The Capital of Free Women: Race, Legitimacy, and Liberty in Colonial Mexico (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300258066)

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.

Author: Danielle Terrazas Williams
ISBN-10: 0300258062
ISBN-13: 9780300258066
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/12/2022
Pages: 296
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.58h x 5.59w x 0.94d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2024