海角社区

In 鈥淐onstructing Black Women鈥檚 Historical Knowledge鈥� (2000), historian Afua Cooper has stated, 鈥淏lack women鈥檚 history has been at worst invisible, and at best marginal in the history of all Canadian histories.鈥� Cooper has notably fleshed out the story of Marie-Joseph Ang茅lique, a slave accused of鈥攁nd subsequently hanged for鈥攂urning down half of Vieux Montr茅al in 1734. Speaking about 鈥渞esister and rebel storytellers,鈥� scholars Jessie Sagawa and Wendy Robbins (2011) have pointed out that Ang茅lique鈥檚 story is reminiscent of 鈥渕uch African Canadian writing鈥� in its capacity to illuminate individual and community power, as well as prompt reconsideration of how we define an oppositional national identity in view of our US neighbors.

In this spirit of recovery, the first part of my talk examines a selection of cross-border fugitive slave narratives by women, collected in abolitionist Benjamin Drew and published in 1856. I analyze key patterns, tropes, and gender-based concerns among these formerly enslaved newcomers. The second part offers a brief literary analysis of US Latina writer Ana-Maurine Lara鈥檚 verse novel Kohnjehr Woman (2017) which (re)instates a Black lesbian voice into the transnational medley of slavery鈥檚 interrupted but not-quite-silenced women.