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Christophorus Castanis

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Christophorus Plato Castanis (Greek: Χριστόφορος Πλάτων Καστανής; 1814–1866; also known as Christophoros Castanis or Castanes and Christoforos Kastanis or Kastanes) was an Ottoman Greek academic, author and classicist.[1] Castanis was born at Livadia, Chios on 1 April 1814 and lived much of his life in the United States.[2] He published an autobiography titled The Greek Exile in 1851, which told of his survival of the Chios massacre, his time in Ottoman slavery, and his emigration to America.[3][4][5]

Christophorus Plato Castanis
Christophorus Plato Castanis
Born(1814-04-01)1 April 1814
Chios, Ottoman Empire
Died1866 (aged 51–52)
OccupationWriter
Known forRunaway Slave,
Lecturer
Spouse
Rutha H. Clark
​
(m. 1844⁠–⁠1866)​

Personal life

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Castanis was born to a wealthy Chiot family, and was one of eight siblings.[6] He was privately educated and one of his tutors was a member of the Filiki Eteria.[6] In 1822, during the Chios massacre, Castanis was captured and sold into slavery, where he was forcibly converted to Islam.[7][8] According to his autobiography, Castanis made an escape and was reunited with his mother. They eventually fled on a Cephalonian ship and met with American relief agents at Nafplio.[9][10] American abolitionist and Philhellene Samuel Gridley Howe sponsored his migration to the US, along with Garafilia Mohalbi and John Celivergos Zachos.[11][12] According to Castanis, around forty Greek orphans emigrated to the United States in similar circumstances during this period.[13] Some modern scholars, including Gonda Van Steen and Foteini Tomai, verify this, although question the nature of their 'orphan' status.[14] Castanis married American Rutha H. Clark in Worcester, MA on 22 October 1844.[15][16] Castanis died in the US in 1866.[17]

Career

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Castanis arrived in New York City in 1831, and attended Mount Pleasant Classical Institute.[11] He also attended Yale and Amherst College.[2] In 1839 Castanis held a speaking tour, where he delivered lectures on Greek Independence.[18][19] Many of his written works also dealt with Greek Independence. For example, Washington, DC's The Republic newspaper reported on his 1849 book, Oriental Amusing, Instructive, and Moral Literary Dialogues: Comprising the Love and Disappointment of a Turk of Rank in the City of Washington, claiming it "…is made the vehicle, in a conversational form, of conveying the expression of the author’s republican sympathies in behalf of Greece and Turkey, as well as of discussing some philological questions, intended to prove that modern Greeks pronounce their language as the ancients did."[20]

Other Greek American Slaves

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See also

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Published works

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  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, "Caroussis: An Authentic Sketch of the Massacre at Scio", The Knickerbocker; or, New-York Monthly Magazine, Vol. XVII(1), New York, January 1841, 69–70. See in Google books
  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, An Essay on the Ancient and Modern Greek Languages: Containing Remarks on the Accents, Pronunciation and Versification of the Greek Languages, with Historical Notices, Etc. To which is Added Extracts from Modern Greek Authors; Christopoulos on Versification; an Oration Delivered Before the New York Legislature; and a Guide to Acquire a Knowledge of the Modern Greek, Allen, Morrill & Wardwell, Andover, Massachusetts, 1844. See in Google books
  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, Interpretations of the Attributes of the Principal Fabulous Deities: With an Essay on the History of Mythology, William Hyde, Portland, Oregon, 1844. See in Google books
  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, A Love Tale: The Jewish Maiden of Scio's Citadel; or, The Eastern Star, and the Albanian Chief, Philergomathia, 1845. See in Google books
  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, Oriental Amusing, Instructive, and Moral Literary Dialogues: Comprising the Love and Disappointment of a Turk of Rank in the City of Washington, John Putnam, Boston, 1849–1850. See in Google books
  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, The Greek Exile; or, A Narrative of the Captivity and Escape of Christophorus Plato Castanis, During the Massacre on the Island of Scio, by the Turks, Together with Various Adventures in Greece and America, Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., Philadelphia, 1851. See in Google books
  • Christophorus Plato Castanis, The Greek Boy and the Sunday-School: Comprising ceremonies of the Greek church, mode of baptism, communion, picture-worship, etc., William S. Martien, Philadelphia, 1852. See in Worldcat

References

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  1. ^ George Kaloudis, Modern Greece and the Diaspora Greeks in the United States, Lexington Books, Lanham, Boulder, New York & London, 2018, p. 31.
  2. ^ a b "Christophorus Plato Castanis", AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) History ("Built with love by the Brother Knights in Tenafly, NJ"). Note: Livadia is a northern suburb of the town of Chios, see the section on Vrontados here.
  3. ^ Castanis, Christophorus Plato, The Greek Exile, Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., Philadelphia, 1851.
  4. ^ Evangelia Kindinger, "’Only Stones and Stories Remain’: Greek American (Travel) Writing about Greece", Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, 12, 2011; available here (University of Regensburg).
  5. ^ Vicky Johnson Gatzouras, Family Matters in Greek American Literature, PhD thesis, Blekinge Institute of Technology and Göteborg University, 2007, p. 14; available here (Pennsylvania State University).
  6. ^ a b Castanis, The Greek Exile, 21.
  7. ^ Castanis, The Greek Exile, 44–58.
  8. ^ Yiorgos D Kalogeras (Kaloyeras), "’Eleni’: Hellenizing the subject, westernizing the discourse", MELUS, 18(2), Oxford University Press, 77–89, at 83–5. doi:10.2307/467935.
  9. ^ Castanis, The Greek Exile, 68–70, 92 & 100.
  10. ^ Birgül Koçak Oksev, "Meaning and Context: Anglo-American Perception of the Ottoman Slave Markets Through the Greek Question in the Abolition Era", International Journal of Turcologia, 10(19), Spring 2015, 5–26.
  11. ^ a b George J. Leber, The History of the Order of AHEPA (The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association), 1922–1972: Including the Greeks in the New World, and Immigration to the United States (Washington, DC: The Order of AHEPA, 1972), 49. A PDF file of the book is available here.
  12. ^ See: William Miller, "Additions to Modern Greek History in the ’Gennadeion’", The Journal of Modern History, 9(1), 1937, 56 onwards. doi:10.1086/600632. See also:
    • CWJ Eliot, "Howe, Greece, and Byron’s Helmet", Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 10(2), 1992, 197–204: See here
    • Maureen Connors Santelli, "3. Philhellenism Joins with American Benevolence", The Greek Fire, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2020, pp. 83–115. doi:10.1515/9781501715808-005.
    • Maureen Connors Santelli, "4. Philhellenes Clash with American Commerce", The Greek Fire, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2020, pp. 116–151. doi:10.1515/9781501715808-006.
  13. ^ Castanis, The Greek Exile, 131-6.
  14. ^ '1821: Τα ορφανά, ο Φιλελληνισμός και οι παρεμβάσεις των ξένων', Neos Kosmos, 26 March 2021; Gonda Van Steen, Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece, University of Michigan Press, 2019, p. 140, See book preview here. See also:
    • "Extensions of Remarks", GPO, 29 March 1971, p. 8480:
    See here[dubious – discuss]
    • Order of AHEPA, The 1821 Greek War of Independence and America's Contributions to the Greek Cause, 1971, p. 46, See here.
  15. ^ Emmanuel Paraschos, The First Greeks of Boston, Boston, April 2011: See included primary source collection on Castanias, which includes Castanis' marriage certificate
  16. ^ Evangelia Kindinger, "Of Dópia and Xéni: Strategies of Belonging in Greek-American Return Narratives", Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 20(2), 2011, 389–415; here (behind paywall) at Project Muse.
  17. ^ Emmanuel Paraschos, The First Greeks of Boston, Boston, April 2011: See included primary source collection on Castanias
  18. ^ George Kaloudis, Modern Greece and the Diaspora Greeks in the United States, Lexington Books, Lanham, Boulder, New York & London, 2018, p. 31. See also:
    • Maureen Connors Santelli, "5. Abolitionism, Reform, and Philhellenic Rhetoric", in The Greek Fire, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2020, pp. 152–193. doi:10.1515/9781501715808-007.
    • Peter W Topping, "Modern Greek Studies and Materials in the United States", Byzantion, 15, 1940–41, 414–42; JSTOR 44168534.
  19. ^ Untitled announcement, The Daily Union (Washington [D.C.]), 21 May 1845. Within the third of the seven columns of the page shown here, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
  20. ^ "Pamphlets of the Day", The Republic (Washington [D.C.]), 27 November 1849. Within the second of the seven columns of the page shown here, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
  21. ^ "The Little Greek Boy" (PDF). American Traveller Vol. 3 No. 55. Digital Academic Archive. 8 January 1828. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
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