Margot Maddison-MacFadyen
Reclaiming Local Histories of Enslavement in the Maritime Atlantic
Supervisors: Dr. Neil Kennedy, History; Dr. Elizabeth Yeoman, Education; Dr. Robert Finley, English; Dr. Sonja Boon, Gender Studies.
Program Milestones: Research Assistant, 'Nin Tshaukuesh: The Diaries of Elizabeth Penashue', a SSHRC Insight Grant
Research: Born and raised in British Columbia, Margot Maddison-MacFadyen holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University in English Literature and a Master of Education from the University of Victoria in Curriculum Studies, where she also undertook a Post Degree Professional Program and was granted a teaching credential. A teacher for eighteen years, she taught both English and Math in four different schools—two public schools in British Columbia, and two international schools, one in British Columbia and the other in the Turks and Caicos Islands, British West Indies. It was while in the Turks and Caicos Islands that her PhD project, Reclaiming Local Histories of Enslavement in the Maritime Atlantic, found her.
Maddison-MacFadyen will investigate and authenticate the historical dimensions of the enslavement story, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself, and she will disseminate her findings widely through both academic and cultural journals, and through the creation of educational resources for grade 7, 8, and 9 students. She will undertake archival research in the three British Overseas Territories in which her subject, Mary Prince, was enslaved—Bermuda, Grand Turk Island, and Antigua.
Prince worked with an abolitionist writing and editing team to bring her History to the public. First published in 1831, it went to print three times that year, making it a best seller. It played a significant and strategic part in moving British Parliament to pass the Slavery Abolition Act that became law on 1 August 1834. Susanna Strickland (later Moodie, a well-known Canadian author) assisted on the project as a skilled writer and compiler, and Maddison-MacFadyen is also interested in identifying the contributions Strickland-Moodie made to the success of Prince's narrative, not only in the abolitionist movement of the 1820s and early 1830s, but also, potentially, in recent times.
In the main, however, Maddison-MacFadyen is interested in bringing Prince's story forward from memory for educational purposes—to be put in the hands of teachers and the students they teach. A remarkable woman, Prince is the earliest known freed black woman writer from the West Indies to author a slave narrative. And what a story! Rich in detail, hers is a story of transcendence. In spite of the cruelty, callousness, and injustice meted out to her by her slave-owners, she is victorious in the end. Hers is a counter-story that can fill a gap that currently exists in children's literature.
Discipline: Education, English, History and Gender Studies
Links:
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2008) Toiling in the Salt Ponds: The Grand Turk years of Mary Prince. Times of the Islands. 84: 77-88.
http://www.timespub.tc/2008/09/toiling-in-the-salt-ponds
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2011) Piecing Together the Puzzle: The Antiguan Years of Mary Prince. Times of the Islands. 94: 44-48.
http://www.timespub.tc/2011/03/piecing-together-the-puzzle
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2011) Looking for Annie Saint in Bonavista. The Newfoundland Quarterly. 103(4): 14-17.
http://www.newfoundlandquarterly.ca/issue439/anniesaint.php
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2012). 'Mary Prince, Grand Turk, and Antigua',
Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, DOI:10.1080/0144039X.2012.736697
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2012.736697
Awards and Prizes
Finalist 2013 Winston Collins/Descant Prize for Best Canadian Poem
Honourable Mention 2012 Canadian Stories Magazine for Best Self-published Book
Publications
Refereed Contributions
Margot Maddison-MacFadyen. (2013). ‘This white woman has journeyed far: Serendipity, counter-stories, hauntings, and ekphrasis as a type of poetic inquiry’. Morning Watch Journal of Educational and Social Analysis, Special Edition: Narratives of becoming a researcher (forthcoming).
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2012). 'Mary Prince, Grand Turk, and Antigua',
Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, DOI:10.1080/0144039X.2012.736697
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2009). 'Mary Prince and Grand Turk'. The Bermuda Journal of Archaeology and Maritime Studies, 19: 102-123.
Cultural Journals
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2013). 'The Beautiful Golden-Brown Women of a Gauguin Painting'. Stone Voices, (forthcoming).
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2012). 'Turks Islands' Salt, Enslavement, and the Newfoundland-West Indies Trade'. The Newfoundland Quarterly, 105 (1): 40-44.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2011). 'Looking for Annie Saint in Bonavista'. The Newfoundland Quarterly, 103 (4): 14-17.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2011). 'Piecing Together the Puzzle: The Antiguan years of Mary Prince'. Times of the Islands, 94: 44-48.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2008). 'Toiling in the Salt Ponds: The Grand Turk years of Mary Prince'. Times of the Islands, 84: 77-88.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2008). 'Yearning for Freedom: The legacy of Mary Prince'. Times of the Islands, 83: 61-69.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2008). 'A Study in Determination: the Story of British West Indies Collegiate'. Times of the Islands, 82: 83-92.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (1995). Three Poems: 'Raven-Hearted'; 'Hibiscus Woman'; '20th Century Martyr'. Forum, 4(1): 63-66.
Anthologies
Leathwood, Andy, Margot Maddison-MacFadyen, and Anne Waters. (2004). 'Analyzing Fictional Characters for Social Responsibility'. In Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert (Eds.) Network of Performance-Based Schools: Findings and Stories. 4th ed. Victoria: BC Ministry of Education: 111-112.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2003). 'New and Wonderful Me.'. In Heather Haake and Karen Bissenden (Eds.), Write Off the Bat: Writing from South Central and South East BC. Castlegar: NIB: 52-54.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (1993). 'The Heat Beating from the Radiator of Her Heart: Transformation and Reclamation of the Self Through the Arts'. In Margot Maddison-MacFadyen (Ed.) Parnassus '93. Victoria: Faculty of Education, University of Victoria: 8-15.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (1991). 'A Sensational Time'. In Aggregate: An East Kootenay Anthology. Kimberley: Kimberley Writers' Group: 4-8.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (1991). 'Audrey'. In Aggregate: An East Kootenay Anthology. Kimberley: Kimberley Writers' Group: 3.
Self-published
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2002). When the Circus Comes to Town and Other Stories. Kaslo, BC: Blue Geranium.
Maddison-MacFadyen, Margot. (2012). 'Mary Prince, Grand Turk, and Antigua',
Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, DOI:10.1080/0144039X.2012.736697
