Book contents
- Advocates of Freedom
- Slaveries since Emancipation
- Advocates of Freedom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 “It Is Time for the Slaves to Speak”
- 2 “All the Bloody Paraphernalia of Slavery”
- 3 “[They Have] Not Ceased to Hold My Hand Since”
- 4 To “Frighten the Hyena Out of His Ferocity”
- 5 “I Would Much Rather Starve in England, a Free Woman, Than Be a Slave”
- 6 “Have No Fellowship I Pray You, with These Merciless Menstealers”
- 7 “My Name Is Not Tom”
- 8 “The Black People’s Side of the Story”
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
“To Tell the Truth”: African American Activism in the British Isles 1835–1895
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2020
- Advocates of Freedom
- Slaveries since Emancipation
- Advocates of Freedom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 “It Is Time for the Slaves to Speak”
- 2 “All the Bloody Paraphernalia of Slavery”
- 3 “[They Have] Not Ceased to Hold My Hand Since”
- 4 To “Frighten the Hyena Out of His Ferocity”
- 5 “I Would Much Rather Starve in England, a Free Woman, Than Be a Slave”
- 6 “Have No Fellowship I Pray You, with These Merciless Menstealers”
- 7 “My Name Is Not Tom”
- 8 “The Black People’s Side of the Story”
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
During their transatlantic journeys to Britain throughout the nineteenth century, African Americans engaged in what I term “adaptive resistance,” a multifaceted interventionist strategy by which they challenged white supremacy and won support for abolition. Alongside my recovery of this mode of self-presentation in sources I have excavated from Victorian newspapers, I use an interdisciplinary methodology to (re)discover black performative strategies on the Victorian stage from the late 1830s to the mid-1890s. Performance was only one strand in the black activist arsenal, however. The successful employment of adaptive resistance relied on a triad of performance, abolitionist networks, and exploitation of print culture, and if an individual ensured an even balance between all three, it was likely their sojourn was successful.
In adopting this resistance strategy, black men and women forged a Black American protest tradition in Britain which was based on their literary, visual, and oratorical testimony. Black men and women sought to make their voices heard in a climate dominated by white supremacy; they refused to capitulate and educated thousands of people on slavery and its legacies through physically and mentally demanding tours organized across Britain.
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- Advocates of FreedomAfrican American Transatlantic Abolitionism in the British Isles, pp. 1 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020