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Archival Irruptions Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Gerbner, Katharine
Heftet / 2025 / Engelsk

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781478032403
Publisert
2025-10-14
Utgiver
Duke University Press
Vekt
445 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
216

Forfatter
Gerbner, Katharine

Biografisk notat

Katharine Gerbner is Associate Professor of History and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World.

Archival Irruptions Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Gerbner, Katharine
Heftet / 2025 / Engelsk
Gerbner, Katharine
Heftet / 2025 / Engelsk
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“This vital story captures the spirit of colonial Christianity. Reading through the selective observations and strategies of racial suppression employed to silence Africana religion, <b>Katharine Gerbner</b>’s engrossing narrative reveals how Black ways of knowing left indelible marks on the archive of Atlantic slavery. More than anything else I can remember, this book expands the way we must think about how authority, recognition, and disavowal shapes religious transformations.”—<b>Vincent Brown</b>, author of<i>Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War</i><br /><br />“In this groundbreaking book, <b>Katharine Gerbner</b> develops an account of the experiences, beliefs, thoughts, and decisions of enslaved Africans in mid-eighteenth-century Jamaica. Her definitive research provides a new starting point for theorizing Obeah historically and distilling its value to some of its original custodians of African descent. <i>Archival Irruptions</i> is a new model for how scholars can read colonial archives in order to update, complicate, and expand the historical narratives they construct about the past and make available to their readers.”—<b>Dianne M. Stewart<b> author of <i>Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume II, Orisa</i></b></b>

In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British colonial law. In Archival Irruptions, Katharine Gerbner traces how British authorities in Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a practice that was variously seen as a healing method, an Africana religion, a science, and a form of witchcraft. Gerbner shows that in the years directly preceding its criminalization, for enslaved Africans and Maroons, Obeah was a prophetic practice tied to healing and death rites. Drawing on Moravian missionary archives, Gerbner theorizes these descriptions of African religious beliefs, rituals, and concepts as “irruptions”: moments when Africana epistemologies break the narrative of a European-authored archival document. In these irruptions, we see European assertions of authority through the lens of Obeah. Moreover, we find that the modern category of religion is rooted in the histories of slavery, rebellion, and the criminalization of Black religious practices. Gerbner’s search for archival irruptions not only creates an opportunity to write an alternative narration about Obeah; it provides a new methodology for all those conducting archival research.
Les mer
Katharine Gerbner traces how British colonial authorities in mid-eighteenth-century Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a religious practice held by enslaved Africans.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I: Obeah
1. Africana Irruptions 17
2. Religio-Nations in the Archives 37
3. Maroons, Blood Oaths, and Gendered Irruptions 63
Part II: Heuchelei
4. Archival Silence, Sexual Violence 83
5. Policing Bodies, Saving Souls 101
6. Construction Religion, Defining Crime 121
Epilogue. Land and Archive 141
Appendix 1 147
Appendix 2 149
Notes 153
Bibliography 183
Index 211
Les mer

Relaterte produkter

“This vital story captures the spirit of colonial Christianity. Reading through the selective observations and strategies of racial suppression employed to silence Africana religion, <b>Katharine Gerbner</b>’s engrossing narrative reveals how Black ways of knowing left indelible marks on the archive of Atlantic slavery. More than anything else I can remember, this book expands the way we must think about how authority, recognition, and disavowal shapes religious transformations.”—<b>Vincent Brown</b>, author of<i>Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War</i><br /><br />“In this groundbreaking book, <b>Katharine Gerbner</b> develops an account of the experiences, beliefs, thoughts, and decisions of enslaved Africans in mid-eighteenth-century Jamaica. Her definitive research provides a new starting point for theorizing Obeah historically and distilling its value to some of its original custodians of African descent. <i>Archival Irruptions</i> is a new model for how scholars can read colonial archives in order to update, complicate, and expand the historical narratives they construct about the past and make available to their readers.”—<b>Dianne M. Stewart<b> author of <i>Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume II, Orisa</i></b></b>

In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British colonial law. In Archival Irruptions, Katharine Gerbner traces how British authorities in Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a practice that was variously seen as a healing method, an Africana religion, a science, and a form of witchcraft. Gerbner shows that in the years directly preceding its criminalization, for enslaved Africans and Maroons, Obeah was a prophetic practice tied to healing and death rites. Drawing on Moravian missionary archives, Gerbner theorizes these descriptions of African religious beliefs, rituals, and concepts as “irruptions”: moments when Africana epistemologies break the narrative of a European-authored archival document. In these irruptions, we see European assertions of authority through the lens of Obeah. Moreover, we find that the modern category of religion is rooted in the histories of slavery, rebellion, and the criminalization of Black religious practices. Gerbner’s search for archival irruptions not only creates an opportunity to write an alternative narration about Obeah; it provides a new methodology for all those conducting archival research.
Les mer
Katharine Gerbner traces how British colonial authorities in mid-eighteenth-century Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a religious practice held by enslaved Africans.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I: Obeah
1. Africana Irruptions 17
2. Religio-Nations in the Archives 37
3. Maroons, Blood Oaths, and Gendered Irruptions 63
Part II: Heuchelei
4. Archival Silence, Sexual Violence 83
5. Policing Bodies, Saving Souls 101
6. Construction Religion, Defining Crime 121
Epilogue. Land and Archive 141
Appendix 1 147
Appendix 2 149
Notes 153
Bibliography 183
Index 211
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781478032403
Publisert
2025-10-14
Utgiver
Duke University Press
Vekt
445 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
216

Forfatter
Gerbner, Katharine

Biografisk notat

Katharine Gerbner is Associate Professor of History and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World.

Relaterte produkter