Description
Book SynopsisA restoration of the agency and influence of free African-descended women in colonial Mexico through their traces in archives
Trade ReviewReceived honorable mention for the Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association
Winner of the 2022 Murdo MacLeod book prize, sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Society
Silver Medal for Best History Book from the International Latino Book Awards
“Engaging a variety of sources, this robust study offers an important glimpse of the world that free African-descended women made for themselves and their families.”—Michele Reid-Vazquez, University of Pittsburgh
“Beautifully written and extensively researched,
The Capital of Free Women is a welcome addition to the growing field of Afro-Mexican studies and free people of color in the Ibero-American world.”—Michelle McKinley, author of
Fractional Freedoms“A breathtaking study that places free African-descended women at the nexus of questions about religion, commerce, and the law in colonial Mexico. In revealing their complex strategies and their indefatigable claims to socioreligious legitimacy, Danielle Terrazas Williams has produced a dazzling and important contribution to the history of women, family, race, and slavery in the Americas.”—Sophie White, author of
Voices of the Enslaved
