Lisa A. Lindsay
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)
FA-56633-12
Fellowships for University Teachers
Research Programs
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[Grant products][Prizes]
Totals:
$50,400 (approved)
$50,400 (awarded)
Grant period:
1/1/2013 – 12/31/2013
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Atlantic Bonds: A Family History through Slavery, Freedom, and Colonization
In the 1850s, an African American named James Vaughan left his home in South Carolina for a life in Africa, settling first in Liberia and later in present-day Nigeria. There, he survived slave raids and political upheaval, saw the imposition of British colonialism, led a revolt against white missionaries, built a business, and founded a family of activists. His descendants and those of his relatives in the US have kept in touch for the past century. This contextualized biography of James Vaughan and his family brings together the histories of the United States, Africa, and the African diaspora. It casts American slavery as part of a connected, Atlantic world of bonded labor, one where slavery and freedom were not stark opposites but rather framed a continuum of dependency relations; and it probes the complicated relationship between diasporic Africans and the politics of African colonialism, showing how consciousness of the diaspora informed opportunities and strategies in Africa.
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