In this provocative & original exploration of racial subjugation during slavery & its aftermath Saidiya Hartman illumines the forms of terror & resistance that shaped black identity Scenes of Subjection examines the forms of domination that usually go undetected; in particular the encroachments of power that take place through notions of humanity enjoyment protection rights & consent By looking at slave narratives plantation diaries popular theater slave performance freedmen's primers & legal cases Hartman investigates a wide variety of scenes ranging from the auction block & minstrel show to the staging of the self-possessed & rights-bearing individual of freedom While attentive to the performance of power-the terrible spectacles of slaveholders' dominion & the innocent amusements designed to abase & pacify the enslaved-and the entanglements of pleasure & terror in these displays of mastery Hartman also examines the possibilities for resistance redress & transformation embodied in black performance & everyday practice This important study contends that despite the legal abolition of slavery emergent notions of individual will & responsibility revealed the tragic continuities between slavery & freedom Bold & persuasively argued Scenes of Subjection will engage readers in a broad range of historical literary & cultural studies