Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes

by Harvey Whitfield, Donald Wright (Foreword by)

Overview

This important book sheds light on more than 1,400 brief life histories of mostly enslaved Black people, with the goal of recovering their individual lives.

Harvey Amani Whitfield unearths the stories of men, women, and children who would not otherwise have found their way into written history. The individuals mentioned come from various points of origin, including Africa, the West Indies, the Carolinas, the Chesapeake, and the northern states, showcasing the remarkable range of the Black experience in the Atlantic world. Whitfield makes it clear that these enslaved Black people had likes, dislikes, distinct personality traits, and different levels of physical, spiritual, and intellectual talent. Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes affirms the notion that they were all unique individuals, despite the efforts of their owners and the wider Atlantic world to dehumanize and erase them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487543839
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Series:	Studies in Atlantic Canada History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	819 KB

About the Author

Harvey Amani Whitfield is a professor of Black North American history at the University of Calgary.

Donald Wright is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Donald Wright
Historical Overview: Black Slavery in the Maritimes

Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes

What People are Saying About This

James W. St.G. Walker

"Although Canadian slavery is no longer a 'secret,' there is no other volume with this extent of detailed evidence. This dictionary offers a lively, intimate, and authoritative portrait of Black enslavement in the Maritimes."

T.H. Breen

"From scattered and obscure records, Harvey Amani Whitfield has brilliantly reconstructed the varied lives of enslaved people in the Maritimes. This impressive work is not only a welcome addition to the study of Atlantic slavery, but also a model of archival research."

Karolyn Smardz Frost

"What a tour de force! With meticulous research, evocative and accessible writing, and deep compassion, Harvey Amani Whitfield has provided all of us with a gift that will grace the shelves of both scholars and interested readers for a generation and more."

Michele A. Johnson

"Harvey Amani Whitfield weaves together an incredible array of scattered documentation to make an enormous contribution to breaking the silences and muted tones in Canadian history and historiography about the lives of enslaved people of African descent in the Maritime colonies."

Editorial Reviews

"Whitfield's work, the result of a deep immersion in the existing record, confronts and transcends the limitations of its disparate sources, using individual entries to collect and interpret biographical information about the lives of 1,465 people enslaved in the Maritimes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries."—Nina Reid-Maroney, Huron University College, H-Net Reviews
"Harvey Amani Whitfield weaves together an incredible array of scattered documentation to make an enormous contribution to breaking the silences and muted tones in Canadian history and historiography about the lives of enslaved people of African descent in the Maritime colonies."—Michele A. Johnson, Professor of History, York University
"What a tour de force! With meticulous research, evocative and accessible writing, and deep compassion, Harvey Amani Whitfield has provided all of us with a gift that will grace the shelves of both scholars and interested readers for a generation and more."—Karolyn Smardz Frost, Senior Research Fellow, A Black People’s History of Canada, and Governor General’s Award–winning author of I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
"Although Canadian slavery is no longer a 'secret,' there is no other volume with this extent of detailed evidence. This dictionary offers a lively, intimate, and authoritative portrait of Black enslavement in the Maritimes."—James W. St.G. Walker, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Waterloo
"From scattered and obscure records, Harvey Amani Whitfield has brilliantly reconstructed the varied lives of enslaved people in the Maritimes. This impressive work is not only a welcome addition to the study of Atlantic slavery, but also a model of archival research."—T.H. Breen, author of The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America

From the Publisher

“The Biographical Dictionary of Enslaved Black People in the Maritimes has opened the door for scholars to answer the many questions Whitfield has helped illuminate. Thus, Whitfield's crowning achievement lies not only in capturing the lives and experiences of otherwise marginalized people, especially in New Brunswick, but also in providing an entry point for generations of scholars seeking to further our understanding of slavery and the individuals who were ensnared by it.”

Journal of NB Studies - G. Patrick O'Brien

“Biographical Dictionary is a beautiful, sad, and poignant telling of the lives of those enslaved, created from a wide variety of sources ... A treasure chest for anthropologists, sociologists, and historians who can process the raw data, this book is sure to provide work for years to come in these fields.”

American Review of Canadian Studies - Rod Clare

"Whitfield's work, the result of a deep immersion in the existing record, confronts and transcends the limitations of its disparate sources, using individual entries to collect and interpret biographical information about the lives of 1,465 people enslaved in the Maritimes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries."

H-Net Reviews - Nina Reid-Maroney