Becoming Free, Becoming Black

Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana

By: Alejandro de la Fuente, Ariela J. Gross

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

How did Africans become "Blacks" in the Americas?

Becoming Free, Becoming Black tells the story of enslaved and free people of color who used the law to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their loved ones. Their communities challenged slaveholders' efforts to make Blackness synonymous with slavery. Looking closely at three slave societies - Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana - Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross demonstrate that the law of freedom - not slavery - established the meaning of Blackness in law.

Contests over freedom determined whether and how it was possible to move from slave to free status, and whether claims to citizenship would be tied to racial identity. Laws regulating the lives and institutions of free people of color created the boundaries between Black and White, the rights reserved to White people, and the degradations imposed only on Black people.

©2020 Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross (P)2021 Tantor

A must read!

This book is very informative. Gave me a better understanding on why interracial relations are important to the foundation of the this country and Cuba. Great listen.