'Masculinity, Physicality and Disability: Shifting Experiences and Ideologies within the Antebellum South, 1800-1861'

My doctoral research will explore how racialised constructions of masculinity, disability and physicality
shaped the different forms of labour, treatment, community positions and resistance of enslaved men in
the Antebellum U.S. South. This project hinges on the assertion that Antebellum pro-slavery and
abolitionist discourse, such as that discussed by men like Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland
Garnett, intrinsically linked black masculinity with physical ability - whether that was the strength to
labour, resist or protect / provide. The impact of this disharmony between slaveowner and enslaved
perceptions of what actions / characteristics made a man and the supposed inability of disabled enslaved
men to fulfil such expectations underpins this study. I seek to understand whether disabled men
performed actions separate from physicality to assert an identity / position and whether disability shaped
the institution of slavery. Were these alternative methods challenged or perceived as 'unmanly' by others
or by themselves? My study shall focus upon men who were congenitally disabled, as well as those who
became physically disabled, 'weak' or 'crippled' later in life, whether through injury, illness, or age. This
work significantly develops wider themes within the field of slavery studies, such as community and
master/enslaved relations. This analysis also speaks to wider intersectional themes within disability
studies by emphasising the role that perception and community judgement plays in shaping narratives of
inclusion/exclusion.