Simon Gikandi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140667
- eISBN:
- 9781400840113
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140667.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
It would be easy to assume that, in the eighteenth century, slavery and the culture of taste—the world of politeness, manners, and aesthetics—existed as separate and unequal domains, unrelated in the ...
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It would be easy to assume that, in the eighteenth century, slavery and the culture of taste—the world of politeness, manners, and aesthetics—existed as separate and unequal domains, unrelated in the spheres of social life. But to the contrary, this book demonstrates that these two areas of modernity were surprisingly entwined. Ranging across Britain, the antebellum South, and the West Indies, the book illustrates how the violence and ugliness of enslavement actually shaped theories of taste, notions of beauty, and practices of high culture, and how slavery's impurity informed and haunted the rarified customs of the time. The book focuses on the ways that the enslavement of Africans and the profits derived from this exploitation enabled the moment of taste in European—mainly British—life, leading to a transformation of bourgeois ideas regarding freedom and selfhood. It explores how these connections played out in the immense fortunes made in the West Indies sugar colonies, supporting the lavish lives of English barons and altering the ideals that defined middle-class subjects. Discussing how the ownership of slaves turned the American planter class into a new aristocracy, the book engages with the slaves' own response to the strange interplay of modern notions of freedom and the realities of bondage, and it emphasizes the aesthetic and cultural processes developed by slaves to create spaces of freedom outside the regimen of enforced labor and truncated leisure. Through a close look at the eighteenth century's many remarkable documents and artworks, the book sets forth the tensions and contradictions entangling a brutal practice and the distinctions of civility.Less
It would be easy to assume that, in the eighteenth century, slavery and the culture of taste—the world of politeness, manners, and aesthetics—existed as separate and unequal domains, unrelated in the spheres of social life. But to the contrary, this book demonstrates that these two areas of modernity were surprisingly entwined. Ranging across Britain, the antebellum South, and the West Indies, the book illustrates how the violence and ugliness of enslavement actually shaped theories of taste, notions of beauty, and practices of high culture, and how slavery's impurity informed and haunted the rarified customs of the time. The book focuses on the ways that the enslavement of Africans and the profits derived from this exploitation enabled the moment of taste in European—mainly British—life, leading to a transformation of bourgeois ideas regarding freedom and selfhood. It explores how these connections played out in the immense fortunes made in the West Indies sugar colonies, supporting the lavish lives of English barons and altering the ideals that defined middle-class subjects. Discussing how the ownership of slaves turned the American planter class into a new aristocracy, the book engages with the slaves' own response to the strange interplay of modern notions of freedom and the realities of bondage, and it emphasizes the aesthetic and cultural processes developed by slaves to create spaces of freedom outside the regimen of enforced labor and truncated leisure. Through a close look at the eighteenth century's many remarkable documents and artworks, the book sets forth the tensions and contradictions entangling a brutal practice and the distinctions of civility.
Vincent L. Wimbush
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199873579
- eISBN:
- 9780199949595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199873579.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The Epilogue revisits the implications of tying together in critical analysis Equiano’s story and that of Wimbush, including their mutual interest in escaping slavery and finding a place for the safe ...
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The Epilogue revisits the implications of tying together in critical analysis Equiano’s story and that of Wimbush, including their mutual interest in escaping slavery and finding a place for the safe cultivation of radical agency through “reading” white men’s magic or scripturalization(s).Less
The Epilogue revisits the implications of tying together in critical analysis Equiano’s story and that of Wimbush, including their mutual interest in escaping slavery and finding a place for the safe cultivation of radical agency through “reading” white men’s magic or scripturalization(s).
Simon Gikandi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140667
- eISBN:
- 9781400840113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140667.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter considers the relationship between the violence of slavery and the culture of conduct within the geography of enslavement itself. It reflects on the status of art and taste in the heart ...
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This chapter considers the relationship between the violence of slavery and the culture of conduct within the geography of enslavement itself. It reflects on the status of art and taste in the heart of American slavery. It argues that although members of the American plantocracy in Virginia (William Byrd and Thomas Jefferson, for example) sought to fashion their lives after those of British gentry, they could not separate themselves from the concrete materiality of plantation slavery. How, then, could a culture of taste be cultivated in the presence of a thriving slave economy? At the center of this chapter is the inescapable relation between the planters' striving for high culture and the deployment of violence as a mode of containing what was considered to be the danger of Africa. Africa and Africans enabled the wealth of the planter, but they needed to be exorcized so that white civilization could take hold in the new world.Less
This chapter considers the relationship between the violence of slavery and the culture of conduct within the geography of enslavement itself. It reflects on the status of art and taste in the heart of American slavery. It argues that although members of the American plantocracy in Virginia (William Byrd and Thomas Jefferson, for example) sought to fashion their lives after those of British gentry, they could not separate themselves from the concrete materiality of plantation slavery. How, then, could a culture of taste be cultivated in the presence of a thriving slave economy? At the center of this chapter is the inescapable relation between the planters' striving for high culture and the deployment of violence as a mode of containing what was considered to be the danger of Africa. Africa and Africans enabled the wealth of the planter, but they needed to be exorcized so that white civilization could take hold in the new world.
Simon Gikandi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140667
- eISBN:
- 9781400840113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140667.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter argues that the condition of possibility of being black in the new world could not be realized until slavery, a sorrowful state of shame and negation, was transformed into a narrative of ...
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This chapter argues that the condition of possibility of being black in the new world could not be realized until slavery, a sorrowful state of shame and negation, was transformed into a narrative of identity. It is probably this transformation that W. E. B. Du Bois had in mind when, in the concluding chapter of the Souls of Black Folk, he described Negro spirituals—the sorrow songs—as the medium of what was tantamount to a black logos. Through these songs, Du Bois asserted, “the soul of the black slave spoke to men”; they were “the most beautiful expression of human experience born of this side of the seas.” For Du Bois, the sorrow songs functioned as allegorical expressions of the repressed self and its yearning for a language of freedom out of the ruins of enslavement.Less
This chapter argues that the condition of possibility of being black in the new world could not be realized until slavery, a sorrowful state of shame and negation, was transformed into a narrative of identity. It is probably this transformation that W. E. B. Du Bois had in mind when, in the concluding chapter of the Souls of Black Folk, he described Negro spirituals—the sorrow songs—as the medium of what was tantamount to a black logos. Through these songs, Du Bois asserted, “the soul of the black slave spoke to men”; they were “the most beautiful expression of human experience born of this side of the seas.” For Du Bois, the sorrow songs functioned as allegorical expressions of the repressed self and its yearning for a language of freedom out of the ruins of enslavement.
Paul J. Lane
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter reviews the historical evidence concerning the development of slavery in eastern Africa, the various forms found in societies on the coast and in the interior, the social and cultural ...
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This chapter reviews the historical evidence concerning the development of slavery in eastern Africa, the various forms found in societies on the coast and in the interior, the social and cultural consequences of enslavement, and its ultimate abolition. It then looks at the known and potential archaeological traces of the trajectories of these different systems of slavery, with particular reference to the area along the middle and lower Pangani River, Tanzania. The chapter concludes with a consideration of whether or not it would be possible to discern slavery from the surviving archaeological remains alone, and the implications of this answer for future archaeological investigations of slavery elsewhere in the region.Less
This chapter reviews the historical evidence concerning the development of slavery in eastern Africa, the various forms found in societies on the coast and in the interior, the social and cultural consequences of enslavement, and its ultimate abolition. It then looks at the known and potential archaeological traces of the trajectories of these different systems of slavery, with particular reference to the area along the middle and lower Pangani River, Tanzania. The chapter concludes with a consideration of whether or not it would be possible to discern slavery from the surviving archaeological remains alone, and the implications of this answer for future archaeological investigations of slavery elsewhere in the region.
F. S. Naiden
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195183412
- eISBN:
- 9780199789399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183412.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This chapter deals with the fourth step, the response made by the supplicandus. It may be positive, and so the supplication may be successful. Successful supplication involves not only xenia, as with ...
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This chapter deals with the fourth step, the response made by the supplicandus. It may be positive, and so the supplication may be successful. Successful supplication involves not only xenia, as with Gould, but also much more, including instances of negotiation between suppliant and supplicandus and even the enslavement of the suppliant. It always includes a pledge given to the suppliant by the supplicandus and witnessed by the gods. The response may be negative, and then the supplication is unsuccessful. Unsuccessful supplication includes not only the rejection of a suppliant but also the expulsion of a suppliant from the altar to which he may have come.Less
This chapter deals with the fourth step, the response made by the supplicandus. It may be positive, and so the supplication may be successful. Successful supplication involves not only xenia, as with Gould, but also much more, including instances of negotiation between suppliant and supplicandus and even the enslavement of the suppliant. It always includes a pledge given to the suppliant by the supplicandus and witnessed by the gods. The response may be negative, and then the supplication is unsuccessful. Unsuccessful supplication includes not only the rejection of a suppliant but also the expulsion of a suppliant from the altar to which he may have come.
Paul J. Lane and Kevin C. Macdonald
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
Slavery played an important role in the economies of most historically documented African states of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This introductory chapter considers the regionality and ...
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Slavery played an important role in the economies of most historically documented African states of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This introductory chapter considers the regionality and relative antiquity of various forms of enslavement on the African continent, as well as a range of emergent archaeological studies on the subject. Further, the lingering impacts of slave economies and the memories of enslavement are critically assessed, including consideration of recent efforts to document and ‘memorialise’ both the tangible and intangible heritage of slavery on the continent. The contributions to the present volume are situated within these issues with the aim of drawing out commonalities between chapters and emphasising the value of an inter-regional comparative approach.Less
Slavery played an important role in the economies of most historically documented African states of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This introductory chapter considers the regionality and relative antiquity of various forms of enslavement on the African continent, as well as a range of emergent archaeological studies on the subject. Further, the lingering impacts of slave economies and the memories of enslavement are critically assessed, including consideration of recent efforts to document and ‘memorialise’ both the tangible and intangible heritage of slavery on the continent. The contributions to the present volume are situated within these issues with the aim of drawing out commonalities between chapters and emphasising the value of an inter-regional comparative approach.
Scott MacEachern
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
The northern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon have been a focus of slave raiding for the past five centuries, according to historical sources. Some captives from the area were enslaved locally, ...
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The northern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon have been a focus of slave raiding for the past five centuries, according to historical sources. Some captives from the area were enslaved locally, primarily in Wandala and Fulbe communities, while others were exported to Sahelian polities or further abroad. This chapter examines ethnohistorical and archaeological data on nineteenth- and twentieth-century slave raiding, derived from research in montagnard communities along the north-eastern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon. Enslavement and slave raiding existed within larger structures of day-to-day practice in the region, and were closely tied to ideas about sociality, social proximity and violence. Through the mid-1980s at least, enslavement in the region was understood as a still-relevant political and economic process, with its chief material consequence the intensely domesticated Mandara landscape.Less
The northern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon have been a focus of slave raiding for the past five centuries, according to historical sources. Some captives from the area were enslaved locally, primarily in Wandala and Fulbe communities, while others were exported to Sahelian polities or further abroad. This chapter examines ethnohistorical and archaeological data on nineteenth- and twentieth-century slave raiding, derived from research in montagnard communities along the north-eastern Mandara Mountains of Cameroon. Enslavement and slave raiding existed within larger structures of day-to-day practice in the region, and were closely tied to ideas about sociality, social proximity and violence. Through the mid-1980s at least, enslavement in the region was understood as a still-relevant political and economic process, with its chief material consequence the intensely domesticated Mandara landscape.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying ...
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People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, this book charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role. The book demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, the book delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism. With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, the book takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.Less
People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, this book charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role. The book demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, the book delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism. With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, the book takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.
Frederick Neuhouser
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199542673
- eISBN:
- 9780191715402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542673.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter reconstructs Rousseau's account of why amour-propre is the principal source of the enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement that pervades human reality. The first ...
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This chapter reconstructs Rousseau's account of why amour-propre is the principal source of the enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement that pervades human reality. The first question to be addressed is how amour-propre helps make possible the evils mentioned above. The concern is not to explain why those evils are so widespread — why amour-propre so frequently gives rise to them — but merely to understand how the features of amour-propre outlined in the previous chapter make them possible. Implicit in this undertaking is the view that in the absence of amour-propre, these human evils would be non-existent or, at worst, extremely rare.Less
This chapter reconstructs Rousseau's account of why amour-propre is the principal source of the enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement that pervades human reality. The first question to be addressed is how amour-propre helps make possible the evils mentioned above. The concern is not to explain why those evils are so widespread — why amour-propre so frequently gives rise to them — but merely to understand how the features of amour-propre outlined in the previous chapter make them possible. Implicit in this undertaking is the view that in the absence of amour-propre, these human evils would be non-existent or, at worst, extremely rare.
Michael Frede
Halszka Osmolska (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268487
- eISBN:
- 9780520948372
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268487.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
Where does the notion of free will come from? How and when did it develop, and what did that development involve? In this book's account of the history of this idea, the notion of a free will emerged ...
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Where does the notion of free will come from? How and when did it develop, and what did that development involve? In this book's account of the history of this idea, the notion of a free will emerged from powerful assumptions about the relation between divine providence, correctness of individual choice, and self-enslavement due to incorrect choice. Anchoring the discussion in Stoicism, the book begins with Aristotle—who, it argues, had no notion of a free will—and ends with Augustine. The book shows that Augustine, far from originating the idea (as is often claimed), derived most of his thinking about it from the Stoicism developed by Epictetus.Less
Where does the notion of free will come from? How and when did it develop, and what did that development involve? In this book's account of the history of this idea, the notion of a free will emerged from powerful assumptions about the relation between divine providence, correctness of individual choice, and self-enslavement due to incorrect choice. Anchoring the discussion in Stoicism, the book begins with Aristotle—who, it argues, had no notion of a free will—and ends with Augustine. The book shows that Augustine, far from originating the idea (as is often claimed), derived most of his thinking about it from the Stoicism developed by Epictetus.
Michael J. Crawford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034706
- eISBN:
- 9780813038346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034706.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The superior court of the district of Edenton, in November 1778, heard on appeal the case of the blacks manumitted by North Carolina Quakers and reversed the order of the Pasquotank and Perquimans ...
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The superior court of the district of Edenton, in November 1778, heard on appeal the case of the blacks manumitted by North Carolina Quakers and reversed the order of the Pasquotank and Perquimans county courts that the blacks be sold and re-enslaved. It orders to “remove all the orders and proceedings of the court of the said county relating to the sale and enslaving.” The verdict expressed county court's decision a “violation of the constitution of this state, and contrary to natural justice, and that there are manifest errors and irregularities in the said proceedings.”Less
The superior court of the district of Edenton, in November 1778, heard on appeal the case of the blacks manumitted by North Carolina Quakers and reversed the order of the Pasquotank and Perquimans county courts that the blacks be sold and re-enslaved. It orders to “remove all the orders and proceedings of the court of the said county relating to the sale and enslaving.” The verdict expressed county court's decision a “violation of the constitution of this state, and contrary to natural justice, and that there are manifest errors and irregularities in the said proceedings.”
Michael J. Crawford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034706
- eISBN:
- 9780813038346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034706.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The yearly meeting regularly sent memorials to the General Assembly seeking a change in the law of manumission that would protect the slaves they set free from re-enslavement. The version of these ...
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The yearly meeting regularly sent memorials to the General Assembly seeking a change in the law of manumission that would protect the slaves they set free from re-enslavement. The version of these memorials submitted in 1788 was short and poignant and, borrowing language from the Declaration of Independence, combined appeals to the principles of the American Revolution with appeals to compassion and religion. One of the memorials explained “the two acts of the General Assembly now in force for the prohibition of the freedom of Slaves, which we humbly apprehend is in no wise Consistant with the principles of the Established Constitution, & contrary to the Declaration of Independence of the United.”Less
The yearly meeting regularly sent memorials to the General Assembly seeking a change in the law of manumission that would protect the slaves they set free from re-enslavement. The version of these memorials submitted in 1788 was short and poignant and, borrowing language from the Declaration of Independence, combined appeals to the principles of the American Revolution with appeals to compassion and religion. One of the memorials explained “the two acts of the General Assembly now in force for the prohibition of the freedom of Slaves, which we humbly apprehend is in no wise Consistant with the principles of the Established Constitution, & contrary to the Declaration of Independence of the United.”
Michael J. Crawford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034706
- eISBN:
- 9780813038346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034706.003.0024
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In January 1797, Thomas Jordan, clerk of the Standing Committee of the Eastern Quarter of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, sent a printed copy of a bill that had been proposed in the North Carolina ...
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In January 1797, Thomas Jordan, clerk of the Standing Committee of the Eastern Quarter of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, sent a printed copy of a bill that had been proposed in the North Carolina General Assembly to John Elliott of the Philadelphia Society of Friends. Jordan wanted to show the Pennsylvania Friends “the disposition of some of our Legislators.” Even though it never became law, the bill is of historical interest because the behaviors the bill's author intended to regulate suggest steps North Carolina Friends were taking to avoid the re-enslavement of blacks they had freed.Less
In January 1797, Thomas Jordan, clerk of the Standing Committee of the Eastern Quarter of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, sent a printed copy of a bill that had been proposed in the North Carolina General Assembly to John Elliott of the Philadelphia Society of Friends. Jordan wanted to show the Pennsylvania Friends “the disposition of some of our Legislators.” Even though it never became law, the bill is of historical interest because the behaviors the bill's author intended to regulate suggest steps North Carolina Friends were taking to avoid the re-enslavement of blacks they had freed.
Adom Getachew
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691179155
- eISBN:
- 9780691184340
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179155.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter turns to the United Nations, where anticolonial nationalists staged their reinvention of self-determination, transforming a secondary principle included in the UN Charter into a human ...
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This chapter turns to the United Nations, where anticolonial nationalists staged their reinvention of self-determination, transforming a secondary principle included in the UN Charter into a human right. Through the political thought of Nnamdi Azikiwe, W. E. B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and George Padmore, the chapter illustrates that this reinvention drew on a distinctive account of empire as enslavement. The emergence of a right to self-determination is often read as an expansion of an already existing principle in which anticolonial nationalists universalize a Westphalian regime of sovereignty. In contrast to this standard account, the chapter argues that the anticolonial account of self-determination marked a radical break from the Eurocentric model of international society and established nondomination as a central ideal of a postimperial world order.Less
This chapter turns to the United Nations, where anticolonial nationalists staged their reinvention of self-determination, transforming a secondary principle included in the UN Charter into a human right. Through the political thought of Nnamdi Azikiwe, W. E. B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and George Padmore, the chapter illustrates that this reinvention drew on a distinctive account of empire as enslavement. The emergence of a right to self-determination is often read as an expansion of an already existing principle in which anticolonial nationalists universalize a Westphalian regime of sovereignty. In contrast to this standard account, the chapter argues that the anticolonial account of self-determination marked a radical break from the Eurocentric model of international society and established nondomination as a central ideal of a postimperial world order.
J. David Pleins
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199733637
- eISBN:
- 9780199852505
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199733637.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
In various versions of the Children's Bible, we observe that some narratives such as Noah's naked drunkenness and how he had cursed Ham's son Canaan have been left out, as have other scenes that ...
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In various versions of the Children's Bible, we observe that some narratives such as Noah's naked drunkenness and how he had cursed Ham's son Canaan have been left out, as have other scenes that exhibit tones of sex and racism. This is obviously because they are inappropriate for young readers. There are several ambiguities in interpreting this particular tale about Noah and Canaan, and this story presents seemingly unexpected actions for someone who was initially described as “righteous.” H. Hirsch Cohen, the author of The Drunkenness of Noah, believes that Noah was portrayed in such a manner as a demonstration of what he refers to as “philological sleuthing.” While alcohol during that time was believed to aid in sexual intercourse, Cohen points out that Noah used alcohol to fulfil God's command about being fruitful and multiplying. This chapter also incorporates Noah's narrative in the context of African-American enslavement.Less
In various versions of the Children's Bible, we observe that some narratives such as Noah's naked drunkenness and how he had cursed Ham's son Canaan have been left out, as have other scenes that exhibit tones of sex and racism. This is obviously because they are inappropriate for young readers. There are several ambiguities in interpreting this particular tale about Noah and Canaan, and this story presents seemingly unexpected actions for someone who was initially described as “righteous.” H. Hirsch Cohen, the author of The Drunkenness of Noah, believes that Noah was portrayed in such a manner as a demonstration of what he refers to as “philological sleuthing.” While alcohol during that time was believed to aid in sexual intercourse, Cohen points out that Noah used alcohol to fulfil God's command about being fruitful and multiplying. This chapter also incorporates Noah's narrative in the context of African-American enslavement.
Paul Cartledge
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693627
- eISBN:
- 9780191741258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693627.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Ancient Greece comprised 1000 or so political entities at any time between about 600 and 300 BC. Wars between the Greek citizen-states were pretty much endemic, the most notorious and destructive ...
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Ancient Greece comprised 1000 or so political entities at any time between about 600 and 300 BC. Wars between the Greek citizen-states were pretty much endemic, the most notorious and destructive being the so-called ‘Peloponnesian War’ between Sparta and Athens and their respective allies (431–404). This chapter explores the nature of Greek interstate and international warfare, and unpacks the Greeks' ideas and vocabulary of surrender, with special reference to the relationship between man-made laws and overarching religious sanctions. Four case-studies, drawn from the Atheno-Spartan Peloponnesian War and its immediate aftermath, illustrate the spectrum of behaviours from brutal reprisals including outright legal enslavement to the Western world's first general amnesty.Less
Ancient Greece comprised 1000 or so political entities at any time between about 600 and 300 BC. Wars between the Greek citizen-states were pretty much endemic, the most notorious and destructive being the so-called ‘Peloponnesian War’ between Sparta and Athens and their respective allies (431–404). This chapter explores the nature of Greek interstate and international warfare, and unpacks the Greeks' ideas and vocabulary of surrender, with special reference to the relationship between man-made laws and overarching religious sanctions. Four case-studies, drawn from the Atheno-Spartan Peloponnesian War and its immediate aftermath, illustrate the spectrum of behaviours from brutal reprisals including outright legal enslavement to the Western world's first general amnesty.
John Gillingham
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693627
- eISBN:
- 9780191741258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693627.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter distinguishes two phases in the culture of war in Europe. In the first, the capture and enslavement of women and children were respectable war aims; in consequence the systematic killing ...
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This chapter distinguishes two phases in the culture of war in Europe. In the first, the capture and enslavement of women and children were respectable war aims; in consequence the systematic killing of adult males (especially those of high-status) was routine; for a warrior to surrender was shameful and very rare. In phase two, the demise of slavery meant that for the first time women and children came to be regarded as non-combatants, and high-status warriors treated as a source of profit (ransom). In consequence the knightly class came to recognize circumstances in which surrender was both sensible and honorable. It amounts to a shift from the Old Testament-style warfare still characteristic of the early Middle Ages to war in the ‘age of chivalry’.Less
This chapter distinguishes two phases in the culture of war in Europe. In the first, the capture and enslavement of women and children were respectable war aims; in consequence the systematic killing of adult males (especially those of high-status) was routine; for a warrior to surrender was shameful and very rare. In phase two, the demise of slavery meant that for the first time women and children came to be regarded as non-combatants, and high-status warriors treated as a source of profit (ransom). In consequence the knightly class came to recognize circumstances in which surrender was both sensible and honorable. It amounts to a shift from the Old Testament-style warfare still characteristic of the early Middle Ages to war in the ‘age of chivalry’.
Abdul R. JanMohamed
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813175164
- eISBN:
- 9780813175195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813175164.003.0019
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Building on his previous analysis of the short stories in Wright’s anthology Uncle Tom’s Children, Abdul R. JanMohamed reflects on Wright’s gradual discovery of a close relationship between social ...
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Building on his previous analysis of the short stories in Wright’s anthology Uncle Tom’s Children, Abdul R. JanMohamed reflects on Wright’s gradual discovery of a close relationship between social death, actual death, and symbolic death. Because “primitive accumulation” refers not only to the material dispossession of the slave’s world but also to the appropriation of subjectivity, questions arise about whether an ex-slave can repossess psycho-political and sociopolitical components of subjectivity in Jim Crow societies that operate predominantly through the inculcation of widespread fear. Against the poststructuralist doxa about the decentered subject and the need to abolish “identity politics,” JanMohamed insists that individual subjects are driven to center themselves and to make their lives as coherent as possible. This is especially true in contexts of colonization, racialization, genderization, and enslavement that rely on disrupting the attempts by oppressed people to control their daily practices.Less
Building on his previous analysis of the short stories in Wright’s anthology Uncle Tom’s Children, Abdul R. JanMohamed reflects on Wright’s gradual discovery of a close relationship between social death, actual death, and symbolic death. Because “primitive accumulation” refers not only to the material dispossession of the slave’s world but also to the appropriation of subjectivity, questions arise about whether an ex-slave can repossess psycho-political and sociopolitical components of subjectivity in Jim Crow societies that operate predominantly through the inculcation of widespread fear. Against the poststructuralist doxa about the decentered subject and the need to abolish “identity politics,” JanMohamed insists that individual subjects are driven to center themselves and to make their lives as coherent as possible. This is especially true in contexts of colonization, racialization, genderization, and enslavement that rely on disrupting the attempts by oppressed people to control their daily practices.
Jane Anna Gordon
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813175164
- eISBN:
- 9780813175195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813175164.003.0021
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Jane Anna Gordon argues that Wright, while stressing the economic legacies of racialized enslavement, also explored three features of slavery that have persisted since its formal abolition: (1) the ...
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Jane Anna Gordon argues that Wright, while stressing the economic legacies of racialized enslavement, also explored three features of slavery that have persisted since its formal abolition: (1) the absence of a relationship between that for which enslaved people were responsible and that for which they were punished; (2) a legacy of “two races locked in daily combat”; and (3) the treatment of black people as if they had no kin. According to Wright, even though nonblack descendants of slaves have arguably become free of the histories of their ancestors, such freedom remains elusive for African-descended communities. For most black people, “postslavery” has been a protracted racialized neoslavery. Widespread public embarrassment regarding slavery’s continued grammar has not been matched by commitment to its actual eradication. Consequently, even though Wright himself was able to steal himself away from US unfreedom, this fell short of his normative ideal of freedom.Less
Jane Anna Gordon argues that Wright, while stressing the economic legacies of racialized enslavement, also explored three features of slavery that have persisted since its formal abolition: (1) the absence of a relationship between that for which enslaved people were responsible and that for which they were punished; (2) a legacy of “two races locked in daily combat”; and (3) the treatment of black people as if they had no kin. According to Wright, even though nonblack descendants of slaves have arguably become free of the histories of their ancestors, such freedom remains elusive for African-descended communities. For most black people, “postslavery” has been a protracted racialized neoslavery. Widespread public embarrassment regarding slavery’s continued grammar has not been matched by commitment to its actual eradication. Consequently, even though Wright himself was able to steal himself away from US unfreedom, this fell short of his normative ideal of freedom.
