Introduction : the haunting of history -- "The rebels old obeah woman" : history as spirit possession -- "An incomparable nurse" : the obi of domesticity -- "Our history was truly broken" : writing back to a slave past -- "A very troublesome woman" : who speaks for the morality of slave women?
Summary
While some scholars imply that only the struggle for freedom was legitimate, Jenny Sharpe complicates the linear narrative--from slavery to freedom and literacy--that emerged from the privileging of autobiographical accounts like that of Frederick Douglass. She challenges a paradigm that equates agency with resistance and self-determination, and introduces new ways to examine negotiations for power within the constraints of slavery
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-181) and index