Karwan Fatah-Black launches book series on slavery and emancipation
How do we account for historical power dynamics when writing new histories of slavery and emancipation? What critical methods can we employ when studying preserved archives and collections? A new book series aims to address these questions. The initiators Karwan Fatah-Black and Ilse Josepha Lazaroms will be happy to receive new manuscripts.
In the Slavery and Emancipation book series, the theme of slavery is placed in a broad context. Fatah-Black explains the choice, saying, ‘Much historical research related implicitly to American slavery in the nineteenth century. If you work on that history from more diverse contexts, and also pay attention to emancipation processes, you get a better picture, even of the more well-known areas and periods.’
Emancipation movement
The series goes beyond the plantation economy. Emancipation and resistance should also play a significant role in the books. Fatah-Black states, ‘Slavery continued to have an impact for generations, economically, legally, culturally, and socially. Different people have thought about it and tried to do something about it. Those counter-strategies and intellectual output are part of the history of slavery. How have people tried to advance communities or become autonomous and independent?’
Source research
The emphasis is on source research. ‘The theme of slavery is socially relevant, which means a lot is spoken and written about it,’ Fatah-Black explains. ‘In such cases, it’s good to expand existing knowledge by critically analysing primary sources and going further than just bringing together existing knowledge in popular books. In this way, the series contributes to one of the university's core tasks: pushing the boundaries of existing knowledge through scientific research and developing in new directions.’
The first three books from the Slavery and Emancipation series will be released this year. The series is open to new manuscripts. More information is available on the Amsterdam University Press website.