{"id":46785,"date":"2016-04-30T20:50:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T20:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46785"},"modified":"2016-12-27T18:41:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T18:41:19","slug":"the-man-who-stole-himself-the-slave-odyssey-of-hans-jonathan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46785","title":{"rendered":"The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssey of Hans Jonathan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssey of Hans Jonathan<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

University of Chicago Press<\/a>
\n2016
\n264 pages
\n8 color plates, 49 halftones
\n6 x 9<\/p>\n

G\u00edsli P\u00e1lsson<\/strong><\/a>, Professor of Anthropology
\nUniversity of Iceland<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The island nation of Iceland<\/a> is known for many things\u2014majestic landscapes, volcanic eruptions, distinctive seafood\u2014but racial diversity is not one of them. So the little-known story of Hans Jonathan<\/a>, a free black man who lived and raised a family in early nineteenth-century Iceland, is improbable and compelling, the stuff of novels.<\/p>\n

In The Man Who Stole Himself<\/em>, Gisli Palsson lays out Jonathan\u2019s story in stunning detail. Born into slavery in St. Croix<\/a> in 1784, Jonathan was brought as a slave to Denmark<\/a>, where he eventually enlisted in the navy and fought on behalf of the country in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen<\/a>. After the war, he declared himself a free man, believing that not only was he due freedom because of his patriotic service, but because while slavery remained legal in the colonies, it was outlawed in Denmark itself. Jonathan was the subject of one of the most notorious slavery cases in European history, which he lost. Then, he ran away\u2014never to be heard from in Denmark again, his fate unknown for more than two hundred years. It\u2019s now known that Jonathan fled to Iceland, where he became a merchant and peasant farmer, married, and raised two children. Today, he has become something of an Icelandic icon, claimed as a proud and daring ancestor both there and among his descendants in America.<\/p>\n

The Man Who Stole Himself<\/em> brilliantly intertwines Jonathan\u2019s adventurous travels with a portrait of the Danish slave trade, legal arguments over slavery, and the state of nineteenth-century race relations in the Northern Atlantic world. Throughout the book, Palsson traces themes of imperial dreams, colonialism, human rights, and globalization, which all come together in the life of a single, remarkable man. Jonathan literally led a life like no other. His is the story of a man who had the temerity\u2014the courage\u2014to steal himself.<\/p>\n

Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n