WHAT, WHEN AND WHERE
The PhD program in Global History of Empires is pleased to invite anyone interested in the workshop “Slavery after Abolitionism? Temporalities, (Im)Mobility and Labor in Global Perspective”.
Invited presenters will discuss the extent to which the various forms of forced labor that survived the abolition of “traditional” slavery can be equated with “slavery by another name”, to quote the title of Douglas A. Blackmon’s 2009 book. Indeed, this book has shown that various forms of debt bondage, including indentured servitude, convict leasing, and prison labor, kept African Americans in conditions analogous to slavery for decades after 1865. Continuities, rather than a clear rupture characterize abolitionism, with its multiple spatial and social temporalities. As for other regions of the world, the literature has convincingly demonstrated that slavery did not end with the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century, but that millions of people remained in bondage in Africa, the Mediterranean, and Asia well into the twentieth century.
These continuities not only suggest that contemporary forms of exploitation should be seen as legacies of the slave trade and colonialism, rather than new forms of trade and trafficking in human beings that emerged in the twentieth century. They also push scholars to blur the distinctions between traditional and modern slavery, which are generally based on the legality or illegality of enslavement. The workshop will address the following questions:
- How did formerly enslaved people adapt and interpret the abolition decrees?
- Which new control mechanisms and practices were implemented to foster coercion in work,
severely limiting options, and socio-spatial forms of mobility for formerly enslaved people and their
descendants? - How did differences in terms of age, status, gender, and ethnicity affect the effective
application of abolition laws?
Great attention will be paid to the diverse forms of resistance that men and women cast against such processes, in different ways, (from lawsuits, strikes, and abstention from work, to actions to negotiate one’s position, albeit from different positions of power), highlighting continuities and discontinuities between slavery and the post-emancipation period.
The entire event will be accessible online via webex platform:https://unito.webex.com/meet/imperial.history
DEADLINE AND HOW TO SUBMIT
Organizers: Silvia Bruzzi, Elena Barattini, Federica Morelli
For questions please email elena.barattini@unito.it