Bethan Fisk (Leeds): 'Slavery and sacramental politics between Colombia’s two coasts'
| Dates: | 16 October 2019 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 18:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Speaker: | Bethan Fisk |
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Conceptually the sacrament of baptism was a key tool in colonial governance of slavery in the Iberian world, yet the ways in which the ritual was practiced were contingent on the age, gender, location, and the strategies of the participants. This talk explores enslaved experiences of the sacrament of baptism from urban nodal points along slave routes from Caribbean and tropical lowland locales in eighteenth-century New Granada, colonial Colombia, a space where the Black Atlantic and Black Pacific uniquely intersect. Our knowledge of the sacraments and claims-making in colonial Spanish America is largely based upon the experience of major urban centres. Analysing baptism in both urban and rural locales and with a focus on mobility allows us to appreciate broad commonalities as well as place-based contingencies that shaped African diasporic experiences of the sacrament. Fisk’s talk examines how New Granada’s waterways and enslaved people’s itineraries played a constitutive role in the practice of baptism.
Speaker
Bethan Fisk
Role: Teaching Fellow in Caribbean History
Organisation: University of Leeds
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
A115
Samuel Alexander Building
Manchester
