Native Ground. Moses Roper, Fugitive abolitionist; emancipatory activism, anti-slavery radicalism and and Print Culture in Wales

The project examines an unstudied aspect of black history and literary culture, namely the emancipatory
writing and activism of Moses Roper, the first African-American fugitive to flee to the UK and publish his
autobiography there. It considers the ways in which Roper laid the groundwork for an emancipatory
politics and grass-roots actism given shape by national and regional contexts, and by tapping into nonconformist
religious networks rather than organized anti-slavery. As significanctly, it examines how Roper
mobilized the Welsh and English language press in his campaigning, and how therefore black fugitive
writing took shape and went native within Welsh print culture.