Contentious liberties : American abolitionists in post-emancipation Jamaica, 1834-1866 / Gale L. Kenny.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kenny, Gale L., 1979-

Series:

Race in the Atlantic world, 1700-1900.

Race in the Atlantic world, 1700-1900

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antislavery movements--Jamaica--History--19th century.

Antislavery movements.

Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century.

Abolitionists--United States--History--19th century.

Abolitionists.

Liberty--History--19th century.

Liberty.

Jamaica--Social conditions.

Jamaica.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (271 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The Oberlin College mission to Jamaica, begun in the 1830's, was an ambitious, and ultimately troubled, effort to use the example of emancipation in the British West Indies to advance the domestic agenda of American abolitionists. White Americans hoped to argue that American slaves, once freed, could be absorbed productively into the society that had previously enslaved them, but their "civilizing mission" did not go as anticipated. Gale L. Kenny's illuminating study examines the differing ideas of freedom held by white evangelical abolitionists and freed people in Jamaica and explores the consequences of their encounter for both American and Jamaican history." "Kenny finds that white Americans͠who went to Jamaica intending to assist with the transition from slavery to Christian practice and solid citizenship͠were frustrated by liberated blacks' unwillingness to conform to Victorian norms of gender, family, and religion. In tracing the history of the thirty-year mission, Kenny makes creative use of available sources to unpack assumptions on both sides of this American-Jamaican interaction, showing how liberated slaves in many cases were able not just to resist the imposition of white mores but to redefine the terms of the encounter."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents:

Revivals, antislavery, and Christian liberty

Slavery and freedom in Jamaica

Religion and the civilizing mission

From spiritual liberty to sexual license

Cultivating land, cultivating families

Civilizing domesticity

Revival, rebellions, and colonial subordination.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613253019

9781283253017

1283253011

9780820341972

0820341975

OCLC:

753324215

Publisher Number:

heb40072 hdl