Kelly Brignac

Kelly Brignac is a historian of the Atlantic World, particularly the abolition of slavery and the rise of forced labor practices that came after slavery’s end. Her current book project, “Immoral Debt: Abolition, Labor, and the End of Slavery in the French Empire” (forthcoming, University of Pennsylvania Press) investigates the forced indenture of Africans in the French Atlantic and Indian Oceans after the abolition of trans-Atlantic slaving and slavery. Under this system, French administrators and colonists bought enslaved men, women, and children from African slaving markets, then forced the captive into a fourteen-year indenture contract for French colonists. French administrators argued that the practice “redeemed” Africans from slavery, but a close reading of administrative correspondence and indenture contracts reveals that the workers understood themselves to be traded as captives. The project investigates themes of power and coercion in its exploration of the legal mechanisms used to hold Africans in captivity during the age of abolition. Research for the project in France (including the overseas department of Réunion), Senegal, and the U.K. has been generously supported by a number of funders, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright IIE, and Harvard University.

Kelly teaches Atlantic and Global history. Her Atlantic history courses address the growth of trans-Atlantic slaving, plantation and urban slavery across the Americas, and abolition. In her classes, students will learn about the ways that Africans influenced cultures and societies in the Americas, in addition to the impact Atlantic slaving and slavery had on Europe. Her Global History courses focus on the rise of the nation-state and nationalism and the ways in which these artificial political ideas limit the deep history of human migration. More broadly, she is also interested in the history of social movements against racial, gendered, and political oppression. Kelly is motivated by understanding what ideas like “freedom” and “equality” mean to historical actors across time and space. She particularly enjoys teaching students how to read primary sources and how to contribute to historiographical debate. She also works closely with staff at the Colby College Museum of Art to bring the museum’s collections into classroom discussions.

Kelly holds a B.A. in History from Millsaps College, an M.A. in History from Vanderbilt University, and a PhD in History from Harvard University.

Courses Regularly Taught

HI 162: A History of the Atlantic World

HI 264: Africans and the Making of the Atlantic World (previously taught at 100-level)

HI 276: Global History (with a special emphasis on the history of contemporary border crises)

HI 331: Slavery and Capitalism

HI 353: Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Atlantic Slavery

HI 429: A History of How to Change the World

Publications

Immoral Debt: Abolition, Labor, and the End of Slavery in the French Empire (forthcoming, University of Pennsylvania Press)

"Children, Agricultural Labor, and Engagement à Temps in the 1820s Senegal River Valley," Esclavages & Post-esclavages 9 (2024)

“African Indentured Labor in Senegal and Ste. Marie, Madagascar, 1817-1830,” Slavery and Abolition 43, no. 4 (2022)

Awards

2023 Research Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities

2021 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, declined

2020-2021 Center for European Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard

2020 John Carter Brown Library Short-Term Research Fellowship (Virtual, Covid-19)

2019 Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching

2018-2019 Fulbright IIE, France

General Research Interests

Atlantic World; Slavery; Abolition; Forced Labor; Indian Ocean; French Empire