Black Tonsmen Urban Slavery and Freedom in the Eighteenth-Century Americas [Paperback]

This book is an innovative comparative study of persons of African origin and descent in two urban environments of the early modern Atlantic world. The author follows these men and women illustrating how their choices and actions placed them at the foreground of the development of Atlantic urban slavery and emancipation.Abstract Introduction Shaping Urban Space in Eighteenth-century Minas Gerais and Maryland The Slave Population in Baltimore and Sabar? The Urban Slave Labor Force Manumission Practices and the Negotiation of Slave Labor The Rise of the Free Urban Population and Labor Force of African Origin and Descent Free Townspeople of African Origin and Descent Conclusion

'Dantas's Black Townsmen is a well-researched book on the enslaved and free population of colour in Baltimore and Sabara in the long eighteenth century, and will be of great comparative use to researchers working on urban African-Americans in the Americas. - Silvia Espelt Bombin, Newcastle University

MARIANA DANTAS is Assistant Professor of History, Ohio University, USA.