The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade (The Early Modern Americas)

Description

During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, vibrant port cities became home to thousands of Africans in transit. Free and enslaved blacks alike crafted the necessary materials to support transoceanic commerce and labored as stevedores, carters, sex workers, and boarding-house keepers. Even though Africans continued to be exchanged as chattel, urban frontiers allowed a number of enslaved blacks to negotiate the right to hire out their own time, often greatly enhancing their autonomy within the Atlantic commercial system. In The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade, eleven original essays by leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Latin America chronicle the black experience in Atlantic ports, providing a rich and diverse portrait of the ways in which Africans experienced urban life during the era of plantation slavery. Describing life in Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Africa, this volume illuminates the historical identity, agency, and autonomy of the African experience as well as the crucial role Atlantic cities played in the formation of diasporic cultures. By shifting focus away from plantations, this volume poses new questions about the nature of slavery in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, illustrating early modern urban spaces as multiethnic sites of social connectivity, cultural incubation, and political negotiation. Contributors: Trevor Burnard, Mariza de Carvalho Soares, Matt D. Childs, Kevin Dawson, Roquinaldo Ferreira, David Geggus, Jane Landers, Robin Law, David Northrup, João José Reis, James H. Sweet, Nicole von Germeten. Cover Title Copyright Contents Introduction PART I: AFRICAN IDENTITIES IN ATLANTIC SPACES Chapter 1 Identity among Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone Chapter 2 Ouidah as a Multiethnic Community Chapter 3 African Nations in Nineteenth-Century Salvador, Bahia PART II: THE SOURCES OF BLACK AGENCY Chapter 4 Re-creating African Ethnic Identities in Cuba Chapter 5 The Slaves and Free People of Color of Cap Français Chapter 6 Kingston, Jamaica: Crucible of Modernity PART III: URBAN SPACES AND BLACK AUTONOMY Chapter 7 The African Landscape of Seventeenth-Century Cartagena and Its Hinterlands Chapter 8 The Cultural Geography of Enslaved Ship Pilots Chapter 9 Slavery and the Social and Cultural Landscapes of Luanda Chapter 10 African Barbeiros in Brazilian Slave Ports PART IV: BLACK IDENTITIES IN NON-PLANTATION ECONOMIES Chapter 11 The Hidden Histories of African Lisbon Chapter 12 Black Brotherhoods in Mexico City Notes Bibliographic Essay List of Contributors Index Acknowledgments