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Published on: 5/27/2004
Last Visited: 2/5/2005
Herman L. Bennett
Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2003
ISBN: 0-253-34236-8 (Cloth)
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"This book charts new directions in thinking about the construction of new world identities. . . . The way in which [Bennett] integrates race, gender, and the tension between canon and secular law into his analysis will inspire re-examination of earlier studies of marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean."
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From secular and ecclesiastical court records, Bennett reconstructs the lives of slave and free blacks, their regulation by the government and by the Church, the impact of the Inquisition, their legal status in marriage, and their rights and obligations as Christian subjects.His findings demonstrate the malleable nature of African identities in the Atlantic world, as well as the ability of Africans to deploy their own psychological resources to survive displacement and oppression.
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Herman L. Bennett is Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University.