Runaways, Dutiful Daughters, and Brides: Family Strategies of Formerly Enslaved Girls in Senegal, 1895–1911

This article explores how formerly enslaved girls in Senegal interacted with, challenged, rejected, and formed families in the early twentieth century. Relying on records pertaining to the system of guardianship, which supervised these so-called liberated minors following the French emancipation decree of 1848, the article shows how marginalized girls used a variety of strategies to pursue their familial goals, sometimes turning state structures to their advantage. It argues that girls' efforts to establish family-like relationships with guardians or others, to take up residence with sexual partners, to marry, and to have children must be read as steps toward reclaiming personhood and rejecting slavery.