The Bedford Series in History and Culture

Description
The Haitian Revolution was the first slave rebellion to have a successful outcome, leading to the establishment of Haiti as a free black republic and paving the way for the emancipation of slaves in the rest of the French Empire and the world. Incited by the French Revolution, the enslaved inhabitants of the French Caribbean began a series of revolts, and in 1791 plantation workers in Haiti, then known as Saint-Domingue, overwhelmed their planter owners and began to take control of the island. They achieved emancipation in 1794, and after successfully opposing Napoleonic forces eight years later, emerged as part of an independent nation in 1804. A broad selection of documents, all newly translated by the authors, is contextualized by a thorough introduction considering the very latest scholarship. Professors Dubois and Garrigus clarify for students the complex political, economic, and racial issues surrounding the revolution. Useful pedagogical tools include maps, illustrations, a chronology and a selected bibliography.

Author Bio
Laurent Dubois is Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University.  John Garrigus is Professor of History at Jacksonville University.

Table of contents

Part One: Revolution in the Caribbean * Part Two: The Documents * The French Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century * The Revolution Begins, 1789-1791 * From Slave Revolution to Emancipation, 1791-1794 * Defining Emancipation, 1794-1801 * War and Independence

The Bedford Series in History and Culture

Description
In the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English empires in the Americas, individuals and groups turned to courts of law to define and implement various types of status for indigenous Americans, forcibly imported Africans, and colonizing Europeans--and their progeny. Peabody and Grinberg introduce the voices of slaves, slave-holders, jurists, legislators, and others, as they struggle to critique, overturn, justify, or simply describe the social order in which they are embedded.

Author Bio
Sue Peabody is Associate Professor of History at Washington State University, Vancouver. She has published widely, and has won awards for her teaching of undergraduates. Keila Grinberg is Assistant Professor of History at the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, and Director of the History Department at the Universidade Candido Mendes. She is an expert on slavery, civil law, and citizenship in Brazil, subjects on which she has published and presented many papers in the United States, Brazil, and elsewhere.

Praise for Slavery, Freedom, and the Law in the Atlantic World

“Among the volume’s strengths, apart from its sweeping geographical, cultural, and chronological scope, is its emphasis on slavery as a system of negotiation involving a complex process of bargaining and accommodation. In line with the most recent scholarship, the authors do a very effective job of portraying the enslaved as actors, rather than simply as passive victims, without minimizing the importance of their allies in the struggle against slavery. The authors also do a very effective job of discussing the intricate connections between slavery and the evolution of racial attitudes. ... This is a serious work of scholarship that is clearly written.”--Steven Mintz, University of Houston

“The authors do a first-rate job in carrying out [their] ambitious agenda. In almost every case, they have selected the essential legal documents regarding the establishment of, challenges to, and eventual destruction of Atlantic slavery. Their editing and interpretation of the documents is exemplary, reflecting a firm grasp of the complexities of the subject, and a thorough knowledge of an extensive historical literature. What ismore, their authorial style and pace should be inviting to student readers. ... In short, this is a well-crafted book that will engage readers in learning more about the people and forces that shaped Atlantic slave societies.”--T. Stephen Whitman, Mount St. Mary’s University

Table of contents

Part I: Introduction: Slavery, Freedom, and the Law * Part II: The Documents * The French Atlantic and the Haitian Revolution * England, British Colonies and the United States * Spain and Its American Colonies * Portugal and Brazil * Epilogue

Description
Samuel Adams is perhaps the most unheralded and overshadowed of the founding fathers, yet without him there would have been no American Revolution. A genius at devising civil protests and political maneuvers that became a trademark of American politics, Adams astutely forced Britain into coercive military measures that ultimately led to the irreversible split in the empire. His remarkable political career addresses all the major issues concerning America’s decision to become a nation -- from the notion of taxation without representation to the Declaration of Independence. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams all acknowledged that they built our nation on Samuel Adams’ foundations. Now, in this riveting biography, his story is finally told and his crucial place in American history is fully recognized.

Author Bio
Mark Puls is the co-author of Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War written with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Melvin Claxton. Puls worked as a journalist for The Detroit News for twelve years. For their series on the civil rights of Native Americans, he and Claxton were named as Michigan’s top investigative reporters by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Praise for Samuel Adams

“In the midst of the current surge of interest in the founders, the most conspicuous absence is Samuel Adams, an absence that most of his peers would have found inexplicable. Here, at last, is a new life of the man that recovers his crucial role as the Lenin of the American Revolution.”--Joseph J. Ellis, bestselling author of Founding Brothers

Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History

Description
In the case of colonial theater in America, much of what we know about performance has come from the detractors of theater and not its producers: anti-theatrical legislation, sermons, petitions, and prohibitions against the theater, all of which have resulted in a history told as a contest of Puritan and Player. Yet such a narrative hardly accounts for the flourishing theatrical circuit established between 1760 and 1776 (nineteen theatres in seven colonies and the Anglophone Caribbean). This study explores the culture’s social support of the theater in the material evidence it left behind as well as the immaterial evidence: the culture’s memory of theater, and its enormous desire for it.

Author Bio
Odai Johnson is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington’s School of Drama. He is the author of Rehearsing the Revolution, co-author of The Colonial American Stage, a Documentary Calendar, and numerous articles on the American theater.

Praise for Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theatre

“With Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theatre, Odai Johnson has written a book that scholars of American Theatre and early American History have been waiting for. He explores histories and lives that have remained largely unknown until this point. Johnson challenges previous misconceptions about the development of the colonial stage, and through meticulous research, helps to fill in numerous gaps in the historical record. Moreover, his imaginative framework and narrative allow the work to transcend a simple historical account of events, offering a creative new paradigm for theatre research.”--Heather S. Nathans, University of Maryland

“Odai Johnson demonstrates that our historical memories and narratives on American colonial theatre and society have shaped the evidence to tell a distorted story of anti-theatricalism, counter to the far more interesting and complex history that emerges here. With this book, Odai Johnson establishes himself as a theatre historian we all must read.”--Thomas Postlewait, Ohio State University

Table of contents

Part One: (Im)material Witnesses * Working Up from Post-holes* Mr. Sauthier’s Maps * The Anatomy of Desire * The Countenance of Mr. Douglass * Mrs. Warren’s Profession * Assuming the Wall * Part Two: Care-Takers of Memory * Spoiling Nice Stories * Case Studies * The Burning of the Lena Edwin * Silent Travelers, Silent Journals * The Perfect Storm