Born Criminals: Juvenile Criminal Culpability and the Antebellum Male Slave Narrative

Lucia Hodgson

Texas A&M University

Lucia Hodgson is an Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M University and founder and convener of the Critical Childhood Studies Working Group at the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. She is author of Raised in Captivity: Why Does America Fail Its Children? (Graywolf Press, 1997) and an essay on Phillis Wheatley in Early American Literature. She is working on two book manuscripts: “Age of Consent: Slavery, Seduction, and True Girlhood in Antebellum American Literature” and "Born Criminals: Contract, Race and Boyhood in the Antebellum Slave Narrative." Her work has been supported by a Huntington Library Fellowship. 

Abstract

The question of juvenile criminality presents a paradox for child advocates. To hold a child accountable for a criminal act discounts the effects of the child’s familial and cultural climate on his/her behavior. Children... [ view full abstract ]

Authors

  1. Lucia Hodgson (Texas A&M University)

Topic Area

Childhood Teleologies: Climates of Growth

Session

S7a » Seminar 7.a: Childhood Teleologies: Climates of Growth I (15:45 - Friday, 23rd March, Boardroom East)

Presentation Files

The presenter has not uploaded any presentation files.