Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: May 26, 2021 at 7:57:08 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Slavery]: West on Strang, 'Frontiers of Science: > Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Cameron B. Strang. Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural > Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850. Chapel Hill > University of North Carolina Press, 2018. 376 pp. $39.95 (cloth), > ISBN 978-1-4696-4047-1. > > Reviewed by Cane West (University of South Carolina) > Published on H-Slavery (May, 2021) > Commissioned by Andrew J. Kettler > > In 1773, Francisco, along with four other enslaved men, was brought > before a Louisiana judge. They were accused of plotting to poison > another enslaved overseer using a _gris-gris_, a Mande charm pouch. > To complete the gris-gris, the conspirators substituted a traditional > crocodile heart with that of a Louisiana alligator. Though the > alleged conspirators were caught, Cameron B. Strang highlights the > episode to show how European imperialism brought Mande herbalists to > the Mississippi Valley where they adapted their spiritual expertise > to navigate the social hierarchy of Louisiana plantations. > > The gris-gris prosecution is one of numerous case studies that Strang > analyzes to explore the intellectual world of the Gulf South between > 1500 and 1850. In Strang's telling, knowledge exchange in the Gulf > South was shaped by the violence and geopolitical competition of > European imperial projects. In _Frontiers of Science_, indigenous > shamans, African herbalists, European men of science, and Anglo > naturalists competing for patronage, exchanging maps, and swapping > naturalist stories show how "knowledge developed and circulated amid > the ongoing encounters and unequal power relations engendered by > imperialism" (p. 7). Strang's work contributes to a growing > scholarship of the social history of knowledge making in early > America. He joins historians who have challenged the framework in > which scientific knowledge spread unidirectionally from Europe into > the Americas and instead have evaluated how polycentric, > cross-cultural encounters throughout the Atlantic World influenced > the creation and exchange of natural knowledge.[1] > > Strang is not the first scholar to identify the imperial impulses at > the heart of American science, but he does situate that debate > earlier, prior to the nineteenth century, and in the Gulf South.[2] > Strang brings refreshing insights to the region's history of > scientific practices that shift historiographical focus away from > Atlantic port cities like Philadelphia and New York and toward > indigenous towns and colonial plantations. Strang also resets the > timeline of early American science from a post-Revolution starting > point to older imperial eras of Spanish and French colonization. By > stressing the continuity of imperial processes, Strang insists that > American science did not develop as a distinctively postcolonial > response to England or exceptional and democracy-infused intellectual > current. Rather, after 1776 the "persistence of imperialism ensured > that cross-cultural negotiation and brokerage remained integral to > Euro-American science in the nineteenth century" (p. 18). > > The monograph's case studies play out over seven chapters arranged > chronologically and thematically with several individuals featured in > each chapter. Readers may recognize elements of his well-regarded > article on indigenous storytelling.[3] The variety of individuals > showcases the breadth of communities present in the Gulf South, from > Creek storytellers to Scottish astronomers. Strang also delves into > numerous subfields that he includes in the study of "natural > knowledge" from geology and cartography to cranial science and > herbalist concoctions. Readers are left with an approachable and > comprehensive survey of scientific practice in the Gulf South. > > Strang's case-study framework lends itself to unearthing examples of > how enslaved individuals created and contributed to natural knowledge > in the region within the confines of their subjugation. Readers will > find Strang cautious about the agency of enslaved scientific > practitioners, instead showing how scientific products actually > evinced their captive state. In the case of the gris-gris, the men > involved used their West African knowledge not to overthrow the > system of slavery but, rather, to attack another enslaved man at a > higher rung on the plantation hierarchy. Strang focuses instead on > how enslavement distorted and limited the acquisition of knowledge. > He evaluates the cartography of Lamhatty, an enslaved Tawasa > indigenous man from coastal Florida. Lamhatty produced a map for > English colonists that showed the path of his enslavement from the > Gulf Coast to Virginia. The map included features of indigenous maps, > including the social relationships between towns. Yet Lamhatty's > geographic awareness was limited to the towns in which he was captive > and showed the growing numbers of socially isolated villages in the > region. > > Strang's most original methodology focuses not on the enslaved but on > enslavers. He traces scientific patronage networks that connected > slave owners and colonial officials to men of science. Doing so > reveals the shifting loyalties that defined the borderlands and the > links between slavery and American scientific communities. Readers > will be familiar with William Dunbar, the slave-owning planter and > naturalist who was born in Scotland and owned plantations on both > banks of the Mississippi River. Strang recovers the surprising ways > Dunbar navigated the "politics of science" by offering his services > in astronomy, specimen collecting, and geology to Spanish and > American officials alike (p. 184). The patronage networks of Gulf > South planters showcase the uncertain political allegiance of the > Gulf South prior to the War of 1812 and are Strang's best evidence > that early American science historiography should move beyond the > British Atlantic. > > Strang's focus on planter patronage also brings new energy to a > decades-old debate regarding whether antebellum southern slavery > stifled the development of scientific communities that were > flourishing in the Northeast. Ironically, Strang dismisses the > historiographical debate as normalizing the northeastern scientific > origins of American science that he seeks to dismantle. Nonetheless, > _Frontiers of Science_ explores a variety of disciplines to which > Gulf South planter scientists contributed. More notably, these > planters were not simply practitioners but were themselves patrons of > the nation's men of science, including the Tait family of Alabama who > helped to fund, facilitate access for, and raise the profile of > geoscience experts from Philadelphia. > > The monograph may frustrate nonspecialists. Only on occasion do the > actions or beliefs of the patrons or men of science seem to have > causative impact on political changes in the Gulf South. Strang > offers temporal signposts of the late seventeenth century and the > early nineteenth century when demographic changes affected the nature > and power dynamics of natural knowledge exchange. However, given > Strang's thesis regarding the continuity of imperial processes, these > periods of change seem to happen to patrons and men of science rather > than be shaped by them. With the focus on individuals, the ability to > create and share natural knowledge appears as more of a tool of > political survival than a means for communities or the state to shape > the direction of the region. > > The fields of borderlands studies and early American science benefit > greatly from Strang's work to bring an often-peripheral region into > focus to show the polycentric origins of American knowledge exchange. > Furthermore, Strang's engaging writing and well-selected case studies > will make this book an appealing addition to upper-level courses. > Professors in topical classes will enjoy assigning portions of this > monograph to their students. The case studies highlight often > overlooked genres of science and the interesting historical figures > clarify the challenges facing men and women who navigated the > shifting politics of the Gulf South. For historians of slavery, > Strang's patronage methods demonstrate the infusion of slave-owning > power brokers not only in political and economic realms but also > throughout the scientific communities of North America. > > Notes > > [1]. Julie Cruikshank, _Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial > Encounters, and Social Imagination _(Vancouver: University of British > Columbia Press, 2005); Susan Scott Parish, _American Curiosity: > Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World_ > (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006); James > Delbourgo and Nicholas Dew, eds., _Science and Empire in the Atlantic > World _(New York: Routledge, 2008); Andrew Lewis, _A Democracy of > Facts: Natural History in the Early Republic _(Philadelphia: > University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011); and Joshua Piker, _The Four > Deaths of Acorn Whistler: Telling Stories in Colonial America > _(Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2013). > > [2]. James Drake, _The Nation's Nature: How Continental Presumptions > Gave Rise to the United States of America _(Charlottesville: > University of Virginia Press, 2011); and Paul Mapp, _The Elusive West > and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 _(Chapel Hill: University of > North Carolina Press, 2011). The Gulf South has been a fruitful > region for scholars seeking to broaden the perspective of colonial > America beyond the Atlantic Seaboard. Two central works are Joseph > Hall, _Zamumo's Gifts: Indian-European Exchange in the Colonial > Southeast _(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009); > and Kathleen DuVal, _Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the > American Revolution _(New York: Random House, 2015). > > [3]. Cameron B. Strang, "Indian Storytelling, Scientific Knowledge, > and Power in the Florida Borderlands," _William and Mary Quarterly_ > 70, no. 4 (October 2013): 671-700. > > Citation: Cane West. Review of Strang, Cameron B., _Frontiers of > Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South > Borderlands, 1500-1850_. H-Slavery, H-Net Reviews. May, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56478 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8754): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8754 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/83098990/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
