Description
Book SynopsisLamonte Aidoo upends dominant narratives of Brazilian national identity by showing how the myth of racial democracy is based on interracial and same-sex sexual violence between slave owners and their slaves that operated as a mechanism of perpetuating slavery and heteronormative white patriarchy.
Trade Review"
Slavery Unseen is an interesting effort to present a little-known side of Brazilian slavery. The book is a good reading both for specialists and for members of the broader public who want to understand the roots of racism and violence that characterize Brazilian society up to the present day." -- Ynaê Lopes dos Santos * Labor *
"
Slavery Unseen goes beyond typical studies of power and sexual violence by moving away from the quintessential master and enslaved female dialectic. . . . Aidoo has crafted a brilliant and engaging piece of research that will pave the way for future studies of sexuality, power, and violence across the transatlantic world." -- Rachael Pasierowska * H-Net Reviews *
"
Slavery Unseen is revelatory and will change the field of Brazilian history. . . . [Aidoo] has managed to condense an enormous amount of archival information into a compelling text with major implications for history, literature, gender studies, critical race studies, and Luso-Brazilian studies." -- Gregory Mitchell * European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *
“Originally conceived, meticulously researched, and well written and argued, [Aidoo’s] book is an intellectually sophisticated interdisciplinary study that examines the race relations and interracial sexual violence that are embedded in Brazilian slavery. . . .
Slavery Unseen will certainly leave its vital mark in the fields of Luso-Brazilian studies and Afro-Diaspora studies for years to come.” -- Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte * Revista Hispánica Moderna *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction. Secrets, Silences, and Sexual Erasures in Brazilian Slavery and History 1
1. The Racial and Sexual Paradoxes of Brazilian Slavery and National Identity 11
2. Illegible Violence: The Rape and Sexual Abuse of Male Slaves 29
3. The White Mistress and the Slave Woman: Seduction, Violence, and Exploitation 67
4. Social Whiteness: Black Intraracial Violence and the Boundaries of Black Freedom 111
5.
O Diabo Preto (The Negro Devil): The Myth of the Black Homosexual Predator in the Age of Social Hygiene 149
Afterword. Seeing the Unseen: The Life and Afterlives of Ch/Xica da Silva 187
Notes 197
Bibliography 227
Index 249
