During the opening session, keynote speaker, Professor Maurice Jackson of Georgetown University, presented a paper titled, Haiti, Louisiana and Beyond: The Importance of Slave Rebellion in African American History. Jackson described slave rebellions among enslaved Africans in the Americas and examined the 1811 slave uprising within the context of Louisiana, Southern, and Caribbean history. He discussed the success of the Haitian Revolution and various eras of revolutionary change that received great attention in popular history, including the revolts of well known slave revolutionaries Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner.
Other scholars at the conference presented papers and discussed topics pertaining to the slave rebellion in the 1790s Caribbean; women, gender, and slave rebellion; the regional impact of the Haitian Revolution; and the slave rebels in history and memory.
In addition, the staff of the Amistad Research Center held a special reception for the event, hosting scholars and historians from Tulane University and other academic institutions across the country.
Sounds like a great conference on a much overlooked event! Much of the recent research at the Maryland State Archives has focused on black resistance to slavery through self-emancipation, but it is great to see scholarship examining all facets of resistance, including under-reported/covered-up slave rebellions.
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