In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

Florida State University
2007
78 pages

Katrina Songanett Smith

A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
 
This thesis examines both historical and fictional representations of interracial relationships in the 18th century. My argument in this project is two-fold. First, I argue that some black women used sexual relationships with white men to gain advantages for themselves and their fellow slaves. Second, I argue that novelists of the time period re-wrote history in an attempt to erase the positive aspects of miscegenation.

Table of Contents

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Chapter One: Historical Accounts of Black Women’s Sexuality and Strategies of Resistance: The Narratives of Mary Prince, Thomas Thistlewood, John Stedman, Maria Nugent, and Janet Schaw
  • Chapter Two: The Revenge of the Shrew: Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko
  • Chapter Three: The Sacrifice of the Colored Woman in J.W. Orderson’s Creoleana
  • Epilogue
  • Works Cited

Read the entire thesis here.

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