Race and Freedom: Africans in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the eve of Modernity

种族与自由：现代性前夕波兰立陶宛联邦的非洲人

• 批准号: 530815276
• 负责人: Vitali Byl
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/530815276?language=en
• 关键词: Race; Freedom; Africans; Polish; Lithuanian

Early- Modern proto-globalization facilitated greatly the movement of people across continents, including human trafficking for forced labour, and created new power structures where social and racial differences were often intertwined. That shaped the modern concept of race and spread racist ideologies even beyond the core regions of interaction. This project focuses on exploring interracial encounters and their outcomes in pre-modern Europe, particularly in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a society that was a hinterland of the Atlantic economy and simultaneously interacted with the Eurasian steppe and the Middle East. Despite its exceptional civil and religious liberties for the gentry, the society practised various forms of unfreedom, first of all, export-led serfdom but also slavery of captives from fights with Ottomans and steppe nomads. The country was also a destination for migrations from the West and East which led to unique ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity and relative tolerance. Less known is that it also experienced an influx of Western racial ideas and racially distinctive people. The study aims to investigate how the Polish-Lithuanian society dealt with the racialized idea of liberty and its practical implementation towards newcomers and locals of African descent. The project will examine three case studies from the mid-18th to early 19th century. The first case study explores African subjects of a powerful magnate house of Radziwill, their trafficking routes, roles in the manor economy, places in the social hierarchy, and cultural framework of Polish-Lithuanian ideology and culture. The second case study examines the intersection between abolitionism and serf emancipation and the Polish-Lithuanian society's ability to accommodate a racially different foreigner through the experiences of Jan Lapierre, T. Kościuszko's Black valet. The third case study focuses on a mixed-race Polish aristocrat and military officer who fought for independence and civil liberties for his country but also participated in the French military expedition to suppress the Haitian Revolution. The consideration of these cases represents a pioneering attempt to piece together scattered evidence of East European Black history and provide a novel perspective on regional history in a global context. It will analyze the extent to which the society's experiences of (un)freedom and diversity, as well as foreign ideas about race and slavery, influenced its internal discourse, worldview, and practices towards Africans both at home and abroad. The project highlights how a landlocked agrarian society like Poland-Lithuania was integrated into the global economy of forced labour, long-distance migration, human trafficking, and the exchange of ideas.

早期-现代的原始全球化极大地促进了人们跨大陆的流动，包括为强迫劳动而贩运人口，并创造了社会和种族差异往往交织在一起的新权力结构。这就形成了现代种族概念，并将种族主义意识形态传播到甚至超出了互动的核心区域。该项目的重点是探索种族间的遭遇及其在前现代欧洲的结果，特别是在波兰立陶宛联邦，一个社会是大西洋经济的腹地，同时与欧亚大草原和中东的互动。尽管士绅享有特殊的公民和宗教自由，但社会实行各种形式的不自由，首先是出口导向的农奴制，但也有奴隶制的俘虏，从战斗中与奥斯曼人和草原游牧民族。该国也是来自西方和东方的移民的目的地，这导致了独特的种族、宗教和文化多样性以及相对的宽容。鲜为人知的是，它也经历了西方种族思想和种族独特的人的涌入。这项研究旨在调查波兰立陶宛社会如何对待种族化的自由观念及其对新来者和非洲裔当地人的实际执行情况。该项目将审查三个案例研究从18世纪中期到19世纪初世纪。第一个案例研究探讨了Radziwill的一个强大的大亨家族的非洲主题，他们的贩运路线，在庄园经济中的作用，在社会等级制度中的地位，以及波兰立陶宛意识形态和文化的文化框架。第二个案例研究探讨废奴主义和农奴解放之间的交叉点和波兰立陶宛社会的能力，以适应种族不同的外国人通过扬Lapierre，T。科萨丘斯科的黑人男仆第三个案例研究的重点是一个混血的波兰贵族和军官，他为自己的国家争取独立和公民自由，但也参加了法国军事远征，以镇压海地革命。这些案件的审议代表了一个开拓性的尝试，拼凑分散的东欧黑人历史的证据，并提供了一个新的角度在全球范围内的区域历史。它将分析在何种程度上社会的经验（联合国）自由和多样性，以及有关种族和奴隶制的外国思想，影响其内部的话语，世界观和做法对非洲人在国内和国外。该项目突出了像波兰-立陶宛这样的内陆农业社会如何融入全球经济的强迫劳动、长途移徙、人口贩运和思想交流。