The line between slavery and freedom
was never fixed in the Atlantic World; rather, it was fluid, depending on time,
place, and political situation. Elites, commoners, enslaved and indentured
people throughout the Atlantic World influenced the adaptation of their legal
systems to define the boundaries between freedom and unfreedom. This slim
volume, part of the Bedford Series in
History and Culture collection of edited primary sources, provides a strong
starting point for beginners, or an excellent summary and document compilation
for more advanced students. The text begins with a twenty-eight page
introduction followed by forty-six documents broken down by country and/or
colony. Editors Sue Peabody and Keila Brinberg explain that their theme is
freedom juxtaposed against slavery. They focus on legal innovations which
changed the contours of freedom and slavery, particularly those which occurred
during Atlantic World revolutions and independence movements.
The introduction provides a strong
grounding in each region's labor and legal cultures with reference to the
interactions between different nations in the Atlantic. Four sections outline
British and American slavery, the French Atlantic with particular attention to
the Haitian Revolution, the Spanish Atlantic, and Brazil under Portuguese rule.
Peabody and Grinberg briefly ground each region's slave system in its medieval
customary and legal precedents. They then discuss the major changes and
watershed events which influenced the development of slavery. Each section
concludes with how the region achieved permanent abolition of slavery. The
authors are careful to note in their conclusions that while legal bondage no
longer exists in any of the regions, it has created a historical legacy of
racial discrimination.
The documents follow the introduction
and range from formal, state generated texts such as manumission suits, royal
orders, decrees, constitutions, and petitions to social and cultural evidence,
including letters and graphic images. Together, they emphasize the diverse
nature of slavery in the Atlantic World. For example, the section "Portugal
and Brazil" begins with a 1603 royal ordinance by King Philip that marked the
transition from slavery as regulated by ecclesiastical law to slavery as a
commercial enterprise regulated by the crown. This document demonstrates that
slavery was initially a status based on a designation as Christian or
non-Christian (in this case, captured Moors were enslaved) and later became a
status based on nativity and/or race. Subsequent documents include legal codes
and emancipation suits, which educators frequently use to demonstrate the
contingency of slavery and freedom. Peabody and Grinberg add depth to this
section with two images. One is an image titled "Iron Mask and Collar for Punishing Slaves" (Document #39) taken
from an illustration in a travelogue. The document's introduction explains
that masters used the apparatus to punish slaves who ate earth. The editors
note that modern scientists believe that such behavior was the result of severe
nutritional deficiencies. This context simultaneously highlights the brutality
of slavery in a visceral visual image while also making clear how environment
and severe malnutrition shaped the everyday realities of slavery. Two
subsequent documents (#43 and #44) cover Brazil's 1871 "Free Womb Law" which
began the process of gradual emancipation. The first document, taken from a
political satire magazine, features a cartoon lambasting the law. The second
document provides excerpts from the text of the "Free Womb Law." Astute
students will recognize that slavery permeated almost every aspect of colonial
life, from food production to politics to religious and cultural traditions.
For instructors, this collection
offers many possibilities. This text would make a strong addition to courses
focusing on historical labor systems, slavery, the Atlantic World, or European
imperialism. The documents are varied enough for comparative work exploring
the similarities and particularities of each region's bondage system. For
example, students could begin with an examination of "France's Freedom
Principle and Race" (Document #5) and "The Somerset Case: England's Freedom
Principle" (Document #10). Then, students could place these documents in the
broader context of the Atlantic World by examining the rise of abolitionism in Haiti
and England's North American colonies using Documents #8 (a set of three texts
covering the Haitian Revolution) and #11, "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, An Act
for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, 1780." In doing so, students will gain a
sense of how transnational and transoceanic freedom movements shaped Atlantic
World slavery. For classes focusing on the Atlantic World more generally, this
text offers a lens through which students will see how a shared labor and
economic system created both continuity and discord.
Of course, with any edited
collection, authors make choices about which texts to include. As the editors
claim, the collection emphasizes freedom. Toward that goal they have done an
exemplary job. Readers see the many routes different regions took to national
abolition and the many ways enslaved people fought for individual manumission
within existing slave systems. In terms of individual manumissions, the
documents manage to accomplish the difficult task of conveying enslaved
people's voices—although judicially mediated—through their quests for
freedom. As anyone working on slavery knows, recovering or finding the voices
of slaves is an elusive task with which scholars struggle. Legal scholars will
find that the judicial documents lack key passages laying out the legal
reasoning behind a holding. For high school instruction, the legal documents,
which so often appear recondite and inaccessible for beginning students, have
been edited in a way that illuminates the basic issues without getting bogged
down in historic legalese. Still, the texts present challenges and high school
instructors may consider limiting usage to Advanced Placement classes or
smaller classes in which students can slowly work through the texts with
instructor guidance. This collection will serve as a fine introduction to
primary sources for beginning undergraduates. For more advanced undergraduate
students, these documents provide a good starting point for further excavation.
In a concise collection, Peabody and Grinberg have accomplished admirably the
difficult task of showing the complexity of slavery, the contingency of
freedom, and the ongoing negotiations between master and enslaved people.
Yvonne M. Pitts is an
Assistant Professor of History at Purdue University, specializing in American
legal and constitutional history. She can be reached at ypitts@purdue.edu. |
|
