As If She Were Free
A Collective Biography of Women and Emancipation in the Americas

A groundbreaking collective biography narrating the history of emancipation through the life stories of women of African descent in the Americas.

Erica L. Ball (Edited by), Tatiana Seijas (Edited by), Terri L. Snyder (Edited by)

9781108493406, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 October 2020

320 pages
16 x 23.5 x 4 cm, 0.93 kg

'… the most pleasant and notable merit of the work is the plurality of stories reconstructed in very different American geographies, as well as from historical sources that are also diverse.' Estela Roselló Soberón, Hispanic American Historical Review (translated from Spanish)

As If She Were Free brings together the biographies of twenty-four women of African descent to reveal how enslaved and recently freed women sought, imagined, and found freedom from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries in the Americas. Our biographical approach allows readers to view large social processes – migration, trade, enslavement, emancipation – through the perspective of individual women moving across the boundaries of slavery and freedom. For some women, freedom meant liberation and legal protection from slavery, while others focused on gaining economic, personal, political, and social rights. Rather than simply defining emancipation as a legal status that was conferred by those in authority and framing women as passive recipients of freedom, these life stories demonstrate that women were agents of emancipation, claiming free status in the courts, fighting for liberty, and defining and experiencing freedom in a surprising and inspiring range of ways.

Elizabeth Catlett and the form of emancipation Joyce Tsai
Introduction Erica L. Ball, Tatiana Seijas and Terri L. Snyder
Part I. Claiming Emancipation during the Rise of New World Slavery: 1. Margarita de Sossa, sixteenth-century Puebla de los Ángeles, New Spain (Mexico) Chloe L. Ireton
2. Paula de Eguiluz, seventeenth-century Puerto Rico, Cuba, and New Granada (Colombia) Nicole von Germeten
3. Reytory Angola, seventeenth-century Manhattan (US) Susanah Shaw Romney
4. Elizabeth Key, seventeenth-century Virginia (US) Taunya Lovell Banks
5. Hannah Manena McKenney, late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century Bermuda and New Providence, Bahamas Heather Miyano Kopelson
6. Juana de Godinez, seventeenth-century Lima, Peru Michelle A. McKinley
Part II. Experiencing Freedom during Slavery's Expansion: 7. Judith and Hannah: eighteenth-century Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia (US) Honor Sachs
8. Sarah Chauqum, eighteenth-century Rhode Island and Connecticut (US) Margaret Ellen Newell
9. Marion, eighteenth-century Natchitoches, Louisiana (US) Sophie White
10. Anna Maria Lopes de Brito, eighteenth-century Minas Gerais, Brazil Mariana Dantas
11. Juana Ramírez, eighteenth-century Oaxaca, New Spain (Mexico) Sabrina Smith
12. Juana María Álvarez, eighteenth-century New Granada (Colombia) Ana María Díaz Burgos
13. María Hipólita Lozano, eighteenth-century Lima, Peru Tamara J. Walker
Part III. Envisaging Emancipation during Second Slavery: 14. Bessy Chambers, nineteenth-century Jamaica Sasha Turner
15. Minerva, nineteenth-century Texas and Louisiana, US and Mexico Alice L. Baumgartner
16. Cécile Fatiman and Petra Calabarí, late-eighteenth-century Haiti and mid-nineteenth-century Cuba Aisha K. Finch
17. Mary Ellen Pleasant, nineteenth-century Massachusetts and California, US Kellie Carter Jackson
18. Gabriela, nineteenth-century Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Mariana Dias Paes
19. Maria Firmina dos Reis, nineteenth-century Maranhão, Brazil Maria Helena Pereira Toledo Machado
Part IV. Enacting Emancipation in the Aftermath of Slavery: 20. María Remedios del Valle, nineteenth-century Argentina Erika Edwards and Florencia Guzmán
21. Lumina Sophie, nineteenth-century Martinique Jacqueline Couti
22. Emma Lane Coger, nineteenth-century Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri (US) Sharon E. Wood
23. Laura E. Davis Titus, nineteenth-century Norfolk, Virginia, US Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander
24. Carrie Williams Clifford, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Ohio, US Cathleen D. Cahill
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Slavery & abolition of slavery [HBTS], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK], African history [HBJH]