Becoming Free, Becoming Black
Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana

Shows that the law of freedom, not slavery, determined the way that race developed over time in three slave societies.

Alejandro de la Fuente (Author), Ariela J. Gross (Author)

9781108468145, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 December 2021

295 pages
23 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'Becoming Free, Becoming Black certainly stands as required reading for scholars of history of law and the social history of slavery in the Americas. The solid research in primary sources, combined with an original argument, among other qualities, make the book a reference of excellence on the historiographical debate on racism and law - both past and present.' Bruno Lima, Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History

How did Africans become 'blacks' in the Americas? Becoming Free, Becoming Black tells the story of enslaved and free people of color who used the law to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their loved ones. Their communities challenged slaveholders' efforts to make blackness synonymous with slavery. Looking closely at three slave societies - Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana - Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross demonstrate that the law of freedom - not slavery - established the meaning of blackness in law. Contests over freedom determined whether and how it was possible to move from slave to free status, and whether claims to citizenship would be tied to racial identity. Laws regulating the lives and institutions of free people of color created the boundaries between black and white, the rights reserved to white people, and the degradations imposed only on black people.

Introduction
1. 'A Negro and by consequence an alien': local regulations and the making of race, 1500s–1700s
2. The 'inconvenience” of black freedom: manumission, 1500s–1700s
3. 'The natural right of all mankind': claiming freedom in the age of revolution, 1760s–1830
4. 'Rules … for their expulsion': foreclosing freedom, 1830s–1860
5. 'Not of the same blood': policing racial boundaries, 1830s–1860
Conclusion: 'Home-born citizens: the significance of free people of color.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK]