Characters of Blood: Black Heroism in the Transatlantic Imagination

Contents

contents List of Illustrations xi Preface: “Suppose Nat Turner Painted?” xiii Acknowledgments xxiv Introduction. “Their Names Colonized Off”: Remembering and Reimagining Black Heroism 1 1 “I Shed My Blood”: Toussaint Louverture, Myth, History, and the Transatlantic Imagination 27 2 “N.T. 11 11 31”: Nathaniel Turner, Symbolism, Memorialization, and an Experimental Poetics 89 3 “No Right to Be a Hero”: Sengbe Pieh, Resistance, Representation, and the Politics of Seeing 152 4 “Tickety-ump-ump-nicky-nacky”: Re-creating, Reknowing, and Refiguring Sojourner Truth 200 5 “A Work of Art”: Frederick Douglass’s “Living Parchments” and “Chattel Records” 251 6 “I’ve Seen de Real Ting”: Harriet Tubman, Performance, and Multiple Personae 299 Conclusion. “Portals, Containers, Time Capsules, and Bridges”: Acts and Arts of Black Heroism in Textual and Visual Archives 351 Afterword by George Lipsitz 361 Notes 375 Selected Bibliography 391 Index 419 ...