Junius Rodriguez | |
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Personal details | |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Nicholls State University (BA) Louisiana State University (MA) Auburn University (PhD) |
Junius P. Rodriguez is a professor of history at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, who has been the general editor of multiple major reference books on the history of slavery in the United States and the world, as well as related topics such as black history and abolitionism. His work on the history of slavery was acclaimed as "outstanding" by other scholars and by librarians, who have recommended it as part of the core collection for every academic library[ citation needed ] and many public libraries as well.
In July 2017, Rodriguez announced his candidacy for the U.S. House representing Illinois's 18th congressional district in the 2018 U.S. federal midterm election, [1] but lost to incumbent Republican Darin LaHood.
Rodriguez grew up in Louisiana. After earning his B.A. from Nicholls State University (1979), he taught in the public school system of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, for nearly a decade. Rodriguez served a term as Parish Councilman in Lafourche Parish from 1979-1983. [2]
Rodriguez earned his M.A. from Louisiana State University (1987), and Ph.D. from Auburn University (1992). [3] [4] Rodriguez has been a professor of history at Eureka College since 1992. [5] John Greenfieldt and Patrice Bartell recommended his Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion for public library core collections. [6]
Rodriguez consulted on the development of the documentary Human Bondage, which aired as part of the History Channel's History's Mysteries series in 2000. [3] In 2002, he helped draw national attention to the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. Journalist DeWayne Wickham described his efforts as "a perfect teachable moment for discussion and reflection" that was fitting for the event. [7] [8]
Rodriguez unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Republican congressman Darin LaHood of Illinois's 18th congressional district in 2016, running as a Democrat. He won 27.9% of the vote to LaHood's 72.1%. [9] His number of votes was the second most ever earned by a Democrat in the Illinois 18th District, despite running as a vacancy appointment on a shortened campaign schedule.
In 2000, Chronology of World Slavery, was included in "Outstanding reference sources 2000", from the American Library Association.
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave, who is someone forbidden to quit their service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as their property. Slavery typically involves the enslaved person being made to perform some form of work while also having their location or residence dictated by the enslaver. Many historical cases of enslavement occurred when the enslaved broke the law, became indebted, or suffered a military defeat; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as race. The duration of a person's enslavement might be for life, or for a fixed period of time, after which freedom would be granted. Although most forms of slavery are explicitly involuntary and involve the coercion of the enslaved, there also exists voluntary slavery, entered into by the enslaved to pay a debt or obtain money. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civilization, legal in most societies, but it is now outlawed in most countries of the world, except as a punishment for a crime.
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Slave Trade Act 1807, officially An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not abolish the practice of slavery, it did encourage British action to press other nation states to abolish their own slave trades.
The Fon people, also called Fon nu, Agadja or Dahomey, are a Gbe ethnic group. They are the largest ethnic group in Benin found particularly in its south region; they are also found in southwest Nigeria and Togo. Their total population is estimated to be about 3,500,000 people, and they speak the Fon language, a member of the Gbe languages.
The Lei Áurea, adopted on May 13, 1888, was the law that abolished slavery in Brazil. It was signed by Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil (1846–1921), an opponent of slavery, who acted as regent to Emperor Pedro II, who was in Europe.
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. This Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administration and expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and made the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal within the British Empire, with the exception of "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company", Ceylon, and Saint Helena. The Act was repealed in 1998 as a part of wider rationalisation of English statute law; however, later anti-slavery legislation remains in force.
Gullah Jack, also known as Couter Jack and sometimes referred to as "Gullah" Jack Pritchard, was a Methodist, an African conjurer, and a slave to Paul Pritchard in Charleston, South Carolina.
Compensated emancipation was a method of ending slavery, under which the enslaved person's owner received compensation from the government in exchange for manumitting the slave. This could be monetary, and it could allow the owner to retain the slave for a period of labor, an indenture. Cash compensation rarely was equal to the slave's market value.
The Reverse Underground Railroad is the name given, sardonically, to the pre-American Civil War practice of kidnapping in free states not only fugitive slaves but free blacks as well, transporting them to slave states, and selling them as slaves, or occasionally getting a reward for return of a fugitive. Those who used the term were pro-slavery and angered at an "underground railroad" helping slaves escape. Also, the so-called "reverse underground railroad" had incidents but not a network, and its activities did not always take place in secret. Rescues of blacks being kidnapped were unusual.
The abolition of slavery occurred at different times in different countries. It frequently occurred sequentially in more than one stage – for example, as abolition of the trade in slaves in a specific country, and then as abolition of slavery throughout empires. Each step was usually the result of a separate law or action. This timeline shows abolition laws or actions listed chronologically. It also covers the abolition of serfdom.
This timeline of events leading to the American Civil War is a chronologically ordered list of events and issues that historians recognize as origins and causes of the American Civil War. These events are roughly divided into two periods: the first encompasses the gradual build-up over many decades of the numerous social, economic, and political issues that ultimately contributed to the war's outbreak, and the second encompasses the five-month span following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 and culminating in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861.
The Slave Route Project is a UNESCO initiative that was officially launched in 1994 in Ouidah, Benin. It is rooted in the mandate of the organization, which believes that ignorance or concealment of major historical events constitutes an obstacle to mutual understanding, reconciliation and cooperation among peoples. The project breaks the silence surrounding the slave trade and slavery that has affected all continents and caused great upheavals that have shaped our modern societies. In studying the causes, the modalities and the consequences of slavery and the slave trade, the project seeks to enhance the understanding of diverse histories and heritages stemming from this global tragedy.
Slavery was common in the early Roman Empire and Classical Greece. It was legal in the Byzantine Empire but it was transformed significantly from the 4th century onward as slavery came to play a diminished role in the economy. Laws gradually diminished the power of slaveholders and improved the rights of slaves by restricting a master’s right to abuse, prostitute, expose, and murder slaves. Slavery became rare after the first half of 7th century. From 11th century, semi-feudal relations largely replaced slavery. Under the influence of Christianity, views of slavery shifted: by the 10th century slaves were viewed as potential citizens, rather than property or chattel. Slavery was also seen as "an evil contrary to nature, created by man's selfishness", although it remained legal.
Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Slavery was abolished as a legally recognized institution, including in a 1909 law fully enacted in 1910, although the practice continued until at least 1949. Illegal acts of forced labor and sexual slavery in China continue to occur in the twenty-first century, but those found guilty of such crimes are punished harshly. The Chinese term for slave (nuli) can also be roughly translated into 'debtor', 'dependent', or 'subject'. Slaves in China were a very small part of the population and could include war prisoners, kidnapping victims or people who had been sold.
The Samba rebellion was a purported slave rebellion, described by the French historian Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz in his Histoire de la Louisiane. The revolt is said to have taken place in 1731, in what was then French Louisiana. Contemporary with the Natchez revolt, it was personified to its alleged leader, an enslaved man called "Samba Bambara". While Le Page du Pratz gives a brief recollection of the events, which was more a conspiracy to revolt rather than an actual revolt, his information is not verified by any existent official documents.
Following Robert Cavelier de La Salle establishing the French claim to the territory and the introduction of the name Louisiana, the first settlements in the southernmost portion of Louisiana were developed at present-day Biloxi (1699), Mobile (1702), Natchitoches (1714), and New Orleans (1718). Slavery was then established by European colonists.
Hermosa was an American slave ship whose 1840 grounding in the Bahamas led to a controversy between the United Kingdom and the United States over the 38 slaves who had been on board the ship and were freed by the British authorities.
Evan Hall is a former sugarcane plantation in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, U.S. It was established for the production of sugar by Evan Jones, a merchant and politician, by 1807.
Commonwealth v. Aves, 35 Mass. 193 (1836), was a case in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of transportation of slaves to free states. In August 1836, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that slaves brought to Massachusetts "for any temporary purpose of business or pleasure" were entitled to freedom. The case was the most important legal victory for abolitionists in the 1830s and set a major precedent throughout the North.
Seneca the Younger's Letter 47 of his Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, sometimes known as On Master and Slave or On Slavery, is an essayistic look at dehumanization in the context of slavery in ancient Rome. It was a criticism of aspects of Roman slavery, without outright opposition to it, and had a favorable later reception by Enlightenment philosophers and subsequently the 19th century abolitionist movement, though it has also been seen as a proslavery apologia, as well as in the light of the Stoic philosophical idea that "all men are slaves".