Dartmouth Events

This talk explores the intertwined relationships between enslaved freedom seekers, the natural environment, and attendant perils of fugitivity. It delves into how digital mapping and spatial analysis enrich our understanding of historical landscapes and how human-environment interspecies connections can shed light on survival strategies and movement across space and time.

The ongoing effects of climate change have inspired a closer engagement with the natural environment. From the ground beneath to the air above, the wilderness provides many ways of reading the landscape that help to foretell a coming storm or the approach of predators—human or nonhuman in the midst. The plight of the enslaved freedom seeker provides much into studies of human-environment connections to landscape.

The experience of fleeing enslavement carried ongoing challenges of living in wilderness—a constant state of tension that was nevertheless preferable to life on the plantation. Mapping their journeys and the nonhuman allies helping them along was also a challenge. Digital tools helped to fill gaps where printed sources fell short.

This talk animates enslaved people’s pathways to freedom, but also generates dialogue about the interconnectedness of life on earth under siege while battling societal and environmental obstacles to freedom.

Sponsored by Digital Humanities and Social Engagement and Digital Ethnic Futures Lab.