“Underground Railroads to Mexico: Undertold Stories of Freedom & Abolition,” 11/3 Colloquium with Ohio State’s María Esther Hammack

For her November 3 colloquium presentation, Ohio State University Assistant Professor of History María Esther Hammack will geographically re-orient familiar narratives of Black Liberation in 19th-century North America, focusing specifically on the histories of Black women who challenged U.S. slavery and pursued freedom via the underground railroads that led South to Mexico. The talk will be held at 3:30pm in Jesse Hall 410.

Abstract

Narratives of Black Liberation in North America regularly present stories of the Underground Railroad that led North into Canada. This talk will shed light on little-known histories of the underground railroads that led South to Mexico. Centering on Black women who challenged U.S. slavery and their experiences, this talk will offer an overview of how Black Americans pursued and fought for freedom South of U.S. Slavery.

María Esther Hammack is a Mexican scholar and public historian whose work bridges the histories of liberation and abolition that shaped the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Her first book, Channels of Liberation: Freedom Fighters in the Age of Abolition, soon to be under contract with Penn Press, reexamines the Underground Railroad to reconsider and broaden the actors, timelines, and geographies of Black Liberation in North America through the experiences of Black Americans, principally women, who left the United States to claim freedom in Mexican spaces. María has recently finished a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and is set to begin a tenure track faculty position at The Ohio State University this Fall 2023.