Freedom as Marronage

What is the opposite of freedom? In Freedom as Marronage, Neil Roberts answers this question with definitive force: slavery, and from there he unveils powerful new insights on the human condition as it has been understood between these poles. Crucial to his investigation is the concept of marronage-a form of slave escape that was an important aspect of Caribbean and Latin American slave systems. Examining this overlooked phenomenon-one of action from slavery and toward freedom-he deepens our understanding of freedom itself and the origin of our political ideals.

Roberts examines the liminal and transitional space of slave escape in order to develop a theory of freedom as marronage, which contends that freedom is fundamentally located within this space-that it is a form of perpetual flight. He engages a stunning variety of writers, including Hannah Arendt, W. E. B. Du Bois, Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the Rastafari, among others, to develop a compelling lens through which to interpret the quandaries of slavery, freedom, and politics that still confront us today. The result is a sophisticated, interdisciplinary work that unsettles the ways we think about freedom by always casting it in the light of its critical opposite.


Author: Neil Roberts
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 02/11/2015
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780226201047
ISBN10: 022620104X
BISAC Categories:
- Philosophy | Political
- Political Science | History & Theory | General
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | African American & Black Studies

About the Author
Neil Roberts is associate professor of Africana studies and a faculty affiliate in political science at Williams College.