The marriages of Abina Mansah: escaping the boundaries of 'slavery' as a category in historical analysis

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	The marriages of Abina Mansah: escaping the boundaries of 'slavery' as a category in historical analysis
Authors:	Getz, Trevor R. Ehrisman, Lindsay
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Journal of West African History (ISSN 2327-1876)
Volume:	1
Issue:	1
Pages:	93-118
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	legal status married women slaves trials
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/jwestafrihist.1.1.0093
Abstract:	This article (re)examines the testimony of Abina Mansah, a young Akan-speaking woman who brought charges and testified against her former master, Quamina Eddoo, for her illegal enslavement in 1876. Both inside the judicial Assessor's Court in Cape Coast Castle and within subsequent scholarly interpretations of her testimony, the label 'slave' functioned as the primary marker of Abina's identity and the analytic lens through which the authors understand her experiences and motivations. In this rereading of her testimony, however, the authors explore the centrality of her status as a married woman to her identity, and argue that her decision to take Quamina Eddoo to court was actually a strategy that she pursued to ensure her spiritual and physical health and to safeguard her. Notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]