Between slavery and the burden of freedom: workers and forms of labor exploitation in historical perspective

Abstract

Taking as its point of departure the ambiguities of the boundary between slavery and free labor and of the legal framework regulating labor relations, this project proposes to analyze situations and contexts in which different work regimes, rather than standing as dichotomous, coexist or even complement one another. The aim is not just to discuss intermediate cases between slavery and other forms of labor relations, be they contractual or compulsory, but also to examine the ways that workers dealt with the diverse strategies of control to which they were subjected. The proposal, therefore, contests the presumption that there is a rigorous distinction between slavery and free labor and an unquestionable progression from one form of labor to the other, irrespective of the modalities of coercion imposed on workers. To investigate the strategies of dominion over working people in historical perspective, the project articulates three themes of research: one, analyzing the processes of enslavement, another discussing the compulsive character of labor contracts, and a third examining the legal and juridical constraints regulating free labor. Under the first rubric, different modalities of enslavement and of the exercise of seigniorial dominion are explored in diverse historical contexts, with the focus on comparing aspects of Indian and black slavery in the Americas, the forms of slavery and forced labor in Africa, and work analogous to slavery in the contemporary world. Within the second thematic area, the analysis is aimed primarily at compulsion inscribed in free labor. Examined here are diverse situations during the existence of slavery and in the post-abolition period which compelled workers to labor, under a contractual mantle. Finally, within the third theme, attention is directed toward the legal, institutional and juridical constraints that exist in the world of labor called "free." In addition to embracing individual research projects, which focus empirically on a variety of questions, places and time periods, the present proposal also includes collective activities, to wit: the development of studies using literary and iconographic sources for the analysis of the world of labor; the production of research instruments that index legal sources; the digital reproduction of archival collections to preserve documents in danger of destruction and to facilitate research; and the divulging of information about sets of documents that are important for this area of study. (AU)