The Night(mare) After Christmas When 'They tried to Take Control Over the Land': 1521 Santo Domingo Rebellion
Topics: Black Geographies
, Historical Geography
, Caribbean Geographies
Keywords: Hispaniola, Land, Black Rebellion, Santo Domingo, Black Geography, Black Ecology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 60
Authors:
Allison Guess, Williams College
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Abstract
This talk examines the first outrightly documented, large-scale, Black-led rebellion to manifest on the island of Hispaniola. The 1521 Santo Domingo Slave Revolt, commonly referred to as the 1521 “Christmas Rebellion,” is one of the earliest, Black-led rebellions of the Americas. While smaller Black revolts predate events taking place in Hispaniola in December of 1521, the 1521 Santo Domingo Revolt is remarkable insofar as it is brimming with lasting implications—such as the establishment of the 1522 anti-Black slave laws or “ordenanças” written by Diego Colón (Christopher Columbus’ son), which have only received a line share of attention within the limited scholarship that attends to this early rebellion. In this talk, I read two narratives side-by-side and perform what I call a geo-literary critique to better understand the continuities and discontinuities between one prominent 16th century narrative of the 1521 Christmas Rebellion and another lesser-known. By putting these two texts (Colón (1522) and Oviedo (1535) into critical engagement with each other, we augment our ability to enhance our understanding of how the rule, punishment, slave, and colonial bureaucracy operated in the early modern Atlantic world, and we can come to see how the framing of a triumphant colonizer narrative extends across time as a lasting infrastructure. Moreover, the 1521 Christmas Rebellion and the 1522 slave laws that followed are important to scholars today, who wish to best understand racialization in the early modern era, rebellion strategies employed through radical Black and African leadership, and the colonial response to such activity.
The Night(mare) After Christmas When 'They tried to Take Control Over the Land': 1521 Santo Domingo Rebellion
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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