“The Calamitous State Into Which We Are Brought”: The Paradox of Slavery, Agency, Creativity, and Freedom-Making in Eighteenth-Century Newport

In our first article, “‘The Calamitous State Into Which We Are Brought’: The Paradox of Slavery, Agency, Creativity, and Freedom-Making in Eighteenth- Century Newport,” Akeia de Barros Gomes asks critical questions while constructing narratives of the lives of Caesar Lyndon, Sarah Searing Lyndon, Caesar Babcock, Bristow, Casan, Jenny, Cardardo, and a “black male” whose name was once known, and an “Indian” whose name was also once known. The questions de Barros Gomes raises, while affirming the complexities and contradictions of the subject, form a quest to acknowledge the humanity and personhood of individuals enslaved in Newport. “How can we discuss strength and resilience of the enslaved within the all-consuming structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade?” she asks. Creatively mining historical sources and documents including the account books of Caesar Lyndon, Revolutionary War pension applications and a rare nkisi bundle discovered at the Wanton- Lyman-Hazard House in Newport, Dr. de Barros Gomes raises and answers a central question that is the aim of her work: “How do we begin to understand” how people enslaved in Newport “insisted upon their own humanity through their work, spirituality, family and service to the emerging nation.” Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes is the Director of the Edward W. Kane & Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History. She received her Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of Connecticut, and is a Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Lecturer at the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University.