ABSTRACT

On the basis of a previously unstudied testimony, this study approaches the life of a slave from a methodological standpoint at the crossroads between Literary Studies and History. On 4 October 1853, a black man stepped into the U.S. consulate in Havana. According to the testimony he gave that day, he had been born free in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1812, at the age of ten or twelve, he was hired to work on a sloop that took him to Cuba, where he was kidnapped and sold as a slave. It would take him about forty-one years to reach the consulate and petition for his freedom. Opposing agnosia (“not-knowing”) to anagnorisis (“to recognize”), I explore different ways of (not) knowing linked to complicity, hypocrisy, and illegal slavery, while at the same time analyzing the slave’s storytelling as a form of mobility.

摘要

在先前未经研究的证词的基础上，本研究从方法论的观点出发，探讨了文学研究与历史之间的十字路口，探讨了奴隶的生活。1853年10月4日，一个黑人闯入美国驻哈瓦那领事馆。根据他当天的证词，他在南卡罗来纳州的查尔斯顿自由出生。1812年，他十岁或十二岁，被雇用从事单桅帆船工作，将他带到古巴，在那里他被绑架并作为奴隶出售。他需要大约四十一年才能到达领事馆并为他的自由请愿。反对将不可知论（“不知道”）与不知情（“认出”），我探索了不同方式（不知道）与同谋，虚伪和非法奴隶制有关，同时将奴隶的叙事作为一种形式流动性。