Fredericton Faculty of Arts



W. Stewart MacNutt Memorial Lecture – March 14
Professor Harvey Amani Whitfield, from the University of Vermont, will be the guest lecturer at this year's W. Stewart MacNutt Memorial Lecture.

“Slave Lives Matter: Putting Biography at the Centre of Atlantic Canadian Slavery Studies”

In 1996, historian Paul Lovejoy noted that “in studying slavery and the slave trade, biography can capture details of history.  By re-inserting individuals into the reality of slavery, biographies put flesh on the bones of the past.”  Through attention to the details of individual lives, we can see the remarkable diversity of the African experience in the Atlantic world. Slave biographies, if only a few details for any one person, are a powerful counterpoint to the histories of slavery that focus on Virginian tobacco plantations or Jamaican sugar estates. But these studies often erase the lived reality of slaves who lived outside of staple producing economies.

In his lecture on “Slave Lives Matter”, Dr. Whitfield will bear witness to their existence, acknowledging the lives of Maritimes slaves and highlighting their connections to the wider Atlantic world and the African Diaspora.  Many came from Africa, the Caribbean, South Carolina, the Chesapeake, and other parts of the American colonies. Whitfield's current research attempts to tell the story of several individual slaves whose lives deserve historical attention. 

All are welcome to attend.

Date: Thursday, 14 March, 2019
Reception: 5:00pm
Lecture: 5:30pm
Location: Alfred G. Bailey Auditorium, Tilley Hall, Room 102