From Enslavement to Emancipation: Naming Practices in the Danish West Indies

AbstractIn most contexts, personal names function as identifiers and as a locus for identity. Therefore, names can be used to trace patterns of kinship, ancestry, and belonging. The social power of naming, however, and its capacity to shape the life course of the person named, becomes most evident when it has the opposite intent: to sever connections and injure. Naming in slave society was primarily practical, an essential first step in commodifying human beings so they could be removed from their roots and social networks, bought, sold, mortgaged, and adjudicated. Such practices have long been integral to processes of colonization and enslavement. This paper discusses the implications of naming practices in the context of slavery, focusing on the names given to enslaved Africans and their descendants through baptism in the Lutheran and Moravian churches in the Danish West Indies. Drawing on historiographical accounts and a detailed analysis of plantation and parish records from the island of St. Croix, we outline and contextualize these patterns and practices of naming. We examine the extent to which the adoption of European and Christian names can be read as an effort toward resistance and self-determination on the part of the enslaved. Our account is illuminated by details from the lives of three former slaves from the Danish West Indies.This paper is part of a project (CitiGen) which has received generous funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under grant agreement No. 649307

Enchiridion exceptionvm forensivm, quibvs rei conuenti legitimè defendi possunt, aduersus iniquas actorum persecutiones. Quaedam item progymnasmata, totum ordinem iudiciarium populariter explicantia, secundum Caesaream constitutionem Augustanam

Elektronische Reproduktion von: Enchiridion exceptionvm forensivm, quibvs rei conuenti legitimè defendi possunt, aduersus iniquas actorum persecutiones. Quaedam item progymnasmata, totum ordinem iudiciarium populariter explicantia, secundum Caesaream constitutionem Augustanam. Per D. Ioannem Oldendorpium. Non tam rerum adquisitio , quàm earum quæ adquisitæ sunt, utilis defensio sæpè desiderantur. Cum gratia + privilegio Imperalii. - Marpvrgi : Kolbe, 1552. - Herstellung: Marpvrgi : Egenolff. - 205, [10] Bl. - Standort: Universität Marburg, Universitätsbibliothek. - Signatur: 095 XVIIIc C 735 x # Marburg. - Bemerkungen: Kolophon: Marpvrgi Excudebant Andreas Colbius , + Christianus Egenolphus. Anno. M. D. LII. - Enth. außerdem: Progymnasmata totum ordinem iudiciarium populariter explicantia. - Bibliographischer Nachweis: Dommer : Die ältesten Drucke aus Marburg in Hessen, 239. - (Hassiaca) Digitalisiert 202

Adsertiones ex iure et aequitate de his rebus sine quibus necque iudicia recte constitui, necque publica tranquilitas retineri potest

Elektronische Reproduktion von: Adsertiones ex ivre et aequitate de his rebus sine quibus nec[que] iudicia recte constitui, nec[que] publica tranquilitas retineri potest : confutatio item erroris perniciosi, quo petitur haereditas ex beneficiariis ditionibus publici iuris / per Ioannem Oldendorpium. - Marpurgi : Colbius, 1553. - 87, [12] Bl. - Standort: Universität Marburg, Universitätsbibliothek. - Signatur: 095 XVIIIb C 300 # Marburg. - Bemerkungen: Vorlageform des Erscheinungsvermerks im Kolophon: MARPVRGI ANDREAS Colbius excudebat, Calendis Iulij. Anno M. D. LIII. Bibliographischer Nachweis: Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts, O 546. - Dommer : Die ältesten Drucke aus Marburg in Hessen, 246. - (Hassiaca) Digitalisiert 202

Lexicon iuris

Obra perteneciente al Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la USA

Joannis Oldendorpii IurisConsulti Clarissimi, Actionum Forensium Progymnasmata : In quibus Practica Formandi Actiones & Exceptiones accurate monstratur, In Classes Septem Distincta, Opus Advocatis, Et Praxeos Sectatoribus utile cum primis & nesessarium ; In Duobus Tomis Divisa

Enth. Tomus 1 u. 2 in einem Bd.. - Nicht identisch mit VD17 1:059382W (dort ohne Widmung) und 7:698289R (abweichender Fingerprint)Vorlageform des Erscheinungsvermerks: Francofurti Sumptibus Haeredum Joannis Gottofredi Schönwetteri. Anno M.DC.LXI

Actionum forensium progymnasmata

Obra perteneciente al Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la USA