Search Results

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 16 items for

  • Author or Editor: Damian Alan Pargas x
  • Search level: All x
Clear All

Between the American Revolution and the outbreak of the Civil War almost a million American-born slaves were relocated from the Upper South and eastern seaboard to the ever-expanding southern interior. An outpouring of historical research has greatly contributed to our understanding of the political, economic, demographic, and business aspects of interregional slave migration in the antebellum period, but as yet relatively few studies have examined the ways in which early-nineteenth-century slaves anticipated and reacted to the prospect of interstate migration, the ways in which they attempted to resist or negotiate the terms of their migration, or their motivations for doing so. Drawing from slave narratives and interviews, travel accounts, southern newspapers, and plantation records, this study briefly explores the ways in which slave migrants (and their loved ones) experienced and dealt with the news of forcible removal across state lines in early-nineteenth-century America, with a particular emphasis on the theme of family separation as a motivating factor behind their actions and reactions.

In: Journal of Early American History
In: Journal of Global Slavery

Slave flight in the antebellum South did not always coincide with the political geography of freedom. Indeed, spaces and places within the South attracted the largest number of fugitive slaves, especially southern cities, where runaway slaves attempted to pass for free blacks. Disguising themselves within the slaveholding states rather than risk long-distance flight attempts to formally free territories such as the northern us, Canada, and Mexico, fugitive slaves in southern cities attempted to escape slavery by crafting clandestine lives for themselves in what I am calling “informal” freedom—a freedom that did not exist on paper and had no legal underpinnings, but that existed in practice, in the shadows. This article briefly examines the experiences of fugitive slaves who fled to southern cities in the antebellum period (roughly 1800–1860). It touches upon themes such as the motivations for fleeing to urban areas, the networks that facilitated such flight attempts, and, most importantly, the lot of runaway slaves after arrival in urban areas.

Full Access
In: Journal of Early American History
Series Editors: and
As a practice in which human beings were held captive for an indefinite period of time, coerced into extremely dependent and exploitative power relationships, denied rights (including rights over their labor, lives, and bodies), often vulnerable to forced relocation by various means, and forced to labor against their will, slavery in one form or another predates written records and has existed in innumerable societies. This exciting series provides a venue for scholarly work—research monographs and edited volumes—that advances our understanding of the history of slavery and post-slavery in any period and any geographical region. It fills an important gap in academic publishing and builds upon two relatively recent developments in historical scholarship. First, it provides a world-class outlet for the increased scholarly interest shown in slavery studies in recent years, not only for those working on modern Atlantic societies but also other regions and time periods throughout world history. Second, this series intersects slavery studies with a growing interest in global history among researchers, including global migrations and interactions, warfare, trade routes, and economic expansion. Studies in Global Slavery welcomes submissions that deal with themes such as the development of slave societies and societies with slaves; human trafficking and forced migration; slavery and globalization; slave culture and cultural transfer; political, economic, and ideological causes and effects of slavery; resistance; abolition and emancipation; and memories/legacies of slavery.

Monographs by specialists in the field are especially sought, but multi-authored edited volumes containing academic articles by slavery scholars will also be considered. Manuscripts should be written in English and be at least 80,000 words in length (including footnotes and bibliography). Manuscripts may also include illustrations, tables, maps, and other visual material.

Authors are cordially invited to submit proposals and/or full manuscripts by email to the publisher Jason Prevost. Please direct all other correspondence to Associate Editor Debbie de Wit.

*A paperback edition of select titles in the series, for individual purchase only, will be released approximately 12 months after publication of the hardcover edition.

In: Critical Readings on Global Slavery
In: Critical Readings on Global Slavery
In: Critical Readings on Global Slavery
In: Critical Readings on Global Slavery
In: Critical Readings on Global Slavery
The study of slavery has grown strongly in recent years, as scholars working in several disciplines have cultivated broader perspectives on enslavement in a wide variety of contexts and settings. Critical Readings on Global Slavery offers students and researchers a rich collection of previously published works by some of the most preeminent scholars in the field. With contributions covering various regions and time periods, this anthology encourages readers to view slave systems across time and space as both ubiquitous and interconnected, and introduces those who are interested in the study of human bondage to some of the most important and widely cited works in slavery studies.