Property in one’s own body and in the bodies of others in the United States between the eighteenth and twentieth century.

Outline

The project explores the ownership of others’ bodies based on the history of slavery in the USA. It focuses, firstly, on the question of how humans were made into objects of property and how that situation was transposed from the colonial era into the property structure of the new USA and legitimised as a racist social order.

Secondly, the project investigates the desire of the enslaved to become subjects of property – primarily, by buying themselves back. Thirdly, it examines the causal relationship between slavery and modern-day inequality of ownership through the lens of the current debate on reparation payments for the descendants of slaves.

Project activities

Publications (selection)

Scientific publications

Edited Volumes:

Helen A. Gibson, Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Dirk Schuck and, Markus Vinzent (eds.) (forth.): Relating to Landed Property, Frankfurt/M.: Campus, (forth.).

Articles:

Gibson, Helen A. (2024): “The Cosmogram as Alternative to Property for the Eigentumslosen”, In: Gibson, H. A.; Bianchi Mancini, S.; Schuck, D.; Vinzent, M. (eds.) Relating to Landed Property, eds., Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, (forth.).
Krämer, Felix (2024): “Versklavung, Enteignung, Schuldknechtschaft”, In: Alexander Engel und Eva Brugger (eds.) Handbuch Koloniales Wirtschaften. 15. bis 21. Jahrhundert, Berlin: DeGruyter, (forth.).
Packo, Moana J. (2024): “‘The Measure of Justice’: Locating the Fight for Land Reparations within Du Bois’ ‘General Strike,’”, In: Gibson, Mancini, Schuck and, Vinzent, eds., Relating to Landed Property, Frankfurt/M.: Campus, (forth.).
Gibson, Helen A. (2024a): “Granny Midwives’ Epistemic and Embodied Care”, In: Schmidt, K.; van Loon, J. (eds.), Herausforderung Solidarität. Konzepte – Kontroversen – Perspektiven, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 303-316.
Gibson, Helen A. (2024b): "Teaching Towards Calvin Warren's Nonmetaphysical Historography", In: Löffler, P.; Rauscher, N.; Werner, W. (eds.) Participation in American Culture and Society, American Studies: Monograph Series. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 163-177.
González Athenas, M.; Krämer, F. (2023): “Produzieren und argumentieren”, In: Netzwerk „Das Versprechen der Märkte“, Marktgeschehen. Fragmente einer Geschichte frühneuzeitlichen Wirtschaftens, Frankfurt/M.: Campus 2023, 127-136.
Klein, B.; Krämer, F. (2022): "Transsektionalität als Fluchtlinie der Historiographie – James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man“, In: FZG – Freiburger Zeitschrift für GeschlechterStudien 28 (2022), 89-106, https://doi.org/10.3224/fzg.v28i1.06.
Gibson, Helen A. (2022): “Access to Labor and Leisure in Cars: Early Black Motorists' Automotivity in Miami”, In: Mondes du Tourisme 21 (2022), 103-125.

Blogposts, Reviews, Podcasts

Felix Krämer with Jan Logemann (2023): Roundtable Discussion on „Racial Capitalism as a Concept for Writing U.S.-American History“, Annual Meeting of the German Association for American Studies on America and Ownership: Territory, Slavery, Jubilee, at University of Rostock. The event was subject of a H-Soz-Kult podcast episode (Juni 2023).
Martschukat, Jürgen (2023): “America’s original identity politics. On historical interconnections of property, race and identity politics”, In: blog of the Collaborative Research Centre “Structural Change in Property”. (published on 25.04.2023)
Helen Gibson (2023): Review of Brückmann, Rebecca: Massive Resistance and Southern Womanhood. White Women, Class, and Segregation. Athens 2021, In: H-Soz-Kult. (15.03.2023)
Gibson, Helen A. (2022): Review: Ferreira da Silva, Denise: Unpayable Debt, London, Sternberg Press 2022, in: blog of the Collaborative Research Centre “Structural Change in Property”, “Unpayable Debt: Decolonial Redress Beyond the Knowable” (published on 22.12.2022).
Packo, Moana J. (2022): Review: Knewitz, Simone: The Politics of Private Property. Contested Claims to Ownership in U.S. Cultural Discourse, Lanham, MD 2021, in: H-Soz-Kult, (02.05.2022).

Lectures (selection)

Helen Gibson: “Kosmologisches Verlernen: Granny Midwifery Jenseits des Eigentums.” Paper prepared for the Kolloquium Geschlechtergeschichte, Universität Basel, March 15, 2024.
Julian Windhövel, “The Only Laboring Class We Have – Planter Class and Freedmen’s Bureau during early Reconstruction in Louisiana. 1864-1868”, Presentation of dissertation at the Annual Conference of the Historians of the German Association for American Studies, University of Erfurt, (3.-5.05.2024, upcoming).
Felix Krämer, “Expropriated Freedoms: Indebtedness after the End of the Civil War”, Annual Meeting of the German Association of American Studies (GAAS/DGfA), “America and Ownership: Territory, Slavery Jubilee,” Rostock University (02.06.2023)
Moana J. Packo, “On Time and Redress: ‘40 Acres and a Mule’ in Memory and Legacy”, Paper presented as part of the panel “Whiteness as Property: Histories and Practices of Racial Capitalism” at the Annual Meeting of the German Association for American Studies on America and Ownership: Territory, Slavery, Jubilee, at Rostock, University of Rostock (02.06.2023).
Helen Gibson, “Spiritual Breath in Granny Midwifery.” Paper prepared for the Biennial Conference of the Nordic Association for American Studies (NAAS), Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Schweden, (25.-27.05.2023).
Jürgen Martschukat, “Eine historisierende Betrachtung von Identitätspolitik” Conference “Geschichte der Gegenwart“, University of Siegen (17.-19.11.2022).

Events

Helen A. Gibson and Julia-Alexandra Ackermann: “Epistemic Reparations: Attending to the Grievances and Harms of the Colonial/Racial/Capital”, A02 Project Workshop. (24.11.2023)
Felix Krämer, Grit Grigoleit-Richter (Passau) and Moana J. Packo: “Whiteness as Property: Histories and Practices of Racial Capitalism.” Workshop for the Annual Meeting of the German Association of American Studies (GAAS/DGfA), “America and Ownership: Territory, Slavery Jubilee,” University of Rostock. (1.-3.06.2023)
Helen Gibson, Sebastian Jobs and Nadja Klopprogge: “‘Knowing/Refusing ‘Value’: Reclaiming Kinship at the Expense of Capital.” Workshop for the Annual Meeting of the GAAS/DGfA, University of Rostock. (1.-3.06.2023)
Helen Gibson and Barbara Lüthi: “Race and Propertization” Conference co-organized via the SFB TRR 294 and the Historisches Seminar of University of Erfurt at the Kleine Synagoge in Erfurt with contributions by Mia Bay, Cedric Essi, Helen Gibson and M.J. Packo. (18.-19.11.2023)

Download the complete list of activities