Slaves in Paris: Hidden Lives and Fugitive Histories with Miranda Spieler

The George and Irina Schaeffer Center and the Center for Critical Democracy Studies is hosting a book launch for Miranda Spieler’s new work, Slaves in Paris. The event will feature commentary from three distinguished scholars: Anne Lafont (EHESS), Pierre Singaravélou (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Jennifer Boittin (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Slaves in Paris is a pioneering biographical study of enslaved people and their struggle for freedom in prerevolutionary Paris. It traces the lives of fugitive slaves whose clandestine existences nonetheless left behind a remarkable paper trail.

Spieler reconstructs vivid and intimate portraits of men, women, and children who came to Paris from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. The book is both a history of hunted people and a tribute to their extraordinary resilience.