Clark U to Host Discussion on the History of Atlantic Slave Trade

Thursday, September 29, 2016

GoLocalWorcester Lifestyle Team

Clark University will host Saidiya Hartman, author of the book "Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route" for a talk and book discussion on the history of the Atlantic slave trade.

The talk will take place on Tuesday, October 4 in the Higgins Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

The Book

The book traces both the history of the Atlantic slave trade by recounting a journey that Hartman took along a slave route in Ghana.

In the book, Hartman follow the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast, reckons with a virtual 'blank slate' of her own genealogy and looks at the effects of slavery on three centuries of African and African American history.

Saidiya Hartman

Hartman is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.

Her research interests include African American and American literature as well as cultural history, slavery, law and literature, gender studies and performance studies.

She is on the editorial board of Callaloo, a journal of African diaspora arts and letters.

Hartman is also the author of “Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-making in Nineteenth Century America.”