Plantations, Slaves, Slaveries and dependent work. Local developments and transcultural comparisons I
Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn, Germany & Departamento de Historia, Universidad de La Habana September 12-13, 2024
International conference organized by Stephan Conermann, Michael Zeuske, Sergio Guerra Vilaboy
Since the great debates about plantations and haciendas in the 1970s and since the decline of economic and social history research, historians have known little about slave plantations, the commodities produced there, the real work of slaves and the position of plantations in the world slavery regimes as well as in slavery empires. Only with the research on Second Slavery (industrialized and technological slavery as capitalism in certain areas of the Americas, such as the south of the USA, Cuba and the south of Brazil) and those on the New History of Capitalism (especially in the USA). What is almost nonexistent are comparisons between plantation areas, slavery regimes and commodities (with the exception of a few works in Brazil, Spain and Germany). Completely absent are transcultural comparisons from a truly global perspective that also include the Eastern Hemisphere. During the conference, we would like
to concentrate our attention to smaller (where there plantation by slaves, like haciendillas of cocoa in Venezuela) and larger plantations in different slavery regimes, first into the Americas, but also into the various forms, functions, developments, justifications and changes of the different types of plantations and slave labor we can identify in different spaces. As we are working towards a transcultural comparison, we prefer applications with case studies from different regions and time spans. Participants are invited to write a paper dealing with a fixed set of questions, such as:
• How do you define a plantation (and how are the local appelations/ terms of the production unit/ landownership)?
• Are there different types of plantations (sugar, coffee, tobacco, indigo, cotton, cocoa,
meat/ hides/ animals)?
• Are there different structures of plantations in sugar, coffee, indigo, cocoa, tobacco?
• How do people enter and exit the plantation (is there a difference between enslaved and nominally free, but dependent workers)?
• Is work on the plantations characterized more by direct violence/terror (whip) or by the severity and length of the work/working hours?
• What is the divison of labour?
• Are there plantations households and a gendered division of labour?
• How does a plantation function as a unit of production and/or economic unit?
• What are the mechanisms of control within the plantation and the possibilities for
slaves to achieve their own goals?
• Applied history: the spaces of slaves and slaves/plantation owners in Havana and the remains of plantations around the city (as well as in and around other cities in slavery regimes with
plantation economies).
The conference will take place on September 12–13, 2023 at the Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de La Habana. Participants will be invited on the basis of both an accepted abstract (200-300 words) and a paper outline (1500 words). Please submit your abstract (which should not exceed 300 words) by April 25, 2024 to annsophie.vornholz@uni-bonn.de. If the abstract is accepted you will be invited to write a paper outline by May, 25. Upon approval of the outline participants will be invited to submit a paper (5000 words) by August 15, 2024. We invite contributions from scholars across the field of humanities and social sciences.
Centrales, ex slaves and dependent work. Local developments and transcultural comparisons II
Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn, Germany & Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas (UNEAC Cienfuegos), Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Cienfuegos September 20-21, 2024
International conference organized by Stephan Conermann, Michael Zeuske, Orlando García Martínez, Anabel García García
Between 1880 and 1886, Cuba was the second to last territory in the Americas to formally abolish slavery (abolition). Between 1870 and 1890, a profound change took place, concentrated around and in Cienfuegos: from mobile, industrialized ingenios with slaves (plantations) to the stationary sugar cane factory (central) with formally free workers, as well as sugar cane production by free workers, often also former slaves (colonos), on their own fields (colonias). What were the Consequences for slaves and former slaves as well as owners of the sugar centrals? It had an extremely profound impact on sugar cane production and the soil of former plantations (not only sugar cane plantations, but also former coffee plantations and livestock farms - they were often separated and colonias arose on them), on sugar cane workers, but also former ingenio owners, merchants and central owners. The construction of the world's largest rural factories was financed by trade and financial profits, by profits from slave smuggling in the hidden Atlantic, and also by usury in the granting of loans for sugar production in Ingenios and other plantations. Participants are invited to write a paper dealing with a fixed set of questions, such as:
• How do we define a central that was created from an ingenio plantation or from another type of large land property (and how are the local appelations/ terms of the production unit/ landownership)?
• Centrales were factories to produce sugar. Are there different types of centrales (in different countries)?
• What happened with the “old” plantations in sugar and coffee? Did they all become colonias (for the production of sugar cane); who worked on the plantations and colonies?
• How do people enter and exit the central (was there a difference between ex slaves and nominally free, but dependent workers)? What happened with other dependent people, like Chinese or Indian workers?
• What was the divison of labour at the centrales?
• Are there central households and a gendered division of labour?
• What are the mechanisms of control within the central and the possibilities for workers and their families to achieve their own goals?
• Applied history: a) The spaces of centrales and central owners in Cienfuegos and the remains of centrales, colonias and plantations around the greater territory of central Cuba; b) The movements of an ex slave from the plantation where he was born to the centrales around Cienfuegos (example: Esteban Montejo, the “cimarrón”).
The conference will take place on September 20–21, 2024 at the UNEAC in Cienfuegos. It is co-hosted by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and organized by Stephan Conermann, Michael Zeuske (Bonn), Orlando García Martínez (UNEAC Cienfuegos), Anabel García García (Universidad de Cienfuegos). Participants will be invited on the basis of both an accepted abstract (200-300 words) and a paper outline (1500 words). Please submit your abstract (which should not exceed 300 words) by April 25, 2024 to annsophie.vornholz@uni-bonn.de. If the abstract is accepted you will be invited to write a paper outline by May, 25. Upon approval of the outline participants will be invited to submit a paper (5000 words) by August 15, 2024. We invite contributions from scholars across the field of humanities and social sciences.
