a literary archaeology of black women's lives
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Sharpe, Jenny
- Publish Year
- 2003
- Shelfmark
- B5238 - B
- Thesaurus
- slavernij, verhalen, oral history, liederen, reisliteratuur, zwarte vrouwen, Caraïbisch gebied, 18e eeuw, 19e eeuw
- Description
- Sharpe examines the lives of three distinctive Caribbean women: a maroon leader, a mulatto concubine, and a fugitive slave. Through them she explains how the diasporic experience of slavery enabled black women to claim an authority that they didn't possess in Africa, how concubines empowered themselves through their mimicry of white women, and how less-privileged slave women manipulated situations that they were powerless to change. Sharpe turns to unconventional sources - oral storytelling, slave songs, travel writing, court documents, proslavery literature and contemporary literature to investigate these women's lives.