Frances Bella

Frances Bell is a PhD candidate in History at William & Mary, specializing in the legalities of slavery and mobility during the Haitian Revolution. Her dissertation, 'In a State of Flight’: The Struggle for Freedom in the Haitian Diaspora, 1791-1830,' explores how enslaved Haitians pursued legal and extra-legal freedom after being taken to the United States by enslavers fleeing the revolution. Her research highlights the precarity of legal freedom in the revolutionary Atlantic and the role of individual mobility struggles in shaping slavery's legal frameworks.