Reviews for Agents and lives

The average rating for Agents and lives based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-04 00:00:00 Norman Wolf A totally invaluable resource and I’m one that I’m sure I will return to frequently. I can see a lot of pedagogical applications for Sancho’s letters, especially if teaching Sterne. Cugoano is blisteringly insightful and a perfect anecdote to assumptions that it was impossible for people in the 18thC to see the impacts of colonialism. I especially appreciated Cugoano’s intersectional insights on the impact of colonialism on Indigenous peoples; in general, I was surprised by the frequency with with Indigenous groups played a role as almost a commonplace fact of life in the various narratives. It was great to be able to become attuned to the personal differences between these writers and get a sense of their individuality. Occasionally Caretta abridged some thing I would rather have been left in (who cuts an expedition to the North Pole in favor of social calls in London??) but this volume is a great starting place. There’s a lot more I want to read from here!

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-12 00:00:00 Jack Byron This would be an excellent resource for a scholar researching slavery and abolition in the 18th century because it contains verbatim writings of some literate blacks about their lives before, during and after they were enslaved, as well as some poems. Apparently, much of the writing was used to convince people to support abolition, so it's very dramatic and pious which makes it hard to wade through. The only parts I really enjoyed were the biographical sketches in the appendix.