Speaking for the slave: Britain and the Cape, 1751-1838
Literator
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Speaking for the slave: Britain and the Cape, 1751-1838 | |
| Creator | Lenta, M. | |
| Description | Postcolonial studies has asked the question "Can the subaltern speak? ", but has focused less strongly on the strategies by which the subaltern is prevented from securing a hearing. The textual and social strategies used to prevent Cape slaves in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries from voicing their plight have been neglected, though both pro- and anti-slavery lobbyists were eloquent. To present the slave as one whose inferiority rendered him incapable of pleading his cause was a device of the pro-slavery group; to pretend that consultation was impossible was another, though people who offered this defence were often surrounded by slaves. Others, accepting and profiting from the inequalities of a class-stratified society, were unable to perceive any but the extreme experiences of an unfree condition as constituting injustice. Anti-slavery campaigners were rarely in favour of the slave's being consulted: they preferred to condemn their political rivals, the slave-owners. Abolition found many of them searching for arguments to maintain the inequalities of society, and especially to prevent former serfs from securing a hearing. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 1999-04-26 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/lit.v20i1.454 | |
| Source | Literator; Vol 20, No 1 (1999); 103-118 Literator; Vol 20, No 1 (1999); 103-118 2219-8237 0258-2279 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/454/615
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