A restoration of the agency and influence of free African-descended women in colonial Mexico through their traces in archives
“A breathtaking study that places free African-descended women at the nexus of questions about religion, commerce, and the law in colonial Mexico. Danielle Terrazas Williams has produced a dazzling and important contribution to the history of women, family, race, and slavery in the Americas.”—Sophie White, author of Voices of the Enslaved
The Capital of Free Women examines how African-descended women strove for dignity in seventeenth-century Mexico. Free women in central Veracruz, sometimes just one generation removed from slavery, purchased land, ran businesses, managed intergenerational wealth, and owned slaves of African descent. Drawing from archives in Mexico, Spain, and Italy, Danielle Terrazas Williams explores the lives of African-descended women across the economic spectrum, evaluates their elite sensibilities, and challenges notions of race and class in the colonial period.
“A wonderfully rich book, alive with vivid vignettes of enterprising women who supported themselves and their families. . . . It contains valuable insights into the history of women and the family, of slavery and racial mixture and of the regional economy.”—Silvia Arrom, Revista
“A welcome addition to the growing historiography of the African diaspora in Mexico, especially for its focus on free African-descended women in midcolonial central Veracruz.”—Hispanic American Historical Review
Received honorable mention for the Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association
“Engaging a variety of sources, this robust study offers an important glimpse of the world that free African-descended women made for themselves and their families.”—Michele Reid-Vazquez, University of Pittsburgh
“Beautifully written and extensively researched, The Capital of Free Women is a welcome addition to the growing field of Afro-Mexican studies and free people of color in the Ibero-American world.”—Michelle McKinley, author of Fractional Freedoms
“A breathtaking study that places free African-descended women at the nexus of questions about religion, commerce, and the law in colonial Mexico. In revealing their complex strategies and their indefatigable claims to socioreligious legitimacy, Danielle Terrazas Williams has produced a dazzling and important contribution to the history of women, family, race, and slavery in the Americas.”—Sophie White, author of Voices of the Enslaved
2 有用 felsina 2026-02-26 11:52:35 加拿大
因为很喜欢作者会场上的一些表达,就找来读了,虽然后半没有读很仔细。是非常标准的历史档案研究方式,通过限定特殊的档案类别(notarial records)得以孤立出free afro-descendant women在殖民墨西哥地区如何negotiate社会结构和掌握经济和社会主动权,研究初期的切入点非常的微观史,用了二十年的功夫梳理出整个类似群体的社会面貌,给到读者有厚度的个体和群像故事,在有档... 因为很喜欢作者会场上的一些表达,就找来读了,虽然后半没有读很仔细。是非常标准的历史档案研究方式,通过限定特殊的档案类别(notarial records)得以孤立出free afro-descendant women在殖民墨西哥地区如何negotiate社会结构和掌握经济和社会主动权,研究初期的切入点非常的微观史,用了二十年的功夫梳理出整个类似群体的社会面貌,给到读者有厚度的个体和群像故事,在有档案细节的基础上继续做各种假设式的推敲,写作很engaging。 (展开)