ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book examines representations of the ancient Queen of Sheba, who is referenced across the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and is associated with both present-day Ethiopia and Yemen, two countries separated by the Red Sea. It interrogates the “legend of Lucy Negro” in Elizabethan England and the possibility that she may have been the inspiration behind William Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady” sonnets. The book explores cultural memory and revisionist histories from precolonial Africa to the era of the transatlantic slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic. It narrates the bravery of 16-year-old Felicite Kina from Martinique, who traveled to France while pregnant to be near her husband and stepson, who were jailed alongside Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. The book covers the nineteenth century, which intensified concepts of race that correlated with more entrenched gender roles and definitions.
