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Toward a Sociology of Colonial Subjectivity: Political Agency in Haiti and Liberia
Abstract
The authors seek to connect global historical sociology with racial formation theory to examine how antislavery movements fostered novel forms of self-government and justifications for state formation. The cases of Haiti and Liberia demonstrate how enslaved and formerly enslaved actors rethought modern politics at the time, producing novel political subjects in the process. Prior to the existence of these nations, self-determination by black subjects in colonial spaces was impossible, and each sought to carve out that possibility in the face of a transatlantic structure of slavery. This work demonstrates how Haitian and Liberian American founders responded to colonial structures, though in Liberia reproducing them albeit for their own ends. The authors demonstrate the importance of colonial subjectivities to the discernment of racial structures and counter-racist action. They highlight how anticolonial actors challenged global antiblack oppression and how they legitimated their self-governance and freedom on the world stage. Theorizing from colonized subjectivities allows sociology to begin to understand the politics around global racial formations and starts to incorporate histories of black agency into the sociological canon.
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“This too must be seen as a legacy of empire: the dialogic if not dialectical creation of anticolonial liberation movements critiquing the dark side of modernity and experimenting with novel forms of cosmopolitanism, creating transnational, cross-ethnic and transracial solidarities, and offering new political imaginaries and visions (Hammer and White 2018; Getachew 2019; Go 2013a, 2023).”
From Reverberations of Empire: How the Colonial Past Shapes the Present (2024) · cites this paper as Hammer and White 2018
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Cited by
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Margalef, F. S. (2024) · Compàs d'amalgama · doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00002722 · Cited by 98
Reverberations of Empire: How the Colonial Past Shapes the Present
Go, J. (2024) · Social Science History · doi:10.1017/ssh.2023.37 · Cited by 35
“…liberation movements critiquing the dark side of modernity and experimenting with novel forms of cosmopolitanism, creating transnational, cross-ethnic and transracial solidarities, and offering new political imaginaries and visions (Hammer and White 2018; Getachew 2019; Go 2013a, 2023).”
BackgroundAnticolonial thought, the sociological imagination, and social science: A reply to critics
Go, J. (2023) · British Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1111/1468-4446.13025 · Cited by 13
Maroon Movements Against Empire
Eddins, C. (2022) · Journal of World-Systems Research · doi:10.5195/jwsr.2022.1108 · Cited by 7
White, A. I. R. (2021) · Theory and society · doi:10.1007/s11186-021-09454-0 · Cited by 6
Self-citationCenteno, M., Chase-Dunn, C., Chorev, N., Grell-Brisk, M., Inoue, H., Larcey, P., Reyes, V., & Surak, K. (2020) · Global Perspectives · doi:10.1525/001c.11649 · Cited by 4
“Often trading on "symbiotic sovereignties" (Palan 2002) or federated systems, places like the state of Nevada, the Cayman Islands, the city of London, the island of Jersey, and the state of New Jersey offer legal devices that separate juridical residence from physical presence, enabling…”
BackgroundSpecifying Race: The Colonial Constitution of Race in a Set-Theoretic Framework
Vincent, L. (2025) · Sociological theory · doi:10.1177/07352751251395706 · Cited by 3
“This perspective reaffirms the importance of transnational racial configurations that sociologists have emphasized (Go 2018, 2020; Hammer 2017; Hammer and White 2019; Magubane 2016; quisumbing king 2019; quisumbing king and White 2021).”
Wendepunkte der Moderne: Refiguration und Transformation in der Karibik
Santos, F., & Boatcă, M. (2025) · Berliner Journal für Soziologie · doi:10.1007/s11609-025-00552-9 · Cited by 4
Jensen, K., & Watson, J. (2025) · Sociology of Race and Ethnicity · doi:10.1177/23326492241310167 · Cited by 2
“Alongside actors like political elites and activ-ists (Hammer and White 2019; Paschel 2016), and arenas like formal policymaking (Bashi Treitler 2004; FitzGerald and Cook-Martín 2014; Mongia 2018; Watson 2018), we shift attention to the meaning-making of frontline administrators.”
Rethinking Historical Sociology
Hammer, R., & Itzigsohn, J. (2024) · Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race · doi:10.1017/s1742058x24000110 · Cited by 2
Self-citationKaur, H., & Tran, V. (2023) · Sociology Compass · doi:10.1111/soc4.13069 · Cited by 2
Bohrt, M. A. (2021) · Political Power and Social Theory · doi:10.1108/s0198-871920210000038004 · Cited by 2
Refugees Together and Citizens Apart
Pasquetti, S. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780190638047.001.0001 · Cited by 2
Jensen, K. (2025) · Ethnic and Racial Studies · doi:10.1080/01419870.2025.2519801 · Cited by 1
“…highlighting interconnected linkages of global racial orders with national contexts and local dynamics of racial hierarchy and resistance (Christian 2019; Hammer and White 2019; Jensen and Watson 2025; Kusumaryati 2021), this article situated Confederate de/commemoration on the world stage.”
Plys, K. V. M. (2023) · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · doi:10.1177/0308518x231187389 · Cited by 1
Cruel and Usual: Recursive Racial Cruelty at the US Immigration Courts.
Islam, N. N. (2026) · British Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1111/1468-4446.70120
Schoots, J. (2024) · Theory and society · doi:10.1007/s11186-024-09577-0
“In short they had to transform political imagination to “make black freedom thinkable” (Hammer and White 2019, 219; see also Trouillot, 2015, Chap.”
Hammer, R. (2023) · British Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1111/1468-4446.13018
Self-citationInterrogating Liberal Theories of Rights
Zambakari, C. D. (2020) · doi:10.1080/1369801x.2020.1753550
Metadata
- Authors
- Hammer, R., & White, A. I. R.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hammer, Ricarda
- Venue
- Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-09-24
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 215-228
- ISSN
- 2332-6492 (ISSN-L)
- 2332-6506
- OpenAlex
- W2893824001
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 4.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Race, History, and American Society
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Caribbean history, culture, and politics
- Keywords
- colonial subjectivity, political agency, abolitionism, racial formation theory, self-government, state formation, Haiti, Liberia, Black agency, transatlantic slavery
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