The Capital of Free Women : Race, Legitimacy, and Liberty in Colonial Mexico

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 restoration of the agency and influence of freeAfrican-descended women in colonial Mexico through their traces inarchives "A breathtaking study that places freeAfrican-descended women at the nexus of questions about religion,commerce, and the law in colonial Mexico. Danielle TerrazasWilliams has produced a dazzling and important contribution to thehistory of women, family, race, and slavery in theAmericas."-Sophie White, author of Voices ofthe Enslaved The Capital of Free Women examines howAfrican-descended women strove for dignity in seventeenth-centuryMexico. Free women in central Veracruz, sometimes just onegeneration removed from slavery, purchased land, ran businesses,managed intergenerational wealth, and owned slaves of Africandescent. Drawing from archives in Mexico, Spain, and Italy,Danielle Terrazas Williams explores the lives of African-descendedwomen across the economic spectrum, evaluates their elitesensibilities, and challenges notions of race and class in thecolonial period The Capital of Free Women' illuminates the history of how free African-descended women accumulated capital in seventeenth-century Mexico. While some women still labored as slaves, a new demographic began to emerge: free Black women of means. Free women in central Veracruz, sometimes just one generation removed from slavery, purchased land, ran businesses, served as influential matriarchs, managed intergenerational wealth, and even owned slaves of African descent.0 Using the notarial archives of the region, as well as royal edicts and ecclesiastical sources, Danielle Terrazas Williams explores the lives of Black women across the economic spectrum, evaluates their elite sensibilities, and challenges notions of race and class in the colonial period. More broadly, she asks readers to consider how colonial institutions imagined marginalized people and how race and gender influenced how people navigated imperial demands and religious expectations. "A restoration of the agency and influence of free African-descended women in colonial Mexico through their traces in archives. he 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."-- Provided by publisher