Forgery for Freedom: Enslaved Literacy and Resistance in the British Caribbean

This project explores enslaved avenues towards literacy and their utilization of literacy skills in resistance efforts through the Eurocentric structures within the plantation societies of Barbados and Jamaica during the late eighteenth and into the early nineteenth century. This work offers a greater understanding of enslaved literacy and illiteracy, literate enslaved navigation of their enslavement and resistance, and British colonial laws’ complicated relationship with enslaved education. Furthermore, it adds a new perspective on the enslaveds’ relationship with literacy to existing historiography on Black literacy education in the British Caribbean by reframing the existing conversation on enslaved education and obedience through the white colonial lens. Instead, it puts forward the connections between enslaved literacy education, anti-colonial knowledge, enslaved resistance, and large-scale revolt at the forefront of the historical conversation on enslaved resistance.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• North, Haley Dawn

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2023 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, distribution to students, research and scholarship. Theses may only be shared by linking to the Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be copied without proper attribution to the author; no part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2023-15852

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/41375