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Explores how Black New Englanders maintained a sense of belonging among their kin in the face of slaveryAs winter turned to spring in the year 1699, Sebastian and Jane embarked on a campaign of persuasion. The two wished to marry, and they sought the backing of their community in Boston. Nothing, however, could induce Jane's enslaver to consent. Only after her death did Sebastian and Jane manage to wed, forming a long-lasting union even though husband and wife were not always able to live in the same household.New England is often considered a cradle of liberty in American history, but this snippet of Jane and Sebastian's story reminds us that it was also a cradle of slavery. From the earliest years of colonization, New Englanders bought and sold people, most of whom were of African descent. In Belonging, Gloria McCahon Whiting tells the region's early history from the perspective of the people, like Jane and Sebastian, who belonged to others and who struggled to maintain a sense of belonging among their kin. Through a series of meticulously reconstructed family narratives, Whiting traces the contours of enslaved people's intimate lives in early New England, where they often lived with those who bound them but apart from kin. Enslaved spouses rarely were able to cohabit; fathers and their offspring routinely were separated by inheritance practices; children could be removed from their mothers at an enslaver's whim; and people in bondage had only partial control of their movement through the region, which made more difficult the task of maintaining distant relationships.But Belonging does more than lay bare the obstacles to family stability for those in bondage. Whiting also charts Afro-New Englanders'persistent demands for intimacy throughout the century and a half stretching from New England's founding to the American Revolution. And she shows how the work of making and maintaining relationships influenced the region's law, religion, society, and politics. Ultimately, the actions taken by people in bondage to fortify their families played a pivotal role in bringing about the collapse of slavery in New England's most populous state, Massachusetts.

The Iberian world played a key role in the global trade of enslaved people from the 15th century onwards. Scholars of Iberian forms of slavery face challenges accessing the subjectivity of the enslaved, given the scarcity of autobiographical sources. This book offers a compelling example of innovative methodologies that draw on alternative archives and documents, such as inquisitorial and trial records, to examine enslaved individuals'and collective subjectivities under Iberian political dominion. It explores themes such as race, gender, labour, social mobility and emancipation, religion, and politics, shedding light on the lived experiences of those enslaved in the Iberian world from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Contributors are: Magdalena Candioti, Robson Pedroso Costa, Rômulo da Silva Ehalt, James Fujitani, Michel Kabalan, Silvia Lara, Marta Macedo, Hebe Mattos, Michelle McKinley, Sophia Blea Nuñez, Fernanda Pinheiro, João José Reis, Patricia Faria de Souza, Lisa Surwillo, Miguel Valerio and Lisa Voigt. Slave Subjectivities in the Iberian Worlds is now available in paperback for individual customers.

A população da colônia portuguesa na América está bem equilibrada entre as duas províncias do atual Nordeste (28% da população) e as duas províncias do Sudeste (27%). A forma natural para o país independente em 1822 seria a república, e não a monarquia. Se a independência tivesse sido por outro que não o português D. Pedro, filho de rei português, possivelmente o país não teria também se dividido como aconteceu com mundo hispano-americano, entre outras razões, porque já era independente desde 1815 sendo parte do Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil e Algarve nome que Portugal usou até 1825, quando reconheceu formalmente a independência brasileira. D. Pedro II era racista, como eram quase todos os europeus e norte-americanos do século XIX e amigo íntimo de Gobineau, principal teórico da supremacia racista da Europa branca. D. Pedro pouco fez pelo País em seus 49 anos de reinado, nada semelhante ao que fez o imperador Meiji, em seus 45 anos no Japão que transformou um país pobre e atrasado em uma das maiores potências do mundo. Segundo os dados revistos minuciosamente pelo autor, no final do Império o Brasil é 88% negro e não 60%, e 3% alfabetizado e não 22%, como o censo de 1872 mostra. Educacionalmente o Império é um desastre e nos lega um país com 97% de analfabetos e um nível científico e tecnológico assustadoramente baixo. Em plena Revolução Industrial, a colônia e o Império são de um atraso estarrecedor, leva 75 anos para criar a primeira fábrica industrial de tecidos de algodão e 35 anos para introduzir a máquina a vapor comparativamente à Inglaterra que as criaram.