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Of migrant slaves and underground railroads - movement, containment, freedom
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Stierl, Maurice (2020) Of migrant slaves and underground railroads - movement, containment, freedom. American Behavioral Scientist, 64 (4). pp. 456-479. doi:10.1177/0002764219883006 ISSN 0002-7642.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219883006
Abstract
This article explores the figure of the ‘migrant slave’ that appears to conjoin antithetical notions – migration, often associated with intentionality and movement, and slavery, commonly associated with coercion and confinement. The figure of the migrant as slave has been frequently mobilised by ‘anti-trafficking crusaders’ in debates over unauthorised forms of trans-Mediterranean crossings to EUrope. Besides scrutinising the depoliticised and dehistoricised ways in which contemporary migrant journeys have come to be associated with imaginaries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, this article draws other, actual, comparisons between historic slavery and contemporary forms of migration. It argues that there does exist a historical resonance between the former and the latter. By remembering slave rebellions on land and at sea, the article makes the case that if one had to draw comparisons between historic slaves and contemporary migrants, beyond often crude visual associations, one would need to do so by enquiring into moments in which both enacted escape to a place of perceived freedom. It is shown that the fugitive slave escaping on the ‘underground railroad’ resembles most closely the acts of escape via the Mediterranean and its ‘underground seaways’ today.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | J Political Science > JA Political science (General) | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | American Behavioral Scientist | ||||||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications, Inc. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0002-7642 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 1 April 2020 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 64 | ||||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 456-479 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/0002764219883006 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | Posted ahead of print. Stierl, Maurice (2019) Of migrant slaves and underground railroads - movement, containment, freedom. American Behavioral Scientist. Copyright © 2019 Sage Publications, Inc.. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://journals.sagepub.com/home/abs | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 15 March 2019 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 22 March 2019 | ||||||||
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