The Human Tradition in the Black Atlantic, 15002000

(Paperback)

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Description

Like snapshots of everyday life in the past, the compelling biographies in this book document the making of the Black Atlantic world since the sixteenth century from the point of view of those who were part of it. Centering on the diaspora caused by the forced migration of Africans to Europe and across the Atlantic to the Americas, the chapters explore the slave trade, enslavement, resistance, adaptation, cultural transformations, and the quest for citizenship rights. The variety of experiences, constraints and choices depicted in the book and their changes across time and space defy the idea of a unified "black experience." At the same time, it is clear that in the twentieth century, "black" identity unified people of African descent who, along with other "minority" groups, struggled against colonialism and racism and presented alternatives to a version of modernity that excluded and alienated them. Drawing on a rich array of little-known documents, the contributors reconstruct the lives and times of some well-known characters along with ordinary people who rarely left written records and would otherwise have remained anonymous and unknown.

Contributions by: Aaron P. Althouse, Alan Bloom, Marcus J. M. de Carvalho, Aisnara Perera Daz, Mara de los ngeles Merio Fuentes, Flvio dos Santos Gomes, Hilary Jones, Beatriz G. Mamigonian, Charles Beatty Medina, Richard Price, Sally Price, Cassandra Pybus, Karen Racine, Ty M. Reese, Joo Jos Reis, Lorna Biddle Rinear, Meredith L. Roman, Maya Talmon-Chvaicer, and Jerome Teelucksingh.

Reviews

This wonderful addition to the growing scholarship attempts, quite successfully, to add a human face to the black Atlantic. A topical bibliography and a filmography provide instructors and students alike a guide for further research. Highly recommended. * Choice Reviews *
This is the richest and most scholarly collection of individual narratives shaped by the African diaspora since Philip Curtin's Africa Remembered of more than forty years ago. These thirteen biographies span four centuries and offer a compellingly diverse range of the black Atlantic experience. Essential reading for all historians of the Atlantic World. -- David Eltis, Emory University
Indispensable for anyone interested in Black Atlantic history. Through well-researched and well-written biographies, the authors move beyond Eurocentric approaches to the past by showing the central role of Africans and their Afro-American descendants in the making of the early modern and modern Atlantic World. -- Walter Hawthorne, Michigan State University

Author Bio

Beatriz G. Mamigonian is professor of history at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. Karen Racine is associate professor of Latin American history at the University of Guelph, Canada.