A Case in Nevis, 1817

Abstract: "A Case in Nevis, 1817" offers a counter-history of a court case prosecuting an enslaver for cruelty, which occurred on the Caribbean island of Nevis in 1817. It is based on court records, letters, affidavits, and examinations collected by the accused enslaver in an effort to exonerate himself. In this source text, historical silences are legion, but there are fragments in which enslaved people come closely into view. The model of the counter-history attends to the archive of slavery as a form of power as opposed to a collection of facts; indeed, the counter-history is the "other" of that power. The narrative tells the story of a family whose members suffered spectacular violence, and it highlights their actions in the aftermath, as they rioted, resisted, and healed in the collective context of their community. We see the plantation as a place always on the edge of riot, a place organized by kinship and collectivity, a place of protest and defiance. Thisbe, Richard, David, Matty, Crissy: the counter-history allows us to shift our historical focus to center them. Not only does it animate and narrate enslaved lives, emphasizing their humanity and particularity, but it also counteracts the forms of power through which those lives were silenced and denied.