How did Africans become 'blacks' in the Americas? Becoming Free, Becoming Black tells the story of enslaved and free people of color who used the law to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their loved ones. Their communities challenged slaveholders' efforts to make blackness synonymous with slavery. Looking closely at three slave societies - Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana - Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross demonstrate that the law of freedom - not slavery - established the meaning of blackness in law. Contests over freedom determined whether and how it was possible to move from slave to free status, and whether claims to citizenship would be tied to racial identity. Laws regulating the lives and institutions of free people of color created the boundaries between black and white, the rights reserved to white people, and the degradations imposed only on black people.
This is coming out in January, but I’ve managed to grab an advance reader copy for my holiday reading.
Published by
📗 Started reading Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana by Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross.
Syndicated copies:
📖 Read pages i-13 of Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana by Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross.
The introduction lays out where this intends to go pretty well. This comparative look at history should itself make an interesting contrast to some of the Ibram X. Kendi I’ve been reading lately. I’m quite curious to delve into the particular cases and histories they’ll be laying out.
Syndicated copies:
A little light holiday reading… twitter.com/chrisaldrich/s…