Taylor Wilson Thompson

“The Choreography of Capital” mobilizes Black feminist theory and performance studies methods to critically approach American Reconstruction economic history anew. The dissertation studies how nineteenth century Black cooperative and mutual aid organizations created their own uniquely Black, radical visions of free labor and labor value in the wake of emancipation. By deploying Black feminist performance studies methods this project reveals how Black nineteenth century mutual aid burial societies and agricultural cooperatives measured, communicated, and re-imagined the value of their labor and lives specifically through bodily, aesthetic, and vocal rituals—in other words, through performance. Ultimately, they transformed Black life and labor into categories of living beyond value and measure.