University of Illinois Press Gendered Resistance: Women, Slavery, and the Legacy of Margaret Garner (New Black Studies Series)

Inspired by the searing story of Margaret Garner, the escaped slave who in 1856 slit her daughter's throat rather than have her forced back into slavery, the essays in this collection focus on historical and contemporary examples of slavery and women's resistance to oppression from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Each chapter uses Garner's example--the real-life narrative behind Toni Morrison's Beloved andthe opera Margaret Garner--as a thematic foundation for an interdisciplinary conversation about gendered resistance in locations including Brazil, Yemen, India, and the United States.  Contributors are Nailah Randall Bellinger, Olivia Cousins, Mary E. Frederickson, Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Carolyn Mazloomi, Cathy McDaniels-Wilson, Catherine Roma, Huda Seif, S. Pearl Sharp, Raquel Luciana de Souza, Jolene Smith, Veta Tucker, Delores M. Walters, Diana Williams, and Kristine Yohe. Review " Gendered Resistance offers valuable insight to the intersectionality of race, gender, and socioeconomic class by challenging cultural and historical interpretations of enslaved women's resistance.  Moreover, it traces important continuities in gender based violence and race from the past to the present."-- Civil War Book Review " Gendered Resistance is appealing for its boldness in ignoring disciplinary boundaries and time constraints to present a new framework for considering gendered resistance."-- The Journal of African American History "This excellent collection situates and contemporizes the history and legacy of Margaret Garner and the history of enslavement of women. Full of useful perspectives and critical analysis, this interdisciplinary volume of essays is perfect for students of American history, literature, gender, race, and cultural studies."--Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero About the Author Mary E. Frederickson is a professor of history at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and a visiting professor in The Graduate Institute for Liberal Arts at Emory University. Delores M. Walters is a cultural anthropologist who directs a Health Education Center at the University of Rhode Island.