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Bram Hubbell

@bramhubbell.com

1.1K followers 300 following 300 posts

he/him * Husband & father 🧑‍🧑‍🧒 World historian 🗺️ Teacher 👨‍🏫 Pilgrim 🧳 Yogi 🧘🏻‍♂️ Writer of Liberating Narratives https://www.bramhubbell.com https://www.liberatingnarratives.com

www.bramhubbell.com

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Dec 1

Lots of folks have been following me and are new to Bluesky, so let me introduce myself. 🧵
I'm Bram Hubbell, and I'm a world historian. I primarily write Liberating Narratives, a newsletter for world history teachers.

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 1d

Or my hometown - Worcester, MA

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 1d

Houston St in New York City!

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 1d

I don’t think enough historians consider what a hyphen in Afroeurasia implies. If we really believe in teaching the interconnected history of Africa, Asia, and Europe, it’s time to stop using “Afro-Eurasia” and start using Afroeurasia.

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 1d

Too often world historians use “Afro-Eurasia” with a hyphen. That hyphen has an ugly history. It’s time to start using Afrouerasia.
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www.liberatingnarratives.com/the-problem-...

The Problem with Hyphenating Afroeurasia

Hyphens suggest otherness; Afroeurasia has a long interconnected history

www.liberatingnarratives.com

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 8d

I listened to the interview. Coates was spot on with his recommendations about what to do.

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 8d

Most definitely! When I was a union negotiator we had a policy of limiting the top salary in relation to the bottom salary. We need that in the US!

jacobin.com/2025/10/maxi...

We Desperately Need Maximum Wage Laws

With wealth inequality and billionaire control over American society growing ever more obscene, it’s well past time to implement a maximum wage limit.

jacobin.com

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 15d

I always enjoyed teaching the Haitian Revolution. The topic always excited students, and the resources are great.

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 15d

New free post!
Everyone should know about the Haitian Revolution - here are five resources for learning more or for classroom use
🗺️🗃️
#histodons
www.liberatingnarratives.com/...

Five Excellent Resources for Teaching or Learning about the Haitian Revolution

Learn more about the significance and legacies of the Haitian Revolution

www.liberatingnarratives.com

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 15d

Excellent op-ed by Roxanne Gay
“Civility Is a Fantasy”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/opinion/civility-fantasy-power-kirk.html

Text Shot: Calling for civility is about exerting power. It is a way of reminding the powerless that they exist at the will of those in power and should act accordingly. It is a demand for control.

Civility is wielded as a cudgel to further clarify the differences between “us” and “them.” It is the demand of people with thin skin who don’t want their delicate egos and impoverished ideas challenged. And it is a tool of fearful leaders, clinging to power with desperate, sweaty hands, thrilled at the ways they are forcing people, corporations and even other nations to bend to their will but terrified at what will happen when it all slips away.

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 22d

In 1818, Antoine Metral, a Haitian historian, wrote this account. He borrowed from Dalmas, but he also added the priestess who appears in most images of the ceremony

It is reported that before carrying out the plan, they made a sacrifice on a virgin soil and covered with wood, called le Caïman; that the victim was a black pig whom they surrounded with fetishes, and loaded with offerings of various kinds; that a young priestess, dressed in a white robe, plunged the sacred knife into her bowels according to the customary ceremonies; that they drank with acidity of his blood, and that they took from his hair, a sort of talisman which was to make them invulnerable in combat.

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 22d

In 1793 or 1794, Antoine Dalmas, the surgeon at the nearby Gallifet plantation, wrote this account of the ceremony

They celebrated a kind of feast or sacrifice in the middle of an uncultivated wooded plot on the Choiseul plantation, called le Caïman, where a very large number of slaves gathered. A black pig, surrounded by spirit objects, each loaded with offerings more bizarre than the next, was the offering made to the all powerful spirit of the black race. The religious ceremonies that the slaves practiced in slaughtering it, their greed to drink its blood, their eagerness to have some of its bristles as a kind of talisman that, according to them, would make them invulnerable, are all characteristics of the African.

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 22d

The night before the enslaved Africans on Haiti launched their revolt, they held a ceremony at Bois-Caïman. There are lots of paintings of this ceremony that was central to the revolution. The ceremony was one more example of how the enslaved Africans weren't inspired by the Enlightenment

Ernst Prophete’s painting of the ceremony at Bois-Caïman the night before the Haitian Revolution began

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 22d

Last week I wrote about the causes of the Haitian Revolution and got lots of great feedback. Thanks 🙏

I also had a couple of sources I left out and wanted to share.
🗺️🗃️
#histodons
www.liberatingnarratives.com/...

The Enlightenment Didn’t Cause the Haitian Revolution

Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue had many reasons to revolt... the Enlightenment wasn't one of them

www.liberatingnarratives.com

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Reposted by Bram Hubbell

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24d

Teaching global feminism in world history is like teaching resistance by enslaved
Africans or colonized peoples. It should be our default approach. Women (and a few men) have consistently challenged patriarchy and pushed for greater equality.
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www.liberatingnarratives.com/souls-are-ne...

“Souls are neither Male nor Female”: Teaching Global Feminism in World History, c.1750 to Present

Discussion of teaching global feminism from 1750 to present

www.liberatingnarratives.com

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 27d

@juliagaffield.bsky.social

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 28d

One more reason I love @footballweekly.bsky.social
Great to hear from @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social even if I’m a Spurs fan and he’s an Arsenal fan

The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast @footballweekly.bsky.social · 28d

“I have long been quite troubled by how the supposed stewards of the game have opted for profit time and time again."

New York City mayoral candidate @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social speaks about the public petition he has launched against Fifa’s use of dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets.

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 29d

Thanks 🙏

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 29d

Thanks. I owe so much to scholars like you who have helped me better understand the Haitian Revolution. I always tell people my writing is about taking other people’s arguments and making it more accessible to students and teachers.

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 29d

You can read a little more about my decision here
micro.liberatingnarratives.com/2025/09/05/m...

More Liberating Narratives

During the summer, a friend told me that more people should …

micro.liberatingnarratives.com

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · 29d

I'm trying a new experiment and sharing Liberating Narratives free posts on Substack and Medium. I know lots of people use those platforms. Everything I post will still be available on the main site.

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 29d

New post!
Too often students assume enslaved Africans revolted on Saint-Domingue because they were inspired by the Enlightenment or the other Atlantic Revolutions. They didn't.
🗺️🗃️
www.liberatingnarratives.com/enlightenmen...

The Enlightenment Didn’t Cause the Haitian Revolution

Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue had many reasons to revolt... the Enlightenment wasn't one of them

www.liberatingnarratives.com

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Sep 7

I taught @rodger.bsky.social
Fun to see him pop up on your timeline with a historical connection

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Sep 5

Already planning on it!

Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Sep 5

Finishing up these two new excellent books.

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Reposted by Bram Hubbell

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · Sep 5

New post! I discuss how we can teach the influence of African women on the slave trade using Crispina Peres. I draw heavily on the work of Toby Green.
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www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-single-bla...

“A Single Black Woman”: African Women and the Portuguese Slave Trade in Sixteenth-Century West Africa

Teaching how African women influenced the slave trade in seventeenth-century West Africa

www.liberatingnarratives.com

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Sep 4

This episode was great! I’m thinking about how some of his ideas about Asia relate to our project on East Asian foreign policy

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Sep 3

Devin Leigh has written an excellent module on Women and Anti-colonialism in Africa. I love the primary sources here.

www.history21.com/owit-module/...

Women and Anti-Colonialism in Africa – NEW! – History for the 21st Century

www.history21.com

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Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell.com · Sep 3

They just published four new case studies. One of them is on the Black Death, and @monicamedhist.bsky.social (Monica Green) wrote it. There’s some helpful materials there if you want to include a more scientific approach to the Black Death

www.history21.com/owit-module/...

The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic – NEW! – History for the 21st Century

www.history21.com

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