Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana (Studies in 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. -- Publisher 01.0_pp_i_i_Becoming_Free_Becoming_Black 02.0_pp_ii_ii_Studies_In_Legal_History 03.0_pp_iii_iii_Becoming_Free_Becoming_Black 04.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 05.0_pp_v_v_Contents 06.0_pp_vi_viii_Figures_and_Tables 07.0_pp_ix_xiii_Preface 08.0_pp_xiv_xiv_Abbreviations 09.0_pp_1_12_Introduction 10.0_pp_13_38_A_Negro_and_by_Consequence_an_Alien 11.0_pp_39_78_The_Inconvenience_of_Black_Freedom 12.0_pp_79_131_The_Natural_Right_of_All_Mankind 13.0_pp_132_177_Rules_for_Their_Expulsion 14.0_pp_178_218_Not_of_the_Same_Blood 15.0_pp_219_224_Conclusion 16.0_pp_225_269_Notes 17.0_pp_270_282_Index "A Negro and by consequence an alien" : local regulations and the making of race, 1500s-1700s -- The "inconvenience" of Black freedom : manumission, 1500s-1700s -- "The natural right of all mankind" : claiming freedom in the age of revolution, 1760s-1830 -- "Rules ... for their expulsion" : foreclosing freedom, 1830s-1860 -- "Not of the same blood" : policing racial boundaries, 1830s-1860 -- Conclusion: "Home-born citizens" : the significance of free people of color Shows that the law of freedom, not slavery, determined the way that race developed over time in three slave societies