Slavery and Sentiment: The Politics of Feeling in Black Atlantic Antislavery Writing, 1770-1850

Title Page, Copyright Page

Slavery and Sentiment Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies series editors Sarah Way Sherman Department of English University of New Hampshire Janet Aikins Yount Department of English University of New Hampshire Rohan McWilliam Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge, England Janet Polasky Department of History University of New Hampshire This book series maps the complexity of historical change and assesses the formation of ideas, movements, and institutions crucial to our own time by publishing books that examine the emergence of modernity in North America and Europe. Set primarily but not exclusively in the nineteenth century, the series shifts attention from modernity’s twentieth-century forms to its earlier moments of uncertain and often disputed construction. Seeking books of interest to scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, it thereby encourages the expansion of nineteenthcentury studies and the exploration of more global patterns of development. For a complete list of books that are available in this series, see www.upne.com Christine Levecq, Slavery and Sentiment: The Politics of Feeling in Black Atlantic Antislavery Writing, 1770–1850 Jennifer J. Popiel, Rousseau’s Daughters: Domesticity, Education, and Autonomy in Modern France Paula Young Lee, editor, Meat, Modernity, and the Rise of the Slaughterhouse Duncan Faherty, Remodeling the Nation: The Architecture of American Identity, 1776–1858 Jennifer Hall-Witt, Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780–1880 Scott Molloy, Trolley Wars: Streetcar Workers on the Line William C. Dowling, Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris: Medicine, Theology, and the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table Betsy Klimasmith, At Home in the City: Urban Domesticity in American Literature and Culture, 1850–1930 Sarah Luria, Capital Speculations: Writing and Building Washington, D.C. David L. Richards, Poland Spring: A Tale of the Gilded Age, 1860–1900 Angela Sorby, Schoolroom Poets: Childhood , Performance, and the Place of American Poetry, 1865–1917 William M. Morgan, Philanthropists in Disguise : Gender, Humanitarianism, and Complicity in U.S. Literary Realism Piya Pal-Lapinski, The Exotic Woman in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction and Culture : A Reconsideration Patrick H. Vincent, The Romantic Poetess: European Culture, Politics, and Gender, 1820–1840 Edward S. Cutler, Recovering the New: Transatlantic Roots of Modernism Margaret M. Mulrooney, Black Powder, White Lace: The du Pont Irish and Cultural Identity in Nineteenth-Century America Stephen Carl Arch, After Franklin: The Emergence of Autobiography in PostRevolutionary America, 1780–1830 Justin D. Edwards, Exotic Journeys: Exploring the Erotics of U.S. Travel Literature , 1840–1930 Christine Levecq u Slavery and Sentiment The Politics of Feeling in Black Atlantic Antislavery Writing, 1770–1850 University of New Hampshire Press Durham, New Hampshire published by university press of new england hanover and london University of New Hampshire Press Published by University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766 www.upne.com© 2008 by University of New Hampshire Press Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Members of educational institutions and organizations wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors and publishers who would like to obtain permission for any of the material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press of New England , One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Levecq, Christine. Slavery and sentiment : the politics of feeling in Black Atlantic antislavery writing, 1770–1850 / Christine Levecq. p. cm. — (Becoming modern : new nineteenth-century studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-58465-734-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. American literature—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. American literature—19th century—History and criticism. 3. Didactic fiction, American—History and criticism. 4. Slavery in literature. 5. African Americans—Intellectual life—19th century. 6. Literature and society—United States—History—19th century. 7. Antislavery movements in literature. 8. Antislavery movements—United States—History—19th century. I. Title. ps153.n5l455 2008 810.9'896073009034—dc22 2008029050 University Press of New England is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper. u A mes parents, avec tout mon amour et toute ma gratitude ...