attempt better understand historical legacy of American race relations, this research analyzed twelve black newspapers' coverage of two Supreme Court decisions during nadir: Civil Rights Cases in 1883, which denied federal protection against private discrimination in public accommodations, and Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which instituted separate but equal doctrine of race relations.(13)Research was guided primarily by question of whether these newspapers reflected shift from optimism in 1883 discouragement by 1896 over state of race relations. More specific questions asked: Did these newspapers counsel African Americans have patience despite Supreme Court rulings? …

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865.

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865.

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865.

Journal Article Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790–1865. By Kari J. Winter. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. xii, 172 pp. $30.00, ISBN 0-8203-1420-X.) Get access Karen Sánchez-Eppler Karen Sánchez-Eppler Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 80, Issue 4, March 1994, Pages 1451–1452, https://doi.org/10.2307/2080640 Published: 01 March 1994

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865.

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865.

Subjects of slavery, agents of change: women and power in Gothic novels and slave narratives, 1790-1865

Analysing the historical contexts in which female Gothic novels and slave narratives were composed, this text shows that both types of writing expose the sexual politics at the heart of patriarchal culture and represent terrifying aspects of life for women.

New Light on Mansfield and Slavery

Popular history often credits Lord Mansfield with freeing the slaves in England by his decision in the Somerset case. That he did not do so is by now agreed and is a point featured in modern scholarship on slavery. This is the main burden, for example, of F. O. Shyllon's Black Slaves in Britain (1974). How extensively the popular history should be revised has not been settled. Newly discovered sources now permit a reassessment of this question.When the Somerset case arose in 1772, it was brimming with portent. The largest specter was the supposed mercantile dislocation that would follow abolition. Additional questions seemed unavoidable, such as the legality of a contract between a slave and his master, and the implications for other contracts if the slave contract were invalidated. The protracted case was an occasion of high drama in which early abolitionist efforts (especially those of Granville Sharp) were pitted against vested trading interests.Mansfield was caught in the middle. He was genuinely ambivalent about the subject of slavery. He accepted and endorsed the widely assumed mercantile importance of the slave trade, yet he doubted the validity of theoretical justifications of slavery, and he sought to redress instances of individual cruelty to slaves. By drawing on previously unexamined manuscript reports of the Somerset case, Lord Mansfield's trial notes, and newspaper accounts of the Court of King's Bench activity, this article will demonstrate the extreme delicacy of Mansfield's position and will establish more fully than has before been possible the ways in which Mansfield accommodated the various competing interests. In the process, the question of exactly what Mansfield said in his Somerset opinion should be put to rest.

A Proposed Quaker Poem

Thomas Franklin Currier in his Elizabeth Lloyd and the Whittiers 1 cites four letters in which Miss Lloyd and the poet discuss the possibility of a Quaker epic. Among Whittier's Oak Knoll correspondence2 is an unpublished letter from Elizabeth Lloyd which not only supplements the Currier correspondence but also reveals further ideas for the Quaker poem. Between the years 1838 and 1840, Whittier spent considerable time in Philadelphia editing The Pennsylvania Freeman . A Quaker, he had decided views on the subject of slavery and found a community of interest among the Quakers of Philadelphia. One of the young women whom Greenleaf met was Elizabeth Lloyd, the eighth child in a family of twelve. Her father, Isaac, was a prosperous merchant and orthodox Quaker. The correspondence about the Quaker commemorative poem takes place between July and September, 1840.3 Whittier, who had been troubled with ill health, finally was prevailed upon by friends to give up his employment with The Pennsylvania Freeman . Thus, on February 20, the young editor wrote his Valedictory, as his biographer Samuel T. Pickard called it,4 and departed with his sister Elizabeth for Amesbury. He had considered attending the antislavery convention scheduled for London in the summer of 1840, but upon the advice of his physician he remained at Amesbury, visiting friends and resting. Apparently, Miss Lloyd wrote from Philadelphia. First mention of a poem to deal with the rise and growth of Quakerism is made in the July 4 letter by Miss Lloyd who is delighted with Whittier's idea. She admits that she has had a vague desire of seeing something like a cornerstone laid for a Quaker

A Note on the Authorship of The Case of our Fellow-Creatures (1784)

A NOTE ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CASE OF OUR FELLOW-CREATURES (1784) By Patrick C. Lipscomb III and Edward C. Milligan* Among the writings ascribed to Anthony Benezet (1713-1784) is a pamphlet entitled The Case of Our Fellow-Creatures, tL· Oppressed Africans.1 The evidence for Benezet's authorship is, however, singularly lacking. A cursory inspection of the pamphlet itself shows that it was issued by the (London) Meeting for Sufferings of the Society of Friends and signed by "John Ady, Clerk to the Meeting for Sufferings."2 As to the author or authors who actually composed the pamphlet, the work itself is silent. George S. Brookes, however, in his biography Friend Anthony Benezet lists The Case of Our Fellow-Creatures as one of Benezet's works.3 Unfortunately, Brookes does not give any authority for his ascription. He may have derived it from Halkett and Laing,4 whose authority is Sabin.5 But Sabin gives no source for the ascription, merely citing a contemporary review of the pamphlet in The Gentleman's Magazine, which lists the pamphlet anonymously .6 * Since the writings of Anthony Benezet were read equally by English and American Friends, it is appropriate that this article should have been written by a transatlantic partnership: Patrick C. Lipscomb III, Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Edward H. Milligan, Librarian of the Library of the Society of Friends, Friends House, London. 1 Society of Friends, London, Meeting for Sufferings, TL· Case of Our Fellow -Creatures, tL· Oppressed Africans, Respectfully Recommended to tL· Serious Consideration of tL· Legislature of Great Britain by tL· People called Quakers (London : Printed by James Phillips, 1783). The pamphlet was reprinted in 1784 by James Phillips, and also by Joseph Crukshank of Philadelphia. In 1792 the remaining copies of the two London printings were reissued at the instance of Meeting for Sufferings (Meeting for Sufferings, Minutes, XXXIX, 45, 63). 2 John Ady (1744?-1812) was not the clerk of the meeting in the sense generally understood, but the paid secretary or (in later terminology) Recording Clerk. He served in this capacity from 1783 to 1811. 3 George S. Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1937), pp. 197, 203. 4 Samuel Halkett and John Laing [and others], Dictionary ofAnonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature (new and enlarged edition; 7 vols.; Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1926-1934), VI, 305. 6 Joseph Sabin [and others], A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from its Discovery to tL· Present Time (29 vols.; New York [and Portland, Maine]: Joseph Sabin [etc.], 1868-1936), II, 60. 6 TL· Gentleman's Magazine, LV, Pt. I (May, 1785), 377. 47 48Quaker History The evidence for Benezet's authorship would seem, therefore, to rest solely on Sabin's and Brookes's unsubstantiated ascriptions , and the whole problem of the authorship is thus open to question. To whom then should the pamphlet be ascribed? As the work itself gives the Meeting for Sufferings as the issuing body, one must turn for new light on the authorship to the extant manuscript records of that body, preserved at the Library of the Society of Friends, Friends House, London.7 It may be well to detail the steps that led to the publication of this pamphlet by the Meeting for Sufferings. The subject of slavery had occupied a good deal of attention at London Yearly Meeting in 1783, and the Meeting for Sufferings on 20 June 1783 appointed a large committee to give continuing attention to the subject.8 The minute book of this committee is extant (Friends House, London) and supplements the Meeting for Sufferings' minutes in showing what action was taken to bring the slavery question before influential members of church and state. Among the steps agreed upon was the preparation of a pamphlet. On 26 September 1783, John Lloyd and William Dillwyn were appointed by the Slave Trade Committee to "prepare a short address to the public on the subject of the slave trade."9 A draft of the address was presented to the committee on 3 October and referred to a sub-committee composed of John Wright, Thomas Knowles, and James Phillips,10...

Letter to the Society Regarding the Subject of Slavery

Letter to the Society Regarding the Subject of Slavery