In 1834 Antigua became the only British colony in the Caribbean to move directly from slavery to full emancipation. Immediate freedom; however; did not live up to its promise; as it did not guarantee any level of stability or autonomy; and the implementation of new forms of coercion and control made it; in many ways; indistinguishable from slavery. In Troubling Freedom Natasha Lightfoot tells the story of how Antigua's newly freed black working people struggled to realize freedom in their everyday lives; prior to and in the decades following emancipation. She presents freedpeople's efforts to form an efficient workforce; acquire property; secure housing; worship; and build independent communities in response to elite prescriptions for acceptable behavior and oppression. Despite its continued efforts; Antigua's black population failed to convince whites that its members were worthy of full economic and political inclusion. By highlighting the diverse ways freedpeople defined and created freedom through quotidian acts of survival and occasional uprisings; Lightfoot complicates conceptions of freedom and the general narrative that landlessness was the primary constraint for newly emancipated slaves in the Caribbean.
#1174504 in Books Duke University Press Books 2001-09-26Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.22 x 1.10 x 6.20l; 1.44 #File Name: 0822327414392 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Rethinking Brazil's Racial ParadigmsBy Edgardo QuintanillaWarren's RACIAL REVOLUTIONS is a welcome addition to the paradigm that questions traditional discussions of race; ethnicity; and culture in Brazil posited as a mere European vis-a-vis African framework. Warren skillfully traces the historical vicisitudes of organization by different indigenous groups to survive as distinct ethnic groups or "nations;" the on-going disputes over ownership of natural and cultural resources on lands that clearly belong to indigenous communities; and the challenges of indigenous groups and individuals for access to justice. Within the paradigm shared by Warren; academicians should look more at the interplay and fusion of native and African cultures in the history of South America in the past 500 years.
