The Black Middle is the first full-length study of black African slaves and other people of African descent in the Spanish colonial province of Yucatan. Matthew Restall makes expert use of Spanish and Maya language documents from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, found in a dozen different archives. His goal is to discover what life was like for a people hitherto ignored by historians. He explores such topics as slavery and freedom, militia service and family life, bigamy and witchcraft, and the ways in which Afro-Yucatecans (as he dubs them) interacted with Mayas and Spaniards. Restall concludes that, in numerous ways, Afro-Yucatecans lived and worked in a middle space between-but closely connected to-Mayas and Spaniards. The book's "black middle" thesis has profound implications for the study of Africans throughout the Americas.
Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan
Hardback
Publication Date: 02/06/2009
Winner of the Conference on Latin American History's 2010 Mexican History Book Prize.
The Black Middle is the first full-length study of black African slaves and other people of African descent in the Spanish colonial province of Yucatan. Matthew Restall makes expert use of Spanish and Maya language documents from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, found in a dozen different archives. His goal is to discover what life was like for a people hitherto ignored by historians. He explores such topics as slavery and freedom, militia service and family life, bigamy and witchcraft, and the ways in which Afro-Yucatecans (as he dubs them) interacted with Mayas and Spaniards. Restall concludes that, in numerous ways, Afro-Yucatecans lived and worked in a middle space between-but closely connected to-Mayas and Spaniards. The book's "black middle" thesis has profound implications for the study of Africans throughout the Americas.
The Black Middle is the first full-length study of black African slaves and other people of African descent in the Spanish colonial province of Yucatan. Matthew Restall makes expert use of Spanish and Maya language documents from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, found in a dozen different archives. His goal is to discover what life was like for a people hitherto ignored by historians. He explores such topics as slavery and freedom, militia service and family life, bigamy and witchcraft, and the ways in which Afro-Yucatecans (as he dubs them) interacted with Mayas and Spaniards. Restall concludes that, in numerous ways, Afro-Yucatecans lived and worked in a middle space between-but closely connected to-Mayas and Spaniards. The book's "black middle" thesis has profound implications for the study of Africans throughout the Americas.
- ISBN:
- 9780804749831
- 9780804749831
- Category:
- Slavery & abolition of slavery
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication Date:
- 02-06-2009
- Language:
- English
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- Country of origin:
- United States
- Pages:
- 456
- Dimensions (mm):
- 235x155x30mm
- Weight:
- 0.77kg
Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available
Great!
Click on Save to My Library / Lists
Click on Save to My Library / Lists
Select the List you'd like to categorise as, or add your own
Here you can mark if you have read this book, reading it or want to read
Awesome! You added your first item into your Library
Great! The fun begins.
Click on My Library / My Lists and I will take you there
Click on My Library / My Lists and I will take you there
Reviews
Be the first to review The Black Middle.
Share This Book: