Africa's Sons Under Arms: Race, Military Bodies and the British West India Regiment in the Atlantic world, 1795-1914

非洲的武装之子：种族、军事机构和大西洋世界的英国西印度军团，1795-1914 年

• 批准号: AH/L013452/1
• 负责人: David Lambert
• 金额: $ 54.99万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FL013452%2F1
• 关键词: Africa; Sons; Under; Arms; Race

This ambitious collaborative research project uses the British West India Regiment (WIR) as a case study to explore the evolving nature of racial thought in the Atlantic world from late 18th to early 20th centuries. The WIR was formed in 1795 from remnants of the Carolina Corps of black soldiers recruited by the British during the southern campaign (1778-82). Defeat in the Revolutionary War led the evacuation of c.5000 enslaved and formerly enslaved people, including black troops. The WIR became vital for the defence of the British Caribbean colonies and also served in West Africa. The military history of the regiment has been studied and we do not propose to re-examine this. The soldiers of the WIR were objects of scrutiny by doctors, slaveholders, travellers, photographers and others, who depicted and interpreted their bodies in complex, often contradictory ways. The project's components will utilize these viewpoints while not forgetting the agency of the soldiers themselves who were able to shape racialised ideas through their behaviour, dress, abilities and actions (in battle, on parade and while playing sport). These interactions took place against a backdrop of debates about racial capacity and the civilising mission, and the end of slavery in the British Caribbean. The militarisation of the black subject is comparatively under-studied, yet is crucial to our perception of the plastic nature of race as a concept. Whites who feared armed black men were willing, when circumstances dictated, to place them under arms. This project aims to explore such ambivalence, explain how whites 'rediscovered' the black body in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and how evolving white understanding of the black body from passive slave to armed combatant was crucial to changing ideas about race in the Victorian period. The overall scope of the project is ambitious but manageable. The time-frame of 1795-1914 encompasses the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812; the abolition of the British slave trade and slavery; British involvement in West Africa; the Crimean and US Civil Wars; and the later 'Scramble for Africa'. This period saw the WIR involved in intra-imperial conflicts in the Caribbean, suppressing slave revolts (Barbados, 1816) and post-slavery rebellions (Jamaica, 1865), as well as fighting colonial wars in Africa. The project's broader historical context is provided by the Haitian Revolution; public debates about slavery and race in Britain and the USA; the growing importance of science to the medical profession; and emerging ideals of Victorian heroic masculinity. Deliberately, the project does not encompass the First World War. Instead, at a time when the 'Commonwealth' (sic) contribution to that War is being assessed, it is timely to consider the extensive and more varied history of black soldiers in the British Army. The geographical scope of the project is focused on the Atlantic world, including the Caribbean, West Africa and Britain, but also the USA and French Empire. Under the umbrella of a long and wide history of the WIR, this project comprises three distinct but interconnected components. Two major components examine 1) the production of medical discourse about the WIR soldiers by army surgeons and physicians, and its influence on proslavery writers in the US South (Lockley) and 2) the changing image of the WIR soldier in Britain as a barometer of popular ideas and anxieties about race, masculinity, warfare and empire (Lambert). Associated with each is a PhD project: one considers white responses to the arming of men of African-descent, while the other focuses on photographic imagery of the WIR and its relation to the contemporary discourses, including tourism. A third, more focused component considers the place of the WIR within the life of Caribbean societies, particularly focusing on soldiers' participation in popular sport and the garrison as a public space (Hatfield).

这一雄心勃勃的合作研究项目以英属西印度军团(WIR)为例，探索18世纪末至20世纪初大西洋世界种族思想演变的本质。WIR成立于1795年，由卡罗莱纳军团的残余黑人士兵组成，这些士兵是英国人在南部战役(1778-82年)期间招募的。革命战争的失败导致了被奴役和以前被奴役的人的撤离，包括黑人军队。WIR对保卫英属加勒比海殖民地至关重要，也曾在西非服役。这个团的军事历史已经研究过了，我们不打算重新审查这一点。WIR的士兵是医生、奴隶主、旅行者、摄影师和其他人仔细观察的对象，他们以复杂的、往往相互矛盾的方式描绘和解释他们的身体。该项目的组成部分将利用这些观点，同时不会忘记士兵本身的作用，他们能够通过他们的行为、着装、能力和行动(在战斗、游行和运动中)塑造种族主义的想法。这些互动发生在关于种族容量和文明使命以及英属加勒比海奴隶制结束的辩论的背景下。黑人问题的军事化相对研究较少，但对于我们将种族作为一个概念的可塑性本质的看法是至关重要的。当情况需要时，害怕武装黑人的白人愿意让他们武装起来。该项目旨在探索这种矛盾心理，解释白人如何在18世纪末和19世纪初重新发现黑人身体，以及白人对黑人身体的理解如何从被动的奴隶转变为武装战斗人员，这对维多利亚时期种族观念的改变至关重要。该项目的总体规模雄心勃勃，但可控。1795-1914年的时间框架包括法国独立战争和拿破仑战争以及1812年的战争；废除英国的奴隶贸易和奴隶制；英国参与西非；克里米亚和美国内战；以及后来的“争夺非洲”。在此期间，WIR参与了加勒比地区的帝国内部冲突，镇压奴隶起义(巴巴多斯，1816年)和奴隶制后叛乱(牙买加，1865年)，以及在非洲进行殖民战争。该项目更广泛的历史背景来自海地革命；英国和美国关于奴隶制和种族的公开辩论；科学对医疗职业日益重要；以及维多利亚时代英雄气概的新兴理想。刻意地，这个项目并不包括第一次世界大战。相反，在评估英联邦(原文如此)对那场战争的贡献的时候，考虑一下英国军队中黑人士兵的广泛和多样化的历史是及时的。该项目的地理范围集中在大西洋世界，包括加勒比海、西非和英国，但也包括美国和法兰西帝国。在WIR悠久而广泛的历史的保护伞下，该项目包括三个不同但相互关联的组成部分。两个主要部分考察了1)陆军外科医生和医生对战争士兵的医学论述及其对美国南方奴隶制作家的影响(洛克利)和2)战争士兵在英国作为关于种族、男子气概、战争和帝国的流行观点和焦虑的晴雨表的变化(兰伯特)。与每个项目相关的是一个博士项目：一个项目考虑白人对武装非洲人后裔男子的反应，另一个项目侧重于WIR的摄影图像及其与包括旅游业在内的当代话语的关系。第三个更有重点的部分考虑了WIR在加勒比社会生活中的地位，特别侧重于士兵参与大众体育和将驻军作为公共空间(哈特菲尔德)。

项目成果

Playing against empire

对抗帝国

• DOI: 10.1080/0144039x.2018.1489839
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Slavery & Abolition
• 影响因子: 0.7
• 作者: Cooper E

Military Medicine and the Making of Race: Life and Death in the West India Regiments, 1795-1874

军事医学与种族形成：西印度军团的生与死，1795-1874 年

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Lockley

Freedom and resistance: a social history of Black Loyalists in the Bahamas

自由与抵抗：巴哈马黑人效忠者的社会史

• DOI: 10.1080/0144039x.2018.1460084
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Slavery & Abolition
• 影响因子: 0.7
• 作者: Bennett M

Introduction

介绍

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-45763-1_1
• 发表时间: 2020-05-28
• 期刊: Jefferson’s Revolutionary Theory and the Reconstruction of Educational Purpose
• 作者: Burch KT

Medicine and Healing in the Age of Slavery

奴隶制时代的医学与治疗

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Lockley, T