From Shipmates to Soldiers: Emerging Black Identities in the R?o de la Plata

Although it never had a plantation-based economy, the R o de la Plata region, comprising present-day Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, has a long but neglected history of slave trading and slavery. This book analyzes the lives of Africans and their descendants in Montevideo and Buenos Aires from the late colonial era to the first decades of independence. The author shows how the enslaved Africans created social identities based on their common experiences, ranging from surviving together the Atlantic and coastal forced passages on slave vessels to serving as soldiers in the independence-era black battalions. In addition to the slave trade and the military, their participation in black lay brotherhoods, African "nations," and the lettered culture shaped their social identities. Linking specific regions of Africa to the R o de la Plata region, the author also explores the ties of the free black and enslaved populations to the larger society in which they found themselves.

Binding Type: Paperback
Author: Borucki, Alex
Published: 11/01/2015
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
ISBN: 9780826351807
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.00d