Vênus em dois atos

Este ensaio examina a ubíqua presença de Vênus no arquivo da escravidão atlântica e luta com a impossibilidade de descobrir qualquer coisa sobre ela que já não tenha sido afirmada. Como figura emblemática da mulher escravizada no mundo atlântico, Vênus evidencia a convergência do terror e do prazer na economia libidinal da escravidão, assim como a intimidade da História com o escândalo e o excesso de literatura. Ao escrever no limite do indizível e do desconhecido, o ensaio mimetiza a violência do arquivo e tenta repará-la ao descrever tão plenamente quanto possível as condições que determinam a aparição de Vênus e que ditam seu silêncio

O Tempo da Escravidão

In this text Saidiya Hartman elaborates questions about diaspora and mourning from her visit to Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle, in Ghana, and to the House of Slaves, in Gorée Island, Senegal. Perceiving the articulations between memory and tourism, the author tensions official narratives and mourning performances, considering the time of slavery as a continuous event that makes us “contemporaries of the dead”.En este texto, Saidiya Hartman elabora preguntas acerca de la diáspora y el duelo a partir de su visita a los castillos de Cape Coast y Elmina, en Ghana, ya la Casa de los Esclavos, en la isla de Gorée, Senegal. Percibiendo las articulaciones entre memoria y turismo, la autora cuestiona narrativas oficiales y performances de duelo, considerando el tiempo de la esclavitud como un hecho continuo que nos convierte en “contemporáneos de las muertas”.Neste texto, Saidiya Hartman elabora questões sobre diáspora e luto a partir de sua visita ao Castelo da Costa do Cabo e ao Castelo de Elmina, em Gana, e à Casa dos Escravos, na Ilha de Gorée, no Senegal. Percebendo as articulações entre memória e turismo, a autora tensiona narrativas oficias e encenações do luto, considerando o tempo da escravidão como um evento contínuo que nos faz “contemporâneas das mortas”

"On the Spot": travelling artists and Abolitionism, 1770-1830

Until recently the visual culture of Atlantic slavery has rarely been critically scrutinised. Yet in the first decades of the nineteenth century slavery was frequently represented by European travelling artists, often in the most graphic, sometimes voyeuristic, detail. This paper examines the work of several itinerant artists, in particular Augustus Earle (1793-1838) and Agostino Brunias (1730–1796), whose very mobility along the edges of empire was part of a much larger circulatory system of exchange (people, goods and ideas) and diplomacy that characterised Europe’s Age of Expansion. It focuses on the role of the travelling artist, and visual culture more generally, in the development of British abolitionism between 1770 and 1830. It discusses the broad circulation of slave imagery within European culture and argues for greater recognition of the role of such imagery in the abolitionist debates that divided Britain. Furthermore, it suggests that the epistemological authority conferred on the travelling artist—the quintessential eyewitness—was key to the rhetorical power of his (rarely her) images. Artists such as Earle viewed the New World as a boundless source of fresh material that could potentially propel them to fame and fortune. Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858), on the other hand, was conscious of contributing to a global scientific mission, a Humboldtian imperative that by the 1820s propelled him and others to travel beyond the traditional itinerary of the Grand Tour. Some artists were implicated in the very fabric of slavery itself, particularly those in the British West Indies such as William Clark (working 1820s) and Richard Bridgens (1785-1846); others, particularly those in Brazil, expressed strong abolitionist sentiments. Fuelled by evangelical zeal to record all aspects of the New World, these artists recognised the importance of representing the harsh realities of slave life. Unlike those in the metropole who depicted slavery (most often in caustic satirical drawings), many travelling artists believed strongly in the evidential value of their images, a value attributed to their global mobility. The paper examines the varied and complex means by which visual culture played a significant and often overlooked role in the political struggles that beset the period

Race, Slavery, and the Expression of Sexual Violence in Louisa Picquet, The Octoroon

Historically, victims of sexual violence have rarely left written accounts of their abuse, so while sexual violence has long been associated with slavery in the United States, historians have few accounts from formerly enslaved people who experienced it first-hand. Through a close reading of the narrative of Louisa Picquet, a survivor of sexual violence in Georgia and Louisiana, this article reflects on the recovery of evidence of sexual violence under slavery through amanuensis-recorded testimony, the unintended evidence of survival within the violent archive of female slavery, and the expression of “race” as an authorial device through which to demonstrate the multigenerational nature of sexual victimhood

Reflections on the 'History and Historians' of the black woman's role in the community of slaves: enslaved women and intimate partner sexual violence

Taking as points of inspiration Peter Parish’s 1989 book, Slavery: History and Historians, and Angela Davis’s seminal 1971 article, “Reflections on the black woman’s role in the community of slaves,” this probes both historiographically and methodologically some of the challenges faced by historians writing about the lives of enslaved women through a case study of intimate partner violence among enslaved people in the antebellum South. Because rape and sexual assault have been defined in the past as non-consensual sexual acts supported by surviving legal evidence (generally testimony from court trials), it is hard for historians to research rape and sexual violence under slavery (especially marital rape) as there was no legal standing for the rape of enslaved women or the rape of any woman within marriage. This article suggests enslaved women recognized that black men could both be perpetrators of sexual violence and simultaneously be victims of the system of slavery. It also argues women stoically tolerated being forced into intimate relationships, sometimes even staying with “husbands” imposed upon them after emancipation

The Third Part of the Third Measure. A Film About Julius Eastman. Film Screening and Discussion

The Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality hosted a screening of the film The Third Part of the Third Measure, followed by a discussion with filmmakers Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar (The Otolith Group), Professor Ellie Hisama (Columbia University Department of Music) and Isaac Jean-Francois (Columbia College ’20) on Friday, March 6th from 5:30pm – 7:00pm at 612 Schermerhorn Hall on Columbia University’s Morningside Campus