Preview
  • Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive

  • Early American Studies
  • By: Marisa J. Fuentes
  • Narrated by: Carrie Burgess
  • Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (22 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive

By: Marisa J. Fuentes
Narrated by: Carrie Burgess
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In the 18th century, Bridgetown, Barbados, was heavily populated by both enslaved and free women. Marisa J. Fuentes creates a portrait of urban Caribbean slavery in this colonial town from the perspective of these women whose stories appear only briefly in historical records. Fuentes takes us through the streets of Bridgetown with an enslaved runaway; inside a brothel run by a freed woman of color; in the midst of a white urban household in sexual chaos; to the gallows where enslaved people were executed; and within violent scenes of enslaved women's punishments. In the process, Fuentes interrogates the archive and its historical production to expose the ongoing effects of white colonial power that constrain what can be known about these women.

Combining fragmentary sources with interdisciplinary methodologies that include black feminist theory and critical studies of history and slavery, Dispossessed Lives demonstrates how the construction of the archive marked enslaved women's bodies, in life and in death. By vividly recounting enslaved life through the experiences of individual women and illuminating their conditions of confinement through the legal, sexual, and representational power wielded by slave owners, colonial authorities, and the archive, Fuentes challenges the way we write histories of vulnerable and often invisible subjects.

The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Exemplifies the best new historical scholarship on slavery and gender." (Jennifer L. Morgan, Porfessor at New York University)

"Marisa J. Fuentes is masterful...." (Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Professor at University of Delaware)

"An important and complex work that demonstrates how historians can employ a range of interdisciplinary methodologies." (Melanie J. Newton, Associate Professor at University of Toronto)

©2016 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    16
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Embarrassing

I should not have liked this but I did. The reading or writing (syntax) was poor, but the subject matter demanded my attention. The effect on me is embarrassing. I felt at times like I was part of the story and that is bad to the extreme.

The most shocking info to me was the participation of white women and the powerlessness of the victims.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An amazing read

The content is well laid out and easy to follow which is important when dealing with such a devastating subject matter.

What I also enjoyed was the pace and clarity of narration. Even though 1x was a little slow for me, it was perfect for my father, and as I sped it up to 1.4x-2x the clarity and cadence was maintained making it very comfortable to listen to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent work of serious history

This is an excellent work of scholarly history.
Dealing primarily with enslaved women in 18th century Bridgetown, Barbados, it employs innovative historical techniques to glean meaning from the relevant archives, which were systematically deprived of the voices of black women by the cruelty and marginalization of British imperialism.
It’s a superb book. It is, however, a scholarly book. If you are looking for historical stories of adventure and drama, look elsewhere. This is serious history for serious people. It deals with some of the worst behavior by human beings to human beings. There aren’t happy endings. One simply finishes the work with a better, more nuanced understanding of the past and, to some degree, the present.
The performance is solid. There are some mispronunciations here and there but otherwise, the reader does a good job in keeping the text fresh in the reader’s ear and mind.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!