Listening in the Archives of Slavery

In Listening in the Archives of Slavery Maria Ryan investigates the diverse musical lives and listening practices of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the British colonial Caribbean, dwelling on what it meant to make music, listen, and be listened to in a place of extreme violence. Despite a historical record overwhelmingly produced from the perspectives of white people who stood to profit from slavery, Ryan insists on using that same record to centralize the listening practices of enslaved people who were learning, theorizing, and judging European music at the same time as they were being listened to. In the process, Ryan argues that histories of music and slavery can nuance long-standing metaphors of archival silence and listening as method, exploring them instead as tactics and experiences of enslaved people.