[This language really shows the continuities between 18c slave management and contemporary discourses of racialized crime.]

One fascinating thing that emerged was that prizes or medals seem to have been awarded to enslaved people who informed on other slaves' rebellions, who later turned up in later rebellions themselves. There seems to be some kind of dynamic here that is obviously out of view of the settlers but affecting the organization and success of rebellions. #ASECS23

#ASECS23

The other standout for me was Clifton Sorrell (a grad student at UT Austin!) who offered a microhistory of Blackwall's Revolt in St Mary's Parish, 1765.

Sorrell's piece, which featured the problem of identifying actors when documents use similar or fragmentary names, nicely encapsulated the challenge of "ringleader" discourse, which of course assists settlers pursuing a distributed leadership, by suggesting they've identified an isolated troublemaker.

Becker believes that EL's English legal training helped model his documentary approach to historical writing (maybe via Blackstone?) but I wondered whether Kames's Scottish approach to legal history was at play here, or other Scottish historians like Robertson. #ASECS23
So the Edward Long in 21st century panel had Michael Becker (JCB fellow, Brown) talking about EL's legal training, which is a genuinely understudied part of his intellectual background, and an important dimension of his Natural History, which despite the racism is also the most coherent published account of 18c Jamaica by a contemporary. #ASECS23
Before #ASECS23 goes out of my head, I just wanted to record a few thoughts I gathered at panels, to retain them myself and credit the panelists. This is part of what @carrideen has usefully called the "metacognitive" dimension of conferencing.

PastMe was wise to go to bed on the 1st full day of #asecs23 & not live-tweet 5 hours of content, but that means Current Me is … well, note-taking on 5 hours of content, then another 4-5 tonight.

No full play by play but my notes on last Thursday’s #CriticalRoleSpoilers in 🧵

@jsadow solidarity! It was one of the things I appreciated about #ASECS23

It was definitely tenuous for me to come on my slashed funding and I am in a better situation than many people @ASECS #ASECS2023 #ASECS23

From: @zionak
https://c18.masto.host/@zionak/110010807226390715

Ziona Kocher (@[email protected])

As the hustle and bustle of conferencing dies down, I am struck by the same feeling I had last year: is this the last time I get to do this? Is this the last time I get to see these people I adore? The precarity of ECRs expands so much further than the uncertainty of employment.

c18
One question I found myself asking over and over at #ASECS23 is what happens when we look at national identity—in representations of women’s anger; in conceptions of pregnancy and women’s communal knowledge; in disability as a site of exclusion; and in The Woman of Colour’s ending

Here’s what the American Society for 18th Centuryists means to me, in this, the 16th year I have attended. #asecs23

(A thread)