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Born to a free Black family, Jack Hodges (ca. 1763–1842) was arrested for the murder of a white man in 1819 and served a term at New York's Auburn State Prison, the world-famous prototype of industrial prison discipline, where he experienced a life-altering Christian conversion. Also known as Jacob Hodges, he became one of the nineteenth century's most famous incarcerated African Americans, appearing in popular crime writing, children's books, reform society reports, and spiritual biographies. Today, however, Hodges is unacknowledged, even among scholars of race and prison studies. My interdisciplinary essay advances both historical and interpretive claims. I reconstruct Hodges's life in the crucible of evangelical Protestantism, racial assimilation, and industrial market capitalism, which worked together, I argue, to shape the ideology of the modern prison system. I also analyze the vivid fantasies about Hodges that circulated in reformist literature. Unlike the majority of captives, whose struggles left only faint traces in the archives, Hodges was neither the object of dehumanizing violence nor the subject of coldly rational surveillance; he was listened to, admired, and treated with sympathy. As a case study in evangelical reformism's sentimental, possessive style of love, the literature about Hodges poses special challenges and opportunities for abolitionist reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade-plus, there has been a surge in anthropological writing on decolonisation. Yet, whereas mid-twentieth century anticolonial revolutionaries fought to uproot imperialism's extractive political economy, certain contemporary decolonial tendencies give primacy, instead, to asserting cultural/epistemological difference. This shift has motivated pertinent critiques, such as that of Nigerian philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, of atavistic conceptions of decolonisation. Táíwò's dismissal, however, of the neocolonialism thesis and his conceptual uncoupling of imperialism's material and symbolic dimensions results in a one-dimensional polemic. What gets lost is the much-needed role of decolonisation as an ideological struggle in mobilising populations against an entrenched neocolonial political economy. With this debate as framing, I propose revisiting Talal Asad's 1973 volume, Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter, published at the height of anthropology's disciplinary anti-imperialism. The book's contributors detail how, amid intensifying anticolonial agitation, interwar anthropologists anxious about cultural change among colonised populations advocated a shift to indirect colonial rule through native elites, rather than an abolition of imperialism per se. While spurning colonialism's earlier assimilationist agenda, anthropological calls to institutionalise cultural differences among colonised populations resonated with an imperialist project of incorporating while subverting anticolonial demands. Amid present-day anthropological discussions around decolonisation, these insights remain relevant. This is because contemporary neocolonial relations operate in a manner akin to indirect colonial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1842, the National Institute for the Promotion of Science installed an eclectic collection of natural science and cultural treasures in the United States Patent Office, a fire-proof building in Washington D.C. Inventories, institutional records, and periodicals indicate that the initial curator of the National Institute, the natural scientist Charles Pickering, arranged display cases at the U.S.'s first national museum according to his ethnographic division of racial types. Pickering's system remained mostly intact until the galleries closed at the onset of the Civil War. As pro-slavery violence grew increasingly intense, the government-sponsored National Institute presented a narrative of progress that was embroiled in racial politics. The violent context that surrounded prominent objects in federal collections, such as the Declaration of Independence and Charles Willson Peale's George Washington at Princeton (1779), should be remembered as a significant moment in museum and U.S. history as well as a potential measure of change since the antebellum installation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal law abolitionists claim that legal punishment cannot be morally justified and that we should therefore abolish criminal law. While this is still a minority position in the current debate, the number of proponents has been increasing, and even opponents have developed a certain degree of sympathy for such claims in recent years. Yet one of the reasons many remain hesitant regarding the abolition of criminal law appears to be the lack of a thought-through alternative, in addition to abolitionists disagreeing considerably amongst themselves on what an alternative should look like. I will call this the missing alternative objection. To address this central concern, I will argue in this paper that the most prominent versions of abolitionism actually converge on the same alternative core to criminal law — even though they are driven by vastly different motivations. This core that current abolitionist theories converge on is two-fold: first, the claim that the state should compel offenders to provide restitution for the victim; second, the claim that restorative processes should be used wherever possible when addressing criminal wrongdoing. This common core is enough to reject the missing alternative objection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Punishment involves the intentional infliction of harm and suffering. Both of the most prominent families of justifications of punishment – retributivism and consequentialism – face several moral concerns that are hard to overcome. Moreover, the effectiveness of current criminal punishment methods in ensuring society’s safety is seriously undermined by empirical research. Thus, it appears to be a moral imperative for a modern and humane society to seek alternative means of administering justice. The special issue of Diametros “The Abolition of Punishment: Is a Non-Punitive Criminal Justice System Ethically Justified?” was brought into life precisely to give the authors a platform for such progressive inquiries. And it is now safe to say that this platform has been put to excellent use, since Valerij Zisman, Alexander Stachurski, Giorgia Brucato, Perica Jovchevski, Sofia M. I. Jeppsson, Stephen G. Morris, Benjamin Vilhauer, John Lemos, Saul Smilansky, Elizabeth Shaw, Mirko Farina, Andrea Lavazza and Sergei Levin have presented such thought-provoking texts that they are bound to set the stage for debate in the years to come. This article is an introduction to this special issue and to the authors’ papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between Portuguese Freemasonry and the slave trade in the Portuguese Empire, particularly in Brazil and Mozambique. It discusses the historical context of Portuguese colonization and the impact of French invasions on the economy. The article also examines the development of Freemasonry in Portugal and its role in organizing political factions during the turbulent period from 1834 to 1850. The author emphasizes the importance of understanding the concept of "esclavagisme" (slavery as a form of production) in analyzing the connections between the actors involved in the slave trade and Freemasonry. The text discusses the involvement of Freemasonry in the Portuguese colonies, specifically in Mozambique. It mentions the connections between Freemasons and slave traders, as well as their influence on colonial authorities. The text also highlights the spread of Freemasonry through French shipowners and captains who frequented the port of Mozambique. The government expressed concern about the propagation of "pernicious doctrines" and the danger of French ideas infiltrating the colony. Additionally, the text mentions the presence of Inconfidentes from Minas Gerais who were deported to Mozambique and the role of students studying in European universities in spreading Freemasonry to Brazil. The text discusses the influence of Freemasonry and secret societies in the context of the slave trade and liberalism in Mozambique. It highlights the connections between the sons of the merchant and slave bourgeoisie who studied abroad and returned to establish networks in Mozambique. Freemasonry was associated with universities, merc [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the discrepancy between the principles of diversity and participation in Canada and the practices of its prison system. It argues that a truly pluralistic and participatory state cannot engage in carceral practices. The article highlights the overrepresentation of black and Indigenous individuals in Canadian prisons, attributing it to factors such as the War on Drugs and the prioritization of prison expansion over social programs. It also addresses the negative effects of solitary confinement and advocates for the creation of alternatives to prisons. The author emphasizes the need for a more inclusive democracy and suggests demilitarizing schools, improving education, and implementing a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation. The text draws on the ideas of Angela Y. Davis and John Dewey, both questioning the legitimacy of prisons and emphasizing the importance of democracy in fostering individual growth. The author calls for the dismantling of the prison system and the reallocation of resources to support communities and create a more compassionate society. [Extracted from the article]

For the most part, histories of Australia's international relations locate the origins of its engagement with the international human rights regime in the 1940s. By then, however, debates about human rights had been appearing in the Australian newspapers for more than a century, focused, among other things, on the application of universal rights to the foreign peoples with which the colonies were engaged in their international affairs. Drawing on archival materials and newspaper articles from 1803 to 1901, this article examines the place of human rights in the international relations of nineteenth century colonial Australia. Focusing on debates over the use of Indian and South Sea Islander indentured labour, it demonstrates how ideas developed in the context of the anti-slavery movement of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries shaped debates about the universal applicability of human rights in the Australian colonies' engagements with others. In doing so, it provides an account of the early development of human rights ideas in the Australian colonies and demonstrates how they sought to resist human rights claims in their international affairs, choosing instead to prioritise the pursuit of national (racial) unity and prosperity over the rights of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maison close [brothel] in French history and culture, particularly during the nineteenth century because of its representation in art and literature, could be argued to be a lieu de mémoire [site of memory]. In light of the gaps in material that gives direct voice to women in sex work, especially during this period, the maison close could equally be termed a lieu d'oubli [site of forgetting]. In contemporary popular culture, the brothel has become a popular setting for fiction, as with the Canal+ series Maison close (2010, 2013), set in 1870s Paris. The series reflects a fascination with sex work in popular culture, as well as offering a commentary on the legal standing of sex work between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. This paper interrogates the extent to which Maison close attempts to offer alternative or more nuanced visions of history than simply categorising sex workers as victim/criminal/femme fatale, informed by abolitionist debates during its production and emerging critiques of the Nordic Model of sex work. It also analyses how the series provides an alternative vision for sex workers, and workers more generally, that moves from exploitation to collective action and attempts to increase their agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the idea of anti-slavery sociability as part of a wider analysis of the informal elements of the transatlantic anti-slavery movement. It considers how American abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman drew support for the American anti-slavery cause from French salons during her time spent living in Paris from 1848 to 1855. This case-study highlights how a focus on the informal dimensions of anti-slavery activism illuminates the often underappreciated work of female abolitionists in the transatlantic reform sphere. Through the connections she established with the likes of French writer Victor Hugo and Russian exile Nicholas Tourgueneff at salons in Paris, most notably that of Mary Clarke Mohl on the Rue de Bac, Chapman was able to cultivate European support for abolitionism in myriad ways. This included financial donations, goods to be sold at anti-slavery bazaars, and, perhaps most importantly, testimonies against American slavery from renowned Europeans like Hugo that could be republished in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article asks why the family of African American farmer Percy Claud and numerous other African Americans in and around Southampton County, Virginia remembered the death of Nat Turner, an African American slave who led an uprising against slave owners in August 1831, as a lynching by an outraged white mob rather than a legally appointed execution on behalf of the state. The meaning of Turner's death and his fellow rebels for opponents of slavery is also discussed.

Education research increasingly conceptualizes how social interactions and contexts of public schools replicate practices found in prisons. Yet prison-schooling is often left out of education research. Concurrently, prison-schooling is where we educate a disproportionate amount of multiply marginalized youth, specifically disabled Girls of Color. The lack of attention to prison-schools has limited how teaching in youth carceral facilities can be examined for its challenges and supports of disabled Girls of Color. Centering the girls' words from class observations, field notes, and interviews, this study describes and intervenes in dehumanizing and (de)socializing mechanisms in prison-school education. We explore attempts and impacts of countering prison-school education through a sociocritical literacy course infused with an abolitionist praxis. We end with discussion on the limits of countering prison-school through courses alone, suggesting abolition across multiple scales instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article conducts a historical analysis of newspaper coverage and governmental debates from 1834 to 1837 over whether abolitionists should be restricted from the postal networks in the South. Three thematic categories emerged from my analysis of a controversy over abolitionists using the postal network in 1835: (1) balancing government regulation with free expression in the postal network, (2) concerns about individual postmasters meddling in the network, and (3) support for regulation, bridging postal law reform and ethics. This article contends that the 1835 debate showed the limitations of a libertarian understanding of free expression in the United States. These findings contextualize contemporary debates over reconciling the First Amendment with government regulation of digital networks when fashioning media policies that shape content moderation and free expression on digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1820s it was predominantly Black abolitionists who opposed gradualist abolitionism and the concept of colonization, while, in general, White abolitionists opposed slavery, viewing it as seductive or as sin in itself, but did not want full emancipation for Blacks. Therefore, David Walker's Appeal from 1829 is a central document in that it calls for immediate and full emancipation as well as opposition to racism and White supremacy. This article argues that the shift in political aim of Black radical abolitionists correlates with an innovation in theological foundation. Walker grounds his quest for immediate and full emancipation in an egalitarian concept of imago Dei. It is this theological foundation that became influential in radical abolitionist discourse and was employed by Maria M. Stewart as well as William Lloyd Garrison. As a result of research on Walker's theological innovation, it comes to the fore that he most likely was influenced by Black Freemasonry, especially Prince Hall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rereading Toni Morrison's novel Beloved , this article explores how Morrison's work at the limits of language performs the haunting ties between the Reconstruction era and the present day by offering readers a way to experience a rememory of their own. By repeatedly emphasizing the inadequacy of language in expressing traumatic experience, Beloved encourages its readers to, like its characters, look beyond language and seek out a kind of ineffable, embodied knowledge to better understand the lingering traumas of slavery. Through Morrison's concept of "invisible ink," which points to the inevitability that lived experience cannot be captured in language by the author alone but must be filled in by an active reader, this article makes a larger argument: that Beloved acts as both an invitation and a guide to read the ghostly, invisible ink of history that exists outside the novel, haunting our world itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive and multiscaled scope of state violence—religious and racist genocide, medical apartheid, colonial dispossession, global austerity, and capitalist resource extraction that accelerates our climate catastrophe—indexes the immense potential of state infrastructures. Global systems that can accumulate and wield such sprawling powers might instead be used to redistribute resources on that same scale. This issue of Radical History Review, organized around the theme "Feminists Confront State Violence," asks about the capacity of the state to affirm life given its structural investments in violence, paying specific attention to how activists have theorized and devised strategies to win redress from extant institutions. Ultimately, contributing authors document how feminists have negotiated a fundamental contradiction: how, and why, does one make demands for the equitable distribution of care, safety, and life on a state that unequally distributes violence, immiseration, and death? Together, these essays provide an archival toolkit of Black, abolitionist, anarchist, anticolonial, and anticapitalist feminist strategies to radically remake worlds inside this one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on David Gellman's book, "Liberty's Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York," which examines the complex relationship between the Jay family, slavery, and abolitionism across multiple generations. Topics include John Jay's role as both a slaveholder and antislavery advocate, the gradual shift towards abolitionism within the family, and the activism and denunciation of racism by subsequent generations, particularly William Jay and John Jay II.

This Forum examines and challenges the existing periodization of the field of early American history. The Forum is co-organized by Vanessa M. Holden and Michael John Witgen and features contributions from Ernesto Bassi, Andrew J. Walker, Manisha Sinha, Aisha K. Finch, Honor Sachs, Jameson R. Sweet, Malinda Maynor Lowery and Christina Snyder, Michael John Witgen, Jon Parmenter, Kariann Akemi Yokota, Kathryn Olivarius, and Greta LaFleur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay mobilizes critical archival studies and Tonia Sutherland's notion of "the carceral archive" in dialogue with Asian American feminist praxis to propose the framework of promiscuous archives, which seeks to harness the power and resources of archives towards unconventional, liberatory aims directed by community need. I draw principally from the concrete archival practices employed by the "Private Practices: AAPI Artist and Sex Worker Collection" at the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive to ask: What can abolitionist knowledge practices look like? What can archives learn from sex workers? Weaving critique of carceral narratives around sex workers with interrogation of the logics of capture and surveillance that direct archival practice, the essay presents promiscuity as an exploratory strategy of collaboration, proliferation, and usurpation that radically expands the porosity of archives, challenging the temporality, affective charge, and social role of archival repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reflects on the history of napalm and the US anti-war movement to examine the university as both a site of research and development for chemical and biological warfare during the Cold War, as well as a site of abolitionist intervention and struggle. On one hand, napalm represented how war structured the fabric of everyday life in the United States, a condition of total war that overtook institutions of knowledge production within universities, corporations, and laboratories across the nation. On the other hand, napalm was viewed as exceptionally inhumane compared to other tactics of war, prompting movements for outlawing the chemical from military use. This dissonance between organizing against war itself as a perpetual structure of violence and against napalm as an individual technology of war invites consideration of the material stakes of anti-war organizing in an abolitionist vision. As the military–industrial complex only strengthens the entanglements between the university, corporate capitalism, and military expansion, this essay asks: how might we grapple with our place as abolitionist and anti-militarist scholars to interrogate our relationship to knowledge production and the university itself? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Believers Bail Out is a Muslim abolitionist collective that bails Muslims out of pretrial and immigration incarceration and uses the issue of money bail to educate and mobilize Muslim communities to join the struggle for abolition of the prison industrial complex. By articulating this struggle as a form of jihad , this essay reclaims the Islamic word-concept for liberation from all forms of policing and oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rise in violent attacks targeting Asians in the US and argues that these incidents should be seen as systemic rather than isolated events. It highlights two specific attacks, the Atlanta shooting and the death of Yang Song, to illustrate the connections between police, empire, and violence against Asian women. The article suggests that the US military, like the police, operates to exert control and dominance rather than ensuring peace and safety. It calls for demilitarization and the development of transnational connections to address the issue of hate attacks and work towards a world without police or prisons. [Extracted from the article]

In 1860, Emine Hanım killed her husband Ferik İbrahim Pasha. In this article, I use her murder trial to examine the interrelation between slavery, the private lives of the Ottoman ruling class, and the complexities of the judicial system during the Tanzimat period (1839–1876). I identify the limitations of nineteenth-century legal reforms and the discrepancy between the reformist ideals and the real-world complexities experienced by individuals. By paying close attention to legal issues in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat era, such as siyaseten katl (administrative death penalty) and the inconsistent application of kısas (retaliation in kind), I argue that Emine's story contributes to a better understanding of the Ottoman legal system during the reform era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the institute of remission of sentence through reading, particularly the potential of reading practiced in a critical dialogical way, aiming at the autonomy and freedom of people deprived of liberty, bringing the institute closer to the basic ideology of penal abolitionism. Elaborated through bibliographical and documentary research, it aims to demonstrate that reading carried out by people deprived of liberty from the perspective described can contribute to the weakening of criminal subjection and punitive subjectivities, and with this, enable liberation from the vicious circle of political, social, and economic processes that culminate in mass incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconsiders the evidence provided by the late antique and early medieval penitentials (c. 550–800) for the study of slavery and other dependency relations. The main body of the article identifies and describes three sets of social practices of penance, which can be perceived as actions that contributed to the emergence, perpetuation, or stabilization of dependency relations: the social exclusion and othering of penitents, the assignment of penal measures, and the varying treatment of penitents according to their gender and social status. These social practices are then linked to contemporary theological and socio-legal frameworks that likely informed the practice of penance in Merovingian Gaul. The survey shows that the handbooks of penance provide important material for the study of dependency relations and that the ecclesiastical ritual of penance should be considered as a context in which these relations emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Prolegomena: Journal of Philosophy is the property of Society for the Advancement of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article discusses two novels, "The Good Lord Bird" by James McBride and "The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton" by Jane Smiley, which delve into the historical period of Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s. The novels use humor and intertextuality to explore the complexities of this era, including slavery, racism, and violence. They challenge traditional narratives and shed light on the flaws and limitations of historical figures like John Brown and Frederick Douglass. The authors suggest that the violence and polarization of the time hindered progress and advocate for a more radical approach to achieve lasting change. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of IgualdadES is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Crimen: Journal for Criminal Justice is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Law and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Trashumante. Revista Americana de Historia Social is the property of Universidad de Antioquia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the efforts of the Sanitary Committee of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia to raise money for sick and wounded African American soldiers during the Civil War. The committee held a fair to raise funds, which were then sent to Louisa Jacobs in Alexandria, Virginia, to support relief efforts for soldiers and formerly enslaved individuals. The article highlights the challenges faced by African American soldiers and the efforts of Black women to support them, despite the neglect and racism of the US Sanitary Commission. It also explores the role of women's organizations and fundraising fairs during the war. The text provides a historical account of Harriet Jacobs and her daughter Louisa's experiences as African American women during the 19th century, including their escape from slavery and their work to assist freed people in Alexandria during the Civil War. The text also highlights the activism of African American women in churches and relief organizations during this time, specifically focusing on the efforts of the Ladies' Union Association and the women of St. Thomas Church. The women faced racial hostility and challenges in their efforts to help soldiers, but their fundraising efforts legitimized Black women's philanthropic work and encouraged additional contributions. The article concludes by noting the celebration of the Thirteenth Amendment by the African American community in Philadelphia and the presentation of testimonials by the women of St. Thomas Church to the president of the Union League Association and Lieutenant Colonel George Wagner. Overall, the text provides a valuable historical account of the contributions and challenges faced by African American [Extracted from the article]

The Cope Family Archive, located at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, contains valuable records related to the Cope Line packet ships that operated between Philadelphia and Liverpool in the 19th century. These records include passenger and crew lists, invoices, bills of lading, and correspondence from ship captains. One notable story from the archive is that of David Henry White, a free Black sailor who was kidnapped and enslaved by Captain Raphael Semmes of the Confederate ship CSS Alabama. Contrary to the narrative presented by Semmes and his officers, evidence from the archive disproves the claim that White was a contented servant. Instead, it reveals that White was a free man who had found work in Delaware before joining the Cope Line. The archive provides insights into the experiences of free Black sailors and the international networks they were part of. The article emphasizes the importance of examining primary sources to uncover hidden histories and challenge dominant narratives. [Extracted from the article]

The American Revolution happened as Raynal and Diderot were working on the third edition of their monumental Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. Beyond this bestseller of the 1770s and 1780s, many lesser-known authors started to consider the impact of the American Revolution on the issue of colonies and empires. Among them were journalists and essayists who lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The American Revolution appeared to them, as well as to other French cosmopolitan writers of the same generation and profile, as the starting point of a liberation of the whole American continent from European imperial rule and potentially from the slave trade and slavery. The gradual abolition of slavery in Northern American States was seen as a logical consequence of the American Revolution. However, the writers who thought about the consequences of the American Revolution in terms of decolonization were not the same as those who engaged in a thorough reflection on slavery, a debate in which more well-known figures, like Condorcet and Brissot, played a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concept of critical ethnography, which combines critical social theory with ethnographic practices. It discusses various theories and perspectives that have influenced critical ethnography, such as feminist and postcolonial politics, Marxist approaches, and queer-Marxian approaches. The article emphasizes the role of ethnography in addressing social injustice and promoting social transformation. It also discusses the challenges and potential of ethnography, as well as its role in understanding and critiquing social phenomena. The text further explores the intersection of capitalism, class, and labor with kinship, sexuality, and gender in the context of queer Marxian anthropology. It highlights the limitations of traditional ethnography and proposes critical ethnography as a method that aims to transform oppressive structures. The article also discusses the shift in the field of ethnography due to postcolonial critique, expanding the understanding of research contexts and the rise of remote and hybrid research methods. It explores the potential of critical ethnography in understanding and challenging systems of power, specifically focusing on ethnographies of the police and the far right. The text also discusses the intersection between International Relations and Ethnography, highlighting the challenges and potential collaborations between the two fields. Overall, the article emphasizes the importance of criticality and transformative change in ethnographic research. [Extracted from the article]

In this essay, I investigate the ways in which abolitionists and pro-slavery forces use Tocqueville before and during the Civil War, drawing on the major black and white abolitionist newspapers (The Liberator, National Anti-Slavery Standard, The National Era, The North Star, and The Colored American). By focusing on the dissemination of Tocqueville's ideas within a specific audience of white abolitionists, and on the impact of blacks' criticism on this process, I challenge Tocqueville's abolitionist arguments. Thus, using Tocqueville as a prism through which to discuss some of the key issues surrounding the abolitionist struggles, I show that the author's reception depends on the relevance of these struggles and claims for the definition of democracy itself as an endless and potentially unmanageable process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much has been written about the renowned poet Plácido's significance in Cuban history, the lack of scholarship on his reception in Spain might suggest that his prestige as a poet, his role in one of the most important antislavery revolts in nineteenth-century Cuba, and his subsequent tragic ending, never crossed the Atlantic. In this article, I show that the figure of Plácido persisted in the Spanish cultural imaginary in the decades following his death and retained the power to provoke, offend, inspire, and mobilize. I explore his reception and transformation first in press articles and then in two literary works: Rogelia León's poem "Al negro Plácido" (1857) and Manuel de los Santos Barrios's play La cadena del esclavo (Madrid, 1867). Through different emphases on Plácido's victimization or agency, in both press articles and literary works, Plácido embodies the promise for, and the limitations of, racial inclusivity for the Afrodescendant population in the Spanish overseas territories, as he is appreciated for his capacity both to stand for the racial other and to represent what is reassuringly similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Undoing Slavery: Bodies, Race, and Rights in the Age of Abolition" by Kathleen M. Brown explores the role of the body in the antebellum abolitionist movement. Brown argues that both white and Black abolitionists saw the body as central to their fight against slavery. She reframes how abolitionists understood the significance of Black bodies, emphasizing the concept of "embodied self-sovereignty" as a necessary precondition for claiming political rights. The book draws on extensive archival research and covers themes such as blood, motherhood, scientific and medical knowledge, and labor. Overall, "Undoing Slavery" offers new insights into the history of human rights and humanitarianism. [Extracted from the article]

"Violence and Public Memory" is a collection of essays edited by Martin Blatt that explores the memorialization of violence and its impact on public memory. The essays cover a range of topics, including the destruction of communities in Israel-Palestine, commemorations of atrocities in Argentina's military dictatorship, and the contestation of memories of violence among victims themselves. The book also examines how the memory of the Holocaust and Britain's role in ending the slave trade have been shaped for political purposes. While the collection has some flaws, it offers valuable insights into the intersection of violence and public memory. [Extracted from the article]

In the book review titled "Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic" by Jennifer L. Morgan, the author explores the role of enslaved women and their children in the rise of slavery and capitalism in the Atlantic. The book examines the intersections of gender, kinship, and capitalism, particularly in relation to maritime history. It challenges long-held assumptions and highlights the limitations of archival evidence, emphasizing the importance of considering the experiences of enslaved women. The book provides valuable insights for researchers interested in the history of slavery, capitalism, and the Atlantic World. [Extracted from the article]

"The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835-1861" by Jesse Olsavsky explores the role of Vigilance Committees in the abolitionist movement and their impact on the downfall of slavery in the United States. Olsavsky argues that these committees not only fought against slavery but also served as a school for radical activism, generating revolutionary ideas that contributed to the Civil War. The book highlights the collective effort of the Vigilance Committees and their role in forging interracial alliances, sharing essential knowledge, and devising activist strategies. It also introduces readers to unsung Black activists and lesser-known White abolitionists. [Extracted from the article]

Name change can only take place in the Netherlands under strict conditions and according to patronizing regulations. At the moment, an amendment of name law is being drafted that would give descendants of Dutch citizens whose ancestors lived in slavery an exemption. If they have a family name that their ancestors received upon their release, they may change it free of charge. It remains to be seen, however, whether the desire to adopt new names in keeping with a reclaimed African identity can also be granted. After all, that would conflict with the general regulations when creating a new name. The whole issue shows political opportunism. First, it would be useful to get a good picture of name adoption in light of surnaming in general. Is it right to consider the names in question as slave names? Are they really that bad? It is more likely that precisely the exceptional position now obtained leads to undesirable profiling. In fact, the only solution to embarrass no one is a wholesale revision of the name law that does away with outdated 19th century limitations. Why should anyone be unhappy with their name? Why should someone who insists on having a different name be prevented from doing so? This essay examines the announced change in the law against the background of surnaming in general and the acquisition of family names in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]