Traversing Spaces

This project examines the formation of Black freedom enclaves across North America through the lens of legal frameworks and resistance movements from the late 17th through mid-19th centuries. The complex legal landscape, from the 1677 Butts v. Penny case, through the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850, created “terrains of struggle” where traditional geographies were transcended through resistance acts of flight resulting in transnational networks and community formation. 

Utilizing methods of research-creation and what I call narrative multimodal anthropology, this project will culminate in "Traversing Spaces," an interactive website that synthesizes archival materials to illuminate patterns of Black- settlements and mobility. The platform draws on historical databases, newspaper prints, lithographs, and oral histories to show how enslaved Africans navigated complex socio-political circumstances in their pursuit of liberation across Northern territories. 

The website's interactive mapping features help to visualize these migration patterns and settlement networks, uncovering interconnected geographies of resistance. Framing historical Black communities as dynamic and ongoing, this narrative multimodal project uses photography, video, and podcasting to document and reimagine narratives that have faced systematic erasure. The website and dissertation contribute to intersecting domains of history, anthropology, the digital humanities, and public understanding of these critical freedom narratives.