Date Awarded
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Advisor
Jody Allen
Committee Member
Josh Piker
Committee Member
Hiroshi Kitamura
Abstract
To center the intellectual and spiritual traditions of the Black Atlantic, specifically Black America, is to disrupt our perceptions surrounding Black environmental thought, or the lack thereof, in relation to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. While historians have been re-examining and reimagining the movement of enslaved plants and people for decades, few historians have expanded their environmental lens beyond food crops to examine the deeper ecological implications surrounding their enslavement. The distinct, intimate identities and ecologies of enslaved people, who were also land stewards, herbalists, rootworkers, and gardeners, have not been critically examined by scholars and remain on the margins of many methodologies. My thesis attempts to challenge the existing frameworks that contextualize our, often fragmented, understanding of the continued and emerging environmental thoughts Black folks held about the land they lost, lived, and labored on in relation to their bondage and emancipatory actions during the era of slavery.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-d3d7-mm38
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
McCall, Sidney Rose, "Unwoven Empire: A Not-So-Natural History Of Environmental Racism And The Transatlantic Slave Trade" (2023). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1697552497.
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-d3d7-mm38
