Case Studies in the History of Slavery and Abolition

Public lecture by Sara Eriksson⁹, Sarah Zimmerman¹⁰, and Natalie Joy¹¹, moderated by David B. Smith¹²

The three BCDSS Fellows provided interesting insights into their projects and discussed slavery and abolition in different temporal and geographical contexts. 

Sara Eriksson: "How to do an Archeology of Slavery: A Case Study from Ancient Greece"
What can a small piece of lead used to repair a cook pot tell us about slavery in ancient Greece? In this talk, I demonstrate how we can see the experience of oppressed people in the past through the objects that archaeologists dig up. Following the path of a lead repair from where it was found in The Sanctuary of Poseidon on the island of Poros all the way back to its origins in the Laurion silver mines outside Athens, we uncover the lives and labor of the enslaved people that formed the backbone of the ancient Greek society.

Sarah Zimmerman: "Gender, Slavery, and World Heritage on Gorée Island (Senegal)"
In May of 2018, a coalition of Senegalese activists took to social media to denounce the inauguration of the "Place d’Europe" on Gorée Island—a Senegalese UNESCO World Heritage site that commemorates the transatlantic slave trade. The imagery from the inauguration and the ensuing public debates demonstrate that women and slavery are part of a complicated past that Senegalese officials and anti-imperialist activists seek to mobilize in an effort to draw connection with and discredit the historical legacies of France’s presence in Senegal. This presentation focuses on gender and domestic slavery to determine if recent public debates and renovations on Gorée have opened up new possibilities for who or what is commemorated on the island in the twenty-first century. 

Natalie Joy: "The Indian’s Cause: Native Americans and the American Antislavery Movement"

This short series of three lectures took place on 15 May 2024. 

Gender and Gender Ambiguity

Public lecture by Claudia Jarzebowski¹³, Emma Kalb¹⁴, and Eva Marie Lehner¹⁵

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," Simone de Beauvoir argues in her famous book The Second Sex, published in 1949. This has come as no surprise to historians since the 1990s, as women's and gender studies have identified numerous examples that argue against historically defined, biological gender roles. In this light, we ask what historically characterized a man or a woman and how were gender identities defined, for which there are long abbreviations today? What definitions and ideas of 'woman' and 'man' were there in the first place? And: Did this broad variance in gender identities also exist in historical and transcultural comparison? The perhaps surprising answer is: Of course! You will learn more about this with the help of three illustrative contributions on Europe and Asia by researchers from the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies.

This short series of three presentations took place on 6 December 2023 and was held in German. 

Slave Plantations

Public lecture by Michael Zeuske¹⁶ and Alexa Voss

Slave plantations for the cultivation of sugar and cotton as well as trade with slaves from Africa - hardly anything shapes the image of the slavery empires in the Americas more strongly.

Plantations, however, have accompanied the Atlantic slavery since 1500. Ever since Eduard von Lippmann's fundamental book on sugar (Geschichte des Zuckers, 1890), everyone in Europe assumed that plantations had existed during the "westward migration" of sugar (when sugar cane migrated from Papua via India and the Mediterranean to the Americas). In the Middle Ages, however, there were very few large latifundia with mills in Cyprus, otherwise sugar-cane was grown by free farmers on small fields rather than on great land pieces (plantations).

The "invention" of the plantation is twofold: in historical reality in Madeira (very few), the Canary Islands (few) and especially in São Tomé in the Gulf of Benin under the name of engenho/ ingenio or roça in the 16th century and under the general name of "plantation" (plantation/ estate) in Barbados in the 17th century.

How did the invention of the slave plantation come about, how did it develop, and what is its significance for us today?

This lecture took place on 24 May 2023 and was held in German. 

The Exodus in the Old Testament. Liberation and/or Divine Slavery?

Public lecture by Ulrich Berges¹⁷

The liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt is one of the most fundamental contents of the Old Testament Jewish credo and subsequently also of the New Testament Christian religion. More decisive than the historical core of truth or the hypothetical reconstruction of the same is the spiritual-historical dynamic of this narrative. In the justifications of some nation states such as South Africa, the USA, and Israel, the Exodus narrative plays a decisive role, as it does in liberation movements such as the South American "teología de la liberación."

An important aspect of the Old Testament narrative remains underexposed or even completely negated: The salvation from slavery does not lead to freedom and autonomous self-determination, but to the obligation to submit to the divine Torah. This ambiguity of salvation and submission can be seen in the Old Testament in the often overlooked metaphor of YHWH as the slave owner of his people. This lecture will explore this ambiguity, paying special attention to the slave laws in the Old Testament.

This lecture took place on 24 May 2023 and was held in German.