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AGENCY OF THE ENSLAVED
JAMAICA AND THE CULTURE OF FREEDOM
D.A. Dunkley
“This is a highly innovative, thoughtful, and interesting study of slavery in Jamaica.
It is particularly good in dealing with the agency of the enslaved and their
resistance to enslavement.”— Gad Heuman, University of Warwick
“In writing Agency of the Enslaved, D. A. Dunkley has continued that tradition
of scholarship that seeks to identify the ideological foundations of the activism of
the enslaved. He is less concerned with the means—the ‘how’ of their agency—and
more intent on showing that the status of slavery never functioned in the
consciousness of the enslaved, which is why they used every means at their
disposal to end it. His analysis ensures that this lively debate will continue.”
— Verene A. Shepherd, The University of the West Indies, Jamaica
“All too often, studies of slavery and freedom presuppose what slaves thought
and felt without considering too deeply how we get to understand slaves’ true
thoughts. In this bold, controversial, and compelling investigation of slave agency
in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Jamaica, D. A. Dunkley issues a
major challenge to naïve assumptions that slaves were passive actors in the drama
of transforming slaves into free men and women. This book makes a major
contribution to an exciting new discourse about freedom in the Atlantic World
and slaves’ role in shaping ideas of freedom in that world”. — Trevor Burnard,
University of Melbourne
“An original and provocative exploration of concepts of freedom within slave
societies that challenges the ways historians have conceived individual
independence. Dunkley’s work offers an intellectual history that puts enslaved
people at the center, offering fresh knowledge about schooling, churches,
manumission, family life, and much else, taking examples from the experience
of the pivotal island of Jamaica.” — B. W. Higman, Australian National University
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Agency of the Enslaved: Jamaica and the Culture of Freedom in the Atlantic
World, D.A. Dunkley challenges the notion that enslavement fostered the culture
of freedom in the former colonies of Western Europe in the Americas. Dunkley
argues the point that the preconception that out of slavery came freedom has
discouraged scholars from fully exploring the importance of the agency displayed
by enslaved people. This study examines those struggles and argues that these
formed the real basis of the culture of freedom in the Atlantic societies. These
struggles were not for freedom, but for the acknowledgment of the freedom that
enslaved people knew was already theirs. Agency of the Enslaved reveals several
major incidents in which the enslaved in Jamaica—a country Dunkley uses as a
case study with wider applicability to the Atlantic world—demonstrated that they
viewed slavery as an immoral, illegal, unnecessary, temporary, and socially
deprecating imposition. These views inspired their attempts to undermine the
slave system that the British had established in Jamaica shortly after they
captured the island in 1655. Acts of resistance took place throughout the
island-colony and were recorded on the sugar plantations and in the courts,
schools, and Christian churches. The slaveholders envisaged all of these sites
as participants in their attempts to dominate the enslaved people. Regardless,
the enslaved had re-envisioned and had used these places as sites of empowerment,
and to show that they would never accept the designation of ‘slave’.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daive A. Dunkley teaches in the Department of History and Archeology at the
University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
Cloth: 978-0-7391-6803-5 December 2012 240 pages Regular price: $65.00/ After discount: $52.00
Special 20% OFF discount offer!*
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AGENCY OF THE ENSLAVED
JAMAICA AND THE CULTURE OF FREEDOM
D.A. Dunkley
Special 20% OFF discount offer!*
To get discount, use code LEX20AUTH13 when ordering
*May not be combined with other offers and discounts, valid until 02/01/2014
Promo Code (May not be combined with other offers and discounts)
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