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Contested Boundaries
Freedom and Resistance: A Social History of Black Loyalists in the Bahamas
After the American Revolution, enslaved and free blacks who had been loyal to the British cause arrived in the Bahamas, drawn by British promises of liberty and land. Freedom and Resistance shows how Black Loyalists struggled to find freedom, clashing with white loyalists who tried either to bind them to illegal indentured contracts or to enslave them.Despite these challenges, Black Loyalists made significant contributions to Bahamian society. They advanced ideas of civil liberty through political activism and armed resistance, built churches and schools that became the foundations of self-reliant black communities, and participated in the emerging market economy.Christopher Curry highlights the complex ways in which Black Loyalists transplanted and re-inscribed traditions from colonial America into new host societies and in doing so dynamically refashioned their identities and institutions. By comparing the experiences of these Bahamians to those of other Black Loyalist communities in Jamaica and Nova Scotia, he adds a new global dimension to the freedom struggle that spread from the American Revolution.A volume in the series Contested Boundaries, edited by Gene Allen Smith
268 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 23, 2018
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 30, 2024
July 2024
Curry locates Black Loyalists and their lived experiences within a British imperial system in which their day-to-day struggles epitomized their quest for liberty. He highlights Black Loyalists in The Bahamas as part of the larger global movement of people in the Atlantic. His study connects The Bahamas to the larger Atlantic world.
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Jan 2021
Freedom and Resistance covered history from a different perspective than I'm used too. Seeing how Black Loyalists (Black people in general) thrived and moved in Bahamian society was brilliant. The topics Christopher Curry from the economic, social and political history of black people in The Bahamas was wonderful. Curry makes sure to stress that black experience is not all the same and the black community The Bahamas had their own personal struggles and in-fighting they experienced. I really enjoyed learning about how the Great Awakening and religion helped bond and grow the black community (as well as drive it apart). I recently took a class on the history of American evangelicalism, in which we talked about the Great Awakening a lot so it's interesting to see the reach of GA and its subsequent influence on countries outside of the USA. I talk about White Supremacy and Black people owning black slaves in this post inspired by Freedom and Resistance
Curry locates Black Loyalists and their lived experiences within a British imperial system in which their day-to-day struggles epitomized their quest for liberty. He highlights Black Loyalists in The Bahamas as part of the larger global movement of people in the Atlantic. His study connects The Bahamas to the larger Atlantic world.
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Jan 2021
Freedom and Resistance covered history from a different perspective than I'm used too. Seeing how Black Loyalists (Black people in general) thrived and moved in Bahamian society was brilliant. The topics Christopher Curry from the economic, social and political history of black people in The Bahamas was wonderful. Curry makes sure to stress that black experience is not all the same and the black community The Bahamas had their own personal struggles and in-fighting they experienced. I really enjoyed learning about how the Great Awakening and religion helped bond and grow the black community (as well as drive it apart). I recently took a class on the history of American evangelicalism, in which we talked about the Great Awakening a lot so it's interesting to see the reach of GA and its subsequent influence on countries outside of the USA. I talk about White Supremacy and Black people owning black slaves in this post inspired by Freedom and Resistance
Displaying 1 of 1 review