George Washington University The Shakespeare Association of America, Inc. Slaves and Subjects in Othello Author(s): Camille Wells Slights Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Winter, 1997), pp. 377-390 Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2871250 Accessed: 03-11-2015 15:28 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. George Washington University, The Shakespeare Association of America, Inc., Johns Hopkins University Press and Folger Shakespeare Library are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Shakespeare Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.225.27.190 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 15:28:27 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Slaves and Subjects in Othello CAMILLE WELLS SLIGHTS ... Shall I say to you, "Let thembe free. "? You will answer, "The slavesare ours."' IN THE LATE-SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES, England became increasinglyinvolved in the slave trade.During the same period,as numer- ous scholarshave argued,a new formof personal identitydeveloped. I want to suggestthat the representationof these phenomena on the earlymodern English stage shows that theyare interconnected.By attendingto these in- terconnections,we can learn a good deal not only about earlymodern sub- jectivitybut also about our own understandingsof libertyand coercion.