Paternalism and its Discontents
Additionally, as seen in The Narrative of Joanna, An Emancipated Slave, from Surinam, paternalist logics extend themselves beyond just the realm of legal structures and issues of religious morality. The logic also misinforms theories of biological essentialism, racism, and the notion of inheritance. All of these are clearly at play in this narrative as Captain John Stedman fathers a child with a 15-year old enslaved girl, Joanna, who remains in his possession. While this narrative complicates and outright disturbs modern ideas of abolitionism, consent, and subalterity, the narrative also demonstrates a subversion of paternalist values employed on behalf of a mixed-race child. Stedman goes above and beyond to seek the manumission of “his best friend” as she is referred to throughout the narrative, and her/his young son because, as is mentioned time and time again, Stedman can’t possibly bear the thought of either living in perpetual servitude. While on the one hand, Stedman maintains a sentimentalist approach to abolition, he also demonstrates that he is motivated by a paternalist impulse to keep his family together and have it recognized by legal and religious authorities.