Join the History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States speaker series as we feature a presentation with Heather Butina-Sutton.
Whether from fictional places like Catfish Row or the real-life streets of our busiest cities, the image of the Black female huckster has become a symbol of African heritage and cultural pride for much of the Atlantic World. However, their place in the lineage of Black entrepreneurship is still being explored, especially for those who were enslaved and operating in urban port cities like Charleston, South Carolina, during the 18th and 19th centuries. In this presentation, Heather Butina-Sutton will examine how the economic activities of enslaved vendors in Antebellum Charleston maintained the marketplace as a space of Black resistance and defined their profession as a viable pathway toward social and economic mobility.
Heather Butina-Sutton is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Houston, specializing in the entrepreneurial activities of enslaved market women in the Black Atlantic. Her research interests include slavery and racial capitalism, the African diaspora, Women’s studies, and public history. With the support of the Coordinating Council for Women in History’s 2023 Catherine Prelinger Scholarship, Heather is working on the completion of her dissertation, which examines the cultural and economic impact of Black women street vendors in Salvador, Bahia, and Charleston, S.C., from 1750-1888
More details on the presentation to come.
Who can attend?
Open to the public, the campus community, students, postdocs, research scholars, faculty, staff, and alumni.