Bound to respect : antebellum narratives of black imprisonment, servitude, and bondage, 1816-1861 / Keith Michael Green.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Green, Keith Michael, 1976- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Slavery in literature.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature--African American authors.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xiii, 211 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press, [2015]

Summary:

Winner of the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature In Bound to Respect: Antebellum Narratives of Black Imprisonment, Servitude, and Bondage, 1816-1861, Keith Michael Green examines key texts that illuminate forms of black bondage and captivity that existed within and alongside slavery. In doing so, he restores to antebellum African American autobiographical writing the fascinating heterogeneity lost if the historical experiences of African Americans are attributed to slavery alone. The book's title is taken from the assertion by US Supreme Court chief justice Roger B. Taney in his 1857 Dred Scott decision that blacks had no rights that whites were "bound to respect." This allusion highlights Green's critical assertion that the dehumanizing absurdities to which defenders of slavery resorted to justify slavery only brought into more stark relief the humanity of African Americans. A gifted storyteller, Green examines four forms of captivity: incarceration, enslavement to Native Americans, child indentured servitude, and maritime capture. By illuminating this dense penumbra of captivity beyond the strict definitions of slavery, he presents a fluid and holistic network of images, vocabulary, narratives, and history. By demonstrating how these additional forms of confinement flourished in the era of slavery, Green shows how they persisted beyond emancipation, in such a way that freed slaves did not in fact partake of "freedom" as white Americans understood it. This gap in understanding continues to bedevil contemporary American society, and Green deftly draws persuasive connections between past and present. A vital and convincing offering to readers of literary criticism, African American studies, and American history, Green's Bound to Respect brings fresh and nuanced insights to this fundamental chapter in the American story.

Contents:

1 Uncommon Sufferings: Rethinking Bondage in A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man, Servant to General Winslow, of Marshfield, in New-England 1

I Bound in Slavery

2 Imprisoned Slaves, Genteel Slaveholders, and Virtuous Prisoners: Slave Incarceration in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself 27

3 Mild Masters, Sympathetic Abolitionists, and Courageous Husbands: Cherokee Slavery in the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave 66

II Bound in Freedom

4 Bound Children, Benevolent Caretakers, and Disabling Service: Indentured Servitude in Harriet Wilson's Our Nig 101

5 Savage Moors, African Companies, and Mulatto Explorers: North African Captivity in the Narrative of Robert Adams 136.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780817318833

0817318836

OCLC:

908107151