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Full-Text Articles in History
“Relative Property: Close-Kin Ownership In American Slave Societies”, Aviva Ben-Ur
“Relative Property: Close-Kin Ownership In American Slave Societies”, Aviva Ben-Ur
Aviva Ben-Ur
Most historians of slavery in the Americas treat masters of color who owned their own kin as an oddity, a scribal error, or as a topic to evade. Most others conclude that ruthlessly capitalistic owners reserved such behavior for slaves unrelated to them, and owned their own kin as slaves in name only, with the intention of providing protection and eventual manumission. This article considers several cases of close-kin ownership, particularly in Suriname, and explores the role of coercive economy in families emerging from enslavement, arguing that the capitalistic values of slaveholding pervaded families approaching freedom, often informing both their …
“Kabbalistic Pharmacopeia: Wellbeing In The Atlantic Jewish World”, Aviva Ben-Ur
“Kabbalistic Pharmacopeia: Wellbeing In The Atlantic Jewish World”, Aviva Ben-Ur
Aviva Ben-Ur
This article describes and analyzes a rare manuscript bearing the lead title Ta‘alumot Hokhmah and purchased at auction in 2013. The document was composed by many hands and in many lands, largely in Portuguese and Dutch, with significant portions in French and Italian, and a smattering of Spanish, English, German, and Yiddish. Most manifestly, it is a receipt book, a compendium of medical, culinary, and housekeeping recipes, sometimes mingled with kabbalistic directives; it also incorporates memoirs and biographical annotations. The multiple layers of text collectively represent the transmission of knowledge within a single family and mark the major transitions that …
“Archival Practices: The Creation Of A Portuguese Jewish Identity", Aviva Ben-Ur
“Archival Practices: The Creation Of A Portuguese Jewish Identity", Aviva Ben-Ur
Aviva Ben-Ur
This article discusses the relationship of Caribbean Jews to their communal archives, focusing on the Dutch colonies of Curaçao and Suriname, homes to the largest Jewish communities in the eighteenth-century Americas.