2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

Recent historiography has seen a return to macro-level questions in the historiography of Atlantic slavery. New work has focused on the reasons for the rise of the slave trade, the connections between slavery and capitalism, and the implications of abolition. While many historiographical gains have been made, this work has also come with a cost: often, in moving the focus from microhistories to large-scale questions, the significance of gender hierarchy and power has been lost. This panel seeks to reframe the new (or revived) big questions in the history of slavery from a gender history perspective. All the papers are concerned with linking the macro and the micro in historical scale. Lisa Lindsay considers the role of gender in determining who was sent into the Atlantic slave trade; Diana Paton examines the place of women’s reproductive labour and the slavery-capitalism debate; while Steven Pierce investigates the gendered consequences of the abolition of slavery in Northern Nigeria. Comment is provided by Pamela Scully, whose work ranges across the Atlantic world and over several centuries, enabling her to address the panel’s concerns effectively.