Tracing the Complexities of (Un) Freedom Through the Archives

Angel A. Parham, University of Virginia

So often the stories we tell of pre-Emancipation America come across in black and white, free and enslaved, oppressor and oppressed. Tracing the nineteenth stories of free people of color across the years adds nuance and complexity to these binaries. They were free, but vulnerable to unfreedom. They were free but at times purchased other people as property. We gain insight into the nuances of freedom and unfreedom in nineteenth century America by tracing the lives of specific persons whose experiences reveal the often complex dimensions of freedom and unfreedom.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 68. Race to the Archives