Vol. 59 No. 4 (2011)
Research Article

“May Change Name and Pretend to be Free”: A Corpus Linguistic Investigation of Surnames Adopted by Fugitive Slaves As Advertised in Colonial American Newspapers Between 1729 and 1818

Published 2011-12-01

Keywords

  • COMMEMORATIVE PLACE NAMES,
  • CZECH PLACE NAMES,
  • EASTERN EUROPE,
  • IDEOLOGY,
  • RENAMING,
  • INTERNATIONALIZATION,
  • NATIONALIZATION
  • ...More
    Less

Abstract

Abstract

Traditionally, it has been assumed that the adoption of surnames among African Americans evolved from the simple emulation of onomastic norms common among European American slave owners. In recent years, however, careful analysis has revealed that this initial assumption may have been premature. The naming behaviour of early African American residents has shown itself to be an extremely complex phenomenon, one which goes far beyond mere imitation. While this emerging scholarship has been useful in pointing out directions, there has yet to be a systematic linguistic investigation of this population. The present investigation provides an empirical analysis of surnaming patterns among fugitive slaves as advertised in colonial American newspapers between 1729 and 1818.

References

  1. Armstrong, O. 1931. Old Massa’s People: The Old Slaves Tell Their Story. Indiananapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
  2. Cody, C. 1987. “There was no Absalom on the Ball Plantations: Slave-naming Practices in the South Carolina Low Country, 1720–1865.” The American Historical Review 92(3): 563–596.
  3. Cohen, H. 1952. “Slave Names in Colonial South Carolina.” American Speech 27(2): 102–107.
  4. Franklin, J. and L. Schweninger. 2000. Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. Berlin: Oxford University Press.
  5. Greene, L. 1944. “The New England Negro as Seen in Advertisements for Runaway Slaves.” The Journal of Negro History 29(2): 125–146.
  6. Higginbotham, A. 1978. In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process in the Colonial Period. New York: Oxford University Press.
  7. Hodges, G. 1997. Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey 1665–1865. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
  8. Hodges, G. and A. Brown, eds. 1994. Pretends to be Free: Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey. New York: Garland Publishing. http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/ gallery_2_1.htm courtesy of New York State Archives, Albany [accessed on January 19 2011 at 14:08].
  9. Inscoe, J. 1983. “Carolina Slave Names: An Index to Acculturation.” The Journal of Southern History 69(4): 527–554.
  10. Kolchin, P. 1995. American Slavery: 1619–1877. London: Penguin Books.
  11. Laversuch, I. M. 2005. Census and Consensus? A Historical Examination of the US Census Racial Terminology Used for American Residents of African Ancestry. New York: Peter Lang.
  12. Laversuch, I. M. 2006. “Runaway Slave Names Recaptured: An Investigation of the Personal First Names of Fugitive Slaves Advertised in the Virginia Gazette Between 1736 and 1776.” Names 54: 331–362.
  13. Mullin, G. 1972. Flight and Rebellion. Slave Resistance in Eighteenth-Century Virginia. New York: Oxford University Press.
  14. Parker, F. ed. 1983. Stealing A Little Freedom: Advertisements for Slave Runaways in North Carolina, 1791–1840. New York: Garland Pub. Inc.
  15. Schafer, J. 1981. “New Orleans Slavery in 1850 as Seen in Advertisements.” The Journal of Southern History 67(1): 33–56.
  16. Smith, B. and R. Wojtowicz. 1989. Blacks Who Stole Themselves: Advertisements for Runaway in the Pennsylvania Gazette 1728–1790. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  17. Wada, M. 2006. “Running from Bondage: An Analysis of the Newspaper Advertisements of Runaway Slaves in Colonial Maryland and Georgia.” Journal of the School of Letters Nagoya University 2(2): 11–21.
  18. Windley, L. ed. 1983a. Runaway Slave Advertisements: A Documentary History from the 1730s to 1790. Volume I. Virginia and North Carolina. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
  19. Windley, L. ed. 1983b. Runaway Slave Advertisements: A Documentary History from the 1730s to 1790. Volume II. Maryland. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
  20. Windley, L. ed. 1983c. Runaway Slave Advertisements: A Documentary History from the 1730s to 1790. Volume III. South Carolina. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.