14 - Africans in Spanish American colonial society

Summary

A survey of recent scholarship that also includes works on Brazil and the English, French, and Dutch possessions in the Caribbean, with some mention of the United States where comparisons are appropriate, can be found in the excellent bibliographical notes appended to Herbert S. Klein, African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (New York, 1986). Somewhat dated but still valuable for their perspectives are Frederick P. Bowser, ‘The African in colonial Spanish America: Reflections on research achievements and priorities, ’ LARR, 7/1 (1972), 77–94; and Magnus Mörner, ‘Recent research on Negro slavery and abolition in Latin America, ’ LARR, 13/2 (1978), 265–89.

In 1977, Joseph C. Miller began his admirable and ambitious bibliographical projects with Slavery: A Comparative Teaching Bibliography (Waltham, Mass., 1977), which was followed by Slavery: A Worldwide Bibliography, 1900–1982 (White Plains, N.Y., 1985). Annual supplements are published in the journal Slavery and Abolition. See also the valuable compilation by John David Smith, Black Slavery in the Americas: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography, 1865–1980, 2 vols. (Westport, Conn., 1982). Guidance to archival sources will be found in Miguel Acosta Saignes, ‘Introducción al estudio de los repositories documentales sobre los africanos y sus descendientes en América, ’ America Indígena, 29 (1969), 727–86.

A number of very helpful dictionaries have made their appearance. Perhaps the most useful are Benjamín Núñez (comp.), Dictionary of Afro-Latin American Civilization (Westport, Conn., 1979) and Thomas M. Stephens (comp.), Dictionary of Latin American Racial and Ethnic Terminology (Gainesville, Fla., 1989). See also Robert M. Levine (comp.), Race and Ethnic Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Historical Dictionary and Bibliography (Metuchen, N.J., 1980) and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith (eds.), Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (Westport, Conn., 1988).