Nobody knows but Jesus (and Miss Fanny) : a queer reading of the U.S. female slave archive

Though much has been written across disciplines about chattel slavery within the United States context in the years following (and preceding) Emancipation, little to none of this scholarship has substantively explored the presence and experiences of queer Black women living under this system. Nobody Knows But Jesus (And Miss Fanny): A Queer Reading of the U.S. Female Slave Archive works to address this fracture by readjusting the murky and myopic lens traditionally utilized in scouring the archive and supplementing it with a decidedly queerer one. Evaluation of the ways in which enslaved Black women may have embraced gender nonconformity in the face of persistent misogyny, forged complicated connections with white slaveholding women, and found intraracial solidarity with other African American female slaves offers a means by which to more holistically conceive of the agency and politicized pleasure available to these women even in the midst of (near-) absolute domination.Women's and Gender Studie