2024/05/03 by Johanna A. Pacyga · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #African history and culture studies #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
paper · doi:10.1080/21619441.2024.2400822
openalex publication_date 2024/05/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
A series of abolition and emancipation moments occurred over the nineteenth century, shifting orientations and structures of labor. The Agricultural Colony of St. Joseph, a Catholic mission in Senegal, illuminates some of the ways in which abolition rippled across the globe. Founded in 1863, St. Joseph’s was envisioned as a place where both proselytization and economic development would flourish. The mission was conceived of as a cotton plantation to address the international cotton shortage resulting from American Civil War. Cultivation was carried out by neophytes, most of whom were formerly enslaved individuals or refugees. This article explores the social and economic implications and repercussions of the St. Joseph cotton experiment, exploring how overseas abolition and emancipation shaped a nascent colonial community. Two interconnected histories emerge: one about the global economy, and the other a local narrative about the ways in which entanglement in missionization produced a new community.