Mobility and Transculturation in the Americas Cultural and Linguistic Identity of Samaná Americans Since the 19th Century

The history of the Samaná Americans begins in 1824 with their relocation from Philadelphia to the Samaná Peninsula. This was part of Haitian President Boyer's plan to populate the first free black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Only a few decades later, this area became part of the Dominican Republic and was the scene of various nation-building mechanisms. This study, which takes a multidisciplinary approach combining cultural studies, ethnohistory, and sociolinguistics, focuses on the preservation and hybridization of language, linguistic identity, group identity, and collective memory due to displacement and transnational mobility over a period of almost 200 years.

Ann-Kathrin Lauer