F20 Black Atlantic: Resources, Pedagogy, and Scholarship on the 18th Century Black AtlanticMain MenuAuthor IndexFAQWeek 01: August 28: PedagogiesWeek 02: Friday, September 4: Thinking about Projects and Digital MethodsWeek 03: Friday, September 11: Black Atlantic Classics Week 04: Reccomended: Thursday September 17: 4pm: Indigenous Studies and British LiteraturesThe Center for Literary + Comparative Studies @UMDWeek 04: Required: Friday, September 18: Reading: Indigenous Studies in the Eighteenth CenturyWeek 04: Required: Friday, September 18: Book LaunchRemaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American CitizenshipWeek 05: Friday, September 25: Digital Humanities, Caribbean Stuides, and FashionGuest: Siobhan MeiWeek 06: Friday, October 2: OBIWeek 07: October 9: Black LondonSancho's Social NetworksWeek 08: Friday, October 16:Muslim Slave Narratives, Hans Sloane, the British Museum, Colonialism as CurationWeek 09: Friday, October 23: Reflection and Tools DayWeek 10: Friday, October 30: Myths of a White Atlantic (and Project Proposal)Week 11: Friday, November 6: Black New EnglandWeek 12: Friday, November 13: Woman of Colour and Mary PrinceWeek 13: Friday, November 20: Peer Review Workshop and Draft with Action PlanKierra M. Porter6b7d2e75a0006cdf2df0ac2471be73ef9c88c9e3Brandice Walker579eedcc76564f61b1ba7f36082d05bdf4fc3435Alexis Harper52f175308474d58b269191120b6cda0582dcde71Catherine C. Saunders80964fcb3df3a95f164eca6637e796a22deb5f63Joseph Heidenescher83b7b4309ef73ce872fc35c61eb8ed716cce705fJoshua Lawson8aecdcf9d2db74d75fb55413d44f3c2dfc3828bdKymberli M Corprue7f6419242e66e656367985fbc1cfa10a933ce71dJimisha Relerford1903b0530d962a83c3a72bad80c867df4f5c027fEmily MN Kugler98290aa17be4166538e04751b7eb57a9fe5c26a2Reed Caswell Aikendbd321f67398d85b0079cc751762466dfe764f88Brenton Brock619582e4449ba6f0c631f2ebb7d7313c0890fa00
Briton Hammon's Narrative of the Sea
12020-11-14T11:57:04-08:00Joshua Lawson8aecdcf9d2db74d75fb55413d44f3c2dfc3828bd377911plain2020-11-14T11:57:04-08:00Joshua Lawson8aecdcf9d2db74d75fb55413d44f3c2dfc3828bdThe narrative of Briton Hammon is an interesting text in that unlike other slave narratives that I’ve read over the course of this semester, this one ends with the slave returning to their master. Having this strange ending I kept thinking who is this text really for and what does it mean for the text to end with the enslaved returning back to the master? I cannot let go of the idea that this text is trying to make the argument that there are good slave masters and that we as the reader should not be so quick to paint with a broad brushstroke all slaveholders as inherently evil. But while the text for me is doing the work of reinventing the slave owner as something good, the text also does the work of imagining the Indigenous population as mere savages which is the second work that I believe the novel is doing. The narrative which on the one hand does the work of revealing how the sea offers this interesting lens into how someone like Hammon is able to navigate these spaces, he’s moving from ship to ship as if he is already free, and the challenge for me is how then does this text challenge what we think of the slave narrative? But at the same time I cannot ignore how this text is trying to create this image of the Indigenous as savage, violent, cannibals and participates in the colonial narrative to justify colonial conquest. But there is a way in which Hammon moves from place to place that makes me wonder how were slaves in Hammon’s situation (moving in and between naval vessels) able to move and negotiate their own subjectivity. The sea is not simply as space in which the enslaved can negotiate there freedom, but is a space where the notion of what it means to be free or enslaved is complicated.