Call for Papers for an International Conference on Legal Structures and Localised Practices of Slavery, from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Century (Europe – Africa – Americas) April 13 – 15, 2010 Dakar, Cheik Anta Diop University (Senegal)
About the conference
International conference, organised by the EURESCL project (Slave Trade, Slavery, Abolitions and their Legacies in European Histories and Identities) 7th PCRD, and the Pôle d’Excellence Régional sur les Esclavages et les Traites of Cheik Anta Diop University
Scientific Coordination:
Annie Fitte-Duval (afitduv@neuf.fr)
Rokhaya Fall-Sokhna (sokhnadaba@gmail.com)
Organizing Committee:
Nathalie Collain (collainfp7@aliceadsl.fr)
Ibrahima Seck (birimaseck@hotmail.com)
Description:
The EURESCL-7th PCRD project was created to analyse the role played by slavery and the slave trade in the construction of a collective European identity, defined through its relationships with other countries. Slavery was a pervasive influence on societal organisation from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, and was progressively integrated into the frameworks elaborated and codified by European state powers. The intervention of states as colonial particularly consisted in elaborating administrative and legal norms tending to reinforce slavery and the slave trade. This applied to varying extents within different geographical areas
involved in slavery and slave trade, some of which were controlled by European countries and some of which were not.
The international conference entitled Legal Structures and Localised Practices of Slavery, from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Century (Europe – Africa – Americas) aims to contribute to the identification, evaluation and comparison of the legal texts produced by slave-owning powers and societies within and outside Europe, as well as the practices that developed out of these texts. In effect, specific local practices influenced by local regulations; jurisprudence; and common judiciary and administrative practice existed alongside, or sometimes even in contradiction with, the national legal texts that developed out of the colonial context. For example, although Martinique, Guadeloupe and the French part of Saint Domingue were all subject to the same edict of March 1685 they saw different practical applications, or non-applications, of the law.
The reciprocal confrontation between legal text and practical application evidently requires a close analysis of the existing evidence recorded in the countries concerned and their former colonies, in order to create as clear a vision as possible of the formal, textual sources of the applicable norms. As some studies have already underlined, notable similarities exist between these texts, revealing shared dynamics and processes of imitation, but the internal mechanisms specific to their original contexts should not be neglected.
We will also look into the national discourses of societies based on non-written forms of law.
I. Regulation and codification of slavery and the slave trade: a comparative approach to legal systems
A comparison between different legal norms and their applications seems essential in order to understand not only the place of slavery in the colonial system itself, but also the place of colonial slavery and the slave trade in developing European legal systems and, eventually, any residual effects on the construction of modern Europe.
The question of sources and their interdependence is essential: for example, the legacy of ancient systems of slavery in defining the legal framework of Atlantic slavery in the American colonies seems to be undisputed. Studies of the measures put in place for slavery in Louisiana and the Caribbean have underlined the tendency to borrow from the concepts of Roman law. We also know that the slave code drawn up for Louisiana in 1724 was an adaptation of the March 1685 Royal edict on the governance of the islands known as the Code Noir, which was the main text regulating the conditions of slavery in France’s colonies in the Americas. In some
African countries, like Senegal, the relations between Islamic and colonial laws should be considered. The influence of legal pre-colonial systems and their residual impact for the colonial system and in a local framework should also been assessed. These interconnected relationships, these reciprocal influences should be studied in more detail, in relation with the provisions that provide the framework of these texts.
From the perspective of a comparative analysis, we will also examine the proclaimed and/or actual functions of legal texts on slavery. An integral yet obscured part of a highly normative system, these texts enlighten us on different colonial doctrines of slavery and their translation into legal terms. We will look at the connections between legal codes on slavery or Codes Noirs (French and Spanish, for example). When compared to what happened in practice, these texts are also able to inform us more precisely on the rights of the individuals whose lives they governed, and
on the conditions of life under slavery.
II. Conditions and legal status of slaves
We will look at the legal definitions of what constitutes a slave, and particularly at concepts and definitions of slavery in different
countries. How far have they been influenced, firstly by ancient civilisations and secondly by one another? Can we identify certain
endogenous factors based, for example, on religious or cultural differences? To be able to answer these questions, we need to look closely at similarities and differences not only in the theoretical legal status of the slave, but also in the practical functioning of slavery.
In practice, what are the differences in conditions, and what do they reveal in terms of the working of legal norms? A focus on the areas of slavery that are particularly closely regulated and the restrictive character of certain clauses allows us to analyse this area in depth, as well as clarifying the evolution of the relationships between different social and ethnic groups. The importance of certain concepts or legal institutions (such as marriage or inheritance) is also indirectly revealed.
Outside of the connections or oppositions between legal texts, relationships between individuals of the same or different legal status,
particularly those based on racial or ethnic classifications, are also determining factors which, depending on the geographical area, have contributed to the proliferation of normative legal systems.
III. Legal powers and oblique influences upon systems of slavery
Evidently, theoretical or textual knowledge will not be enough to form a precise image of any legal environment in which diverse local practices feature.
The acknowledgment of responsibilities and respective influences in both the adoption of current legislation, and its adaptation and evolution (or indeed ineffectiveness) in local contexts seems to be essential in understanding different legal systems. We could thus look at various incidences of colonialism based on the laws of slavery, and particularly at the importance of negotiation and compromise in both the elaboration and the application of legal texts. We will also examine the respective roles of central government; representatives of local government; local judiciary powers (governors, judges, notaries); and other local influences
on the law, in determining how legal strategies that dealt with the slave trade, on the one hand, and slavery, on the other, were elaborated. Their attitudes faced with official national norms (approbation, open disavowal, or strategies and ways of bypassing the law, “creolization” etc.); and the impact of these decisions on the acts and behaviours of the rest of the population (white colonists, free coloured population, domestic and plantation slaves, maroons, colonial subjects, etc.) are determining factors in understanding the realities of the practical application of legal systems of slavery. We will also consider the various and respective contributions of social actors, like those of slaves, through the maroons practices, in the production and implementation of legal norms.
The Law, Regulations, Practices and Social Connections axis of the EURESCL project invites interested researchers to submit proposals for papers relating to the above themes. We welcome papers from colleagues based within and/or working on African, European and American spaces. The period of analysis covers the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, inclusive.
The conference will take place in Dakar at the Cheik Anta Diop University, from the 13th to the 15th April 2010; papers of approximately 20 to 25 minutes should be presented in French or in English.
How to submit a paper
Proposals should include the title of the paper and an abstract of no more than two pages; these must be accompanied by a summary of the author’s qualifications and current curriculum vitae. Paper proposals should be sent before the 30th October 2009 to the scientific coordinators: Annie Fitte-Duval (afitduv@neuf.fr) and Rokhaya Fall-Sokhna (sokhnadaba@gmail.com).
They will then be examined by a panel of conference organisers.
Full papers should be submitted by the 1st January 2010. The conference proceedings will be published.
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