Doctoral Dissertation Research: Shared Consciousness and Collective Action

共同意识和集体行动本文考察了在1791-1804年海地革命之前的几年里，非洲人的集体意识(或共同身份和思维方式)的起源和影响，海地革命是现代最成功的奴隶起义。这项研究建议考察集体意识与1750年至1791年间重要的抵抗形式之间的关系。该项目解决了以下问题。受非洲启发的仪式在塑造集体意识方面起到了什么作用？这种集体意识是如何影响人们逃离奴役的模式的？在海地革命之前的几十年里，逃脱奴役的模式是如何以及为什么会随着时间和空间的变化而变化的？初步结果提出了以下假设。首先，受非洲启发的仪式活动为叛军提供了提高反对意识、争取自由和动员新兵的空间。其次，离家出走的人的社会关系、对特定目的地的了解、自信的行为和较长的逃亡时间似乎是对立意识的合理指标。第三，离家出走的人战略性地应对结构和环境机会之窗(例如自然灾害、殖民法的变化以及地理上接近孤立的地区)。为了验证这些假设，联合和平倡议将进行：(A)对11,000多个数字存档的海地逃亡奴隶广告进行定性和定量的内容分析；(B)系统审查美洲和欧洲几个主要档案馆保存的主要文件；(C)系统审查在研究期间和自研究期间以来出版的重要二手资料；(C)对当今海地的定性实地研究。关于海地革命前因的调查结果将提高我们对共同意识、社会关系和网络以及人类文化表达在集体行动进程中的作用的理解。

Shared Consciousness and Collective ActionThis dissertation investigates the origins and influence of Africans' collective consciousness (or shared identity and way of thinking) in the years prior to the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution, the most successful slave uprising of the modern era. This research proposes to examine the relationship between collective consciousness and important forms of resistance between the years 1750 and 1791. The project addresses the following questions. What was the role of Africa-inspired rituals in shaping collective consciousness? How did this collective consciousness influence patterns of escape from enslavement? How and why did patterns of escape from enslavement change over time and space in the few decades before the Haitian Revolution?Preliminary results suggest the following hypotheses. First, Africa-inspired ritual events were gathering spaces for rebels to raise oppositional consciousness, campaign for freedom, and mobilize recruits. Second, runaways' social ties, knowledge of specific destinations, self-assertive behaviors, and longer durations of escape seem to be reasonable indicators of an oppositional consciousness. Third, runaways strategically responded to structural and environmental windows of opportunity (such as natural disasters, changes in colonial law, and geographic proximity to isolated zones). To test these hypotheses, the Co-PI will perform (a) qualitative and quantitative content analysis of over 11,000 digitally archived Haitian runaway slave advertisements; (b) a systematic review of primary documents held in several key archives in the Americas and Europe; (c) a systematic review of critical secondary sources published during and since the period of study; and (c) qualitative field research in present-day Haiti. The findings on antecedents to the Haitian Revolution will improve our understanding of the role of shared consciousness, social ties and networks, and human cultural expressions in collective action processes.