B. P. Rinehart’s Reviews > Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 > Status Update

Oh yes, might be finishing this one tonight. It has been a very good introduction to Afro-Latino history.

Finally found this book up and now making progress and finishing it up. Very interesting things learned. I learned a lot about the monarchy of Pedro II of Brazil and its similarities with the Radical Republicans of Reconstruction-era America. Of course, both countries had similar endings for its freedmen sadly.

End of chapter 1. I will try not to post so many updates going forward, but it was interesting to compare and contrast slavery in the United States with Latin America.

"…slave resistance had transformed slavery, and colonial society…by creating free black and brown populations that by 1800, in most of Afro-Latino America, outnumbered the slaves." This was also because enslaved people obtained their freedom at higher rates in Latin America than Anglo and French America.

Because of the large number of Africans being shipped to Latin America, runaway settlements were inevitable. Brazil had, by far, the largest fugitive slave villages in modern human history.

Reid Andrews: "Rhythm was central to producing…healing and energizing effects. One of the central messages of African music is that [it] lifts us out of our daily grind by…transforming and heightening our experience of the moment." On why music played a crucial role in Afro-Latinos' daily life during slavery.

Reid Andrews: "This book is not about race as a scientific, genetic fact. It hardly could be, since race is not a scientific fact but a social, cultural, and ideological 'construction'--a set of ideas-- through which societies have sought to organize, structure, and understand themselves." He goes on to say that Latin Americans who identify as white use race to reserve power and wealth for themselves.