Introduction

The introduction explores the classical diaspora—the dispersion of Jews—then shows how its modern incarnations elucidate the lives of disparate people and nations. A crucial event was the Middle Passage, which necessitated enslaved Africans and their descendants to renegotiate, reimagine, and reconstitute from the shards of history new identities in the Americas. The introduction teases out issues of what is home, where is home, who belongs where, and how do migration and transnationalism define and redefine the amorphous but crucial signifier home. For people of the diasporas, the quest for home involves leaving their place of birth to find a transnational home abroad. The introduction illustrates how one discrete case, the story of the English settler Hannah Duston, problematizes concepts of home, colonialism, and deterritorialization, and was appropriated by Puritan New Englanders as a Jewish exilic, captivity narrative, and a story of deliverance. Finally, the introduction assesses how each chapter in the volume addresses ideas of home, diaspora, and the transnational.