A critical analysis of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s PBS documentary film series Black in Latin America. The authors examine Gates' presentation of blackness in Mexico and Peru. Their critique of the film focuses on the themes of national ideology, racial categorization, and portrayals of the 'black' experience.
Gledhill,John (Editor) and Schell,Patience A. (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
Durham: Duke University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
398 p., Re-examines the concepts of resistance and the effect of neoliberalism from the 1980s to the present day comparing Brazil and Mexico, two of the largest countries in Latin America. Includes Marcus J. M. de Carvalho's "The 'commander of all forests' against the 'Jacobins' of Brazil : the Cabanada, 1832-1835," and Robert W. Slenes' "A 'great arch' descending : manumission rates, subaltern social mobility, and the identities of enslaved, freeborn, and freed Blacks in southeastern Brazil, 1791-1888.
Escaped slaves became Spanish Florida's first settlers. They joined refugees from the Creek Nation and called themselves Seminoles which means runaways. Intermixing became so common that they were soon called Black Seminoles. The black Seminoles struck frequently against slave plantations and runaway slaves swelled their ranks. The U.S. government launched three massive war campaigns against the Seminole nation over a period of 40 years. The second war alone cost the U.S. government over 40 million dollars and 1500 soldiers. The Seminoles eventually signed a peace treaty with President Polk which was violated in 1849 when the U.S. Attorney General ruled that black Seminoles were still slaves under U.S. law.
