TY - JOUR
T1 - Getting locked up to get free in colonial Cuba
AU - Price, Rachel
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton University. The author thanks David Sartorius, Anya Zilberstein, Adrián López-Denis, and the anonymous reviewers for their assistance with the research, writing, and revision of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This essay examines the histories of two enslaved Africans living in Cuba and sent to prison in the mid-nineteenth century, to consider the ways in which prison represented a path to freedom within and beyond slave societies. Formerly enslaved people in Cuba and Puerto Rico, released from bondage upon entering the carceral system, were often resold into slavery upon completion of their prison sentences–but not always. The essay focuses first on the case of Gregorio Lucumí, imprisoned in Cuba, whose civil status post-sentence was debated by authorities seeking to discourage crime as a means to secure prison sentences that might yield freedom from slavery. It then turns to the lengthier case of Isidoro Gangá, sent to prison in Melilla, North Africa, and who, post-sentence, appealed for freedom via free soil principles.
AB - This essay examines the histories of two enslaved Africans living in Cuba and sent to prison in the mid-nineteenth century, to consider the ways in which prison represented a path to freedom within and beyond slave societies. Formerly enslaved people in Cuba and Puerto Rico, released from bondage upon entering the carceral system, were often resold into slavery upon completion of their prison sentences–but not always. The essay focuses first on the case of Gregorio Lucumí, imprisoned in Cuba, whose civil status post-sentence was debated by authorities seeking to discourage crime as a means to secure prison sentences that might yield freedom from slavery. It then turns to the lengthier case of Isidoro Gangá, sent to prison in Melilla, North Africa, and who, post-sentence, appealed for freedom via free soil principles.
KW - Cuba
KW - free soil principle
KW - Gregorio Lucumí
KW - Isidoro Gangá
KW - Melilla
KW - prison
KW - slavery
KW - West Africans
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U2 - 10.1080/14788810.2020.1773146
DO - 10.1080/14788810.2020.1773146
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85101124649
SN - 1478-8810
VL - 18
SP - 108
EP - 128
JO - Atlantic Studies : Global Currents
JF - Atlantic Studies : Global Currents
IS - 1
ER -