The Man Who Stole Himself

August 22, 2016
Scandinavia and slavery are rarely connected in the public imagination, but in this intriguing work of microhistory, Palsson, professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland, reminds readers that Denmark possessed Caribbean sugar plantation colonies as he shares the tale of Hans Jonathan, a mixed-race man born into slavery on St. Croix in 1784. Jonathan was brought to Copenhagen in 1792 and treated humanely by the standards of the era, being taught to read and write and allowed to spend his evenings out of the house with friends. But when his owner, Henriette von Schimmelmann, refused to allow him to fight against the attacking English in 1801, Jonathan ran away. Schimmelmann won a court case confirming ownership of the young man, but Jonathan was allowed to depart Denmark and head to Iceland, where he established himself as a farmer and businessman, married a local woman, and founded a family line that persists in Iceland today. Through this engaging tale of one man’s attempts to find a home as a man of color in 19th-century Scandinavia, Palsson uses Jonathan’s previously obscure but picaresque life as a lens through which to examine questions of imperialism, slavery, race, and cultural identity.

August 1, 2016

Palsson (anthropology, Univ. of Iceland; Nature, Culture, and Society: Anthropological Perspectives on Life) presents a biography of Hans Jonathan (1784-1827), a former slave who eventually escaped to freedom in Iceland in 1805. Jonathan was born into slavery at a plantation in St. Croix and was then taken to his owner's home country of Denmark as a young man. After joining the Danish Navy against his owner's will and taking part in the Battle of Copenhagen, Jonathan later pursued and eventually lost a legal case for his freedom in the Danish courts. Jonathan fled to the relative safety of Iceland, where he was accepted by the community and established himself as a freedman, working as a store manager and farmer and later starting a family. Palsson's well-researched, incisive, and revealing narrative deftly utilizes Jonathan's rich story to examine broader issues including the history of the Danish slave trade, the slow progress of abolition, and 19th-century views on skin color and mixed-race identity. VERDICT Best suited to history fans and researchers interested in the history of slavery, the lived experience of slaves and freedmen, colonialism, and racism.--Ingrid Levin, Salve Regina Univ. Lib., Newport, RI

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