Weatherhead Initiative on Global History Lunch Talk

Date: 

Thursday, October 31, 2019, 12:30pm to 2:00pm

Location: 

CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Room K450

"Atlantic Slavery and Silesian Serfdom - An Entangled History"

Speaker:

Anka Steffan, Visiting Scholar, Fall 2019, WIGH. PhD Candidate in History, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).

Contact: Jessica Barnard 
wigh@wcfia.harvard.edu

Advance sign up through our website appreciated: https://wigh.wcfia.harvard.edu/event/lunch-talk-anka-steffan-atlantic-slavery-and-silesian-serfdom-entangled-history?delta=0

The talk will center on the time around 1700, a period crucial in the economic history of both Western Africa and the East Central European province of Silesia. I argue that Silesia’s economic development can only be fully understood if analyzed against the backdrop of the Atlantic trade in general and the slave trade in particular. Focusing on the example of the entangled early modern trade in Silesian linen textiles, I demonstrate the connection between plantation slavery in the Americas and serfdom in East Central Europe.