Start Date

11-10-2017 8:30 AM

Keywords

Abolition, rhetoric, modern slavery, Haiti, transnational

Abstract

In his 1998 autobiography, Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American, Jean-Robert Cadet denounces the horrors of modern child slavery as he narrates his life journey. Emotionally, physically, and sexually abused under the restavek system, Cadet migrates with his “masters” to the United States, where he pursues a formal education, joins the army, and acquires a middle-class status.

Today, Cadet has his own organization, dedicated to ending child slavery in Haiti through education and advocacy. In this presentation, I analyze how Cadet adopts conventional genre characteristics of slave narratives and U.S. migration literature in order to enter the American literary tradition and take his abolitionist message to a transnational audience. “Writing himself into being” enables him to construct a new transnational identity that helps him at an emotional and at a vocational level.

Legitimized by his current U.S. middle-class status, Cadet goes back to his personal and diasporic roots to inspire others to join his fight against slavery. His story incorporates the conventions of many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave narratives: the illegitimate origins of the author; the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of restaveks; the cruelty and hypocrisy of the masters; the ramifications of racism and colorism; and education as a means toward freedom.

Cadet also interweaves his process of acculturation into American culture, common to U.S. immigrant narratives, into his journey toward freedom. These themes are all fundamental to Cadet’s commitment to end modern slavery within the American (and international) conceptualization of and resources for social justice.

Finally, I address the following questions: Is Cadet’s adaptation of old abolitionist rhetoric effective in today’s society? Does it captivate modern audiences to the point of generating a new international debate against slavery?

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Nov 10th, 8:30 AM

Transnational Abolitionist Rhetoric to End Modern Slavery

In his 1998 autobiography, Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American, Jean-Robert Cadet denounces the horrors of modern child slavery as he narrates his life journey. Emotionally, physically, and sexually abused under the restavek system, Cadet migrates with his “masters” to the United States, where he pursues a formal education, joins the army, and acquires a middle-class status.

Today, Cadet has his own organization, dedicated to ending child slavery in Haiti through education and advocacy. In this presentation, I analyze how Cadet adopts conventional genre characteristics of slave narratives and U.S. migration literature in order to enter the American literary tradition and take his abolitionist message to a transnational audience. “Writing himself into being” enables him to construct a new transnational identity that helps him at an emotional and at a vocational level.

Legitimized by his current U.S. middle-class status, Cadet goes back to his personal and diasporic roots to inspire others to join his fight against slavery. His story incorporates the conventions of many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave narratives: the illegitimate origins of the author; the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of restaveks; the cruelty and hypocrisy of the masters; the ramifications of racism and colorism; and education as a means toward freedom.

Cadet also interweaves his process of acculturation into American culture, common to U.S. immigrant narratives, into his journey toward freedom. These themes are all fundamental to Cadet’s commitment to end modern slavery within the American (and international) conceptualization of and resources for social justice.

Finally, I address the following questions: Is Cadet’s adaptation of old abolitionist rhetoric effective in today’s society? Does it captivate modern audiences to the point of generating a new international debate against slavery?