Closer to Freedom

Stephanie M. H. Camp builds on Edward Said’s theorization of rival geography in the context of colonialism, revising this theory to theorize the rival geography occurring in the plantation South. How are the aspirations for mobility for enslaved people different than for colonized people? Why?

Why did California cover the walls of her cabin with abolitionist imagery when she could have kept this imagery within reach but hidden, especially when this display is punishable by death? What is the nature of this domestic “passion,” and why did she express it on her walls?

Camp shows that enslavers both authorized and restricted the mobility of enslaved people by way of passes when their labor required them to leave the plantation. If control over mobility was so important to enslavers, why not restrict that mobility completely and hire free people to conduct labor that required travel? What might the kind of innovative reading that Camp calls for reveal about the relation between enslavers and enslaved (men) in this context of this simultaneously authorized and restricted mobility?