Popular and academic representations of the free mulatta concubine repeatedly depict women of mixed black African and white racial descent as defined by their sexual attachment to white men; and thus they offer evidence of the means to and dimensions of their freedom within Atlantic slave societies. In The Mulatta Concubine; Lisa Ze Winters contends that the uniformity of these representations conceals the figure’s centrality to the practices and production of diaspora.Beginning with a meditation on what captive black subjects may have seen and remembered when encountering free women of color living in slave ports; the book traces the echo of the free mulatta concubine across the physical and imaginative landscapes of three Atlantic sites: Gorée Island; New Orleans; and Saint Domingue (Haiti). Ze Winters mines an archive that includes a 1789 political petition by free men of color; a 1737 letter by a free black mother on behalf of her daughter; antebellum newspaper reports; travelers’ narratives; ethnographies; and Haitian Vodou iconography. Attentive to the tenuousness of freedom; Ze Winters argues that the concubine figure’s manifestation as both historical subject and African diasporic goddess indicates her centrality to understanding how free and enslaved black subjects performed gender; theorized race and freedom; and produced their own diasporic identities.
#923387 in Books University of Georgia Press 2007-04-01 2007-04-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x .83 x 5.50l; .87 #File Name: 0820329401360 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Well researched story!By GeorgeLivingstonWell researched story!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Canadian History Teachers! Here's Your Book!By Eleanor CowanWow! I had no idea! Through the painful lens of this book; Canada's erased history of slave-owning is viewed; perhaps for the first time.Author Dr. Afu Cooper traces the story of a young woman slave; who; in 1734; under grisly torture; admitted to arson and was hung in public in what is now known as Old Montreal. Highly readable; this history tracks countless countries that trafficked in human lives; bled Africa dry and did untold harm. Canada is among the guilty.Eleanor Cowan; author of : A History of a Pedophile's Wife: Memoir of a Canadian Teacher and Writer18 of 20 people found the following review helpful. SHE HAS ARISENBy Paula C. AirdA case had been built against Marie-Joseph Angelique based on innuendo; insinuation; hearsay and Angelique's bad reputation.Under severe torture; the 29-year-old woman; who previously proclaimed her innocence admitted to setting fire to the home of her owner. This fire consumed 46 buildings in Old Montreal. After the grisly execution Angelique's corpse was left hanging for two hours for all to see; then was burnt. That should have been the end of Angelique but 270 years later she has arisen. Thanks to Afua Cooper.In fact through her thorough research Ms Cooper delves into much of the historical occurences of the time. She puts to rest that myth that there was no slavery in Canada. She opens wide the doors of an unjust justice system.This is not just Black history but Canadian - even world history. It should be required reading for all students of history.
