Property in Writing, Property on the Ground: Pigs, Horses, Land, and Citizenship in the Aftermath of Slavery, Cuba, 1880–1909

Abstract

In the most literal sense, the abolition of slavery marks the moment when one human being cannot be held as property by another human being, for it ends the juridical conceit of a "person with a price." At the same time, the aftermath of emancipation forcibly reminds us that property as a concept rests on relations among human beings, not just between people and things. The end of slavery finds former masters losing possession of persons, and former slaves acquiring it. But it also finds other resources being claimed and contested, including land, 669

Justicia reparativa frente a los legados de la esclavitud en el Caribe. Perspectivas interregionales

“…El alcance de los reclamos actuales en el Caribe no se puede entender sin mencionar las numerosas luchas históricas anteriores por iniciativas individuales y organizadas en toda la región, involucrando a diversas personas en diferentes periodos levantando sus voces contra la esclavitud y la dominación colonial. Las propias personas esclavizadas practicaban múltiples formas de resistencia como el cimarronaje o las sublevaciones urbanas y rurales, algunas iban a los tribunales para reclamar compensación por los daños sufridos en forma de dinero, tierras, propiedades o animales (Laó-Montes 2011; Thompson 2006;Scott y Zeuske 2002).…”

Reconfiguring human, nonhuman and posthuman in literature and culture

“…When hogs outlasted the Roman Empire, they helped to transmit Galen's experiments to Salerno across darker ages and conquests. Although such a claim might give pigs too much credit for a preserving action they could not possibly have intended, it is important to keep in mind how pigs have functioned across times and places as walking storage "banks" of knowledge and credit (Scott and Zeuske 2002). Pigs were ambulatory bodies of knowledge, and in their relationships with the humans that tended and hunted them, they kept alive anatomical-culinary knowledge.…”

Comparative Studies of Law, Slavery, and Race in the Americas

“…Furthermore, these laws brought slaves into the "legal culture": it was through legal means and proceedings that many of the social conflicts surrounding emancipation were channeled (Scott 1985, 73, 141, 280). Less is known about how slaves who partook in these legal cultures interacted with the law and with the courts after emancipation, although some work has been done on that period (González 2001, Rios & Mattos 2005, de Cruz 2006, Scott 2001, Scott & Zeuske 2002.…”