HIS 361 - The Enslaved of Latin America

Enslavement and its afterlives haunt the history of the Americas. The buying and sale of captives no less than constructed the Atlantic World system and facilitated the development of both colonial and modern societies in Latin America. But what of the enslaved themselves? Far more than dehumanized commodities, they constructed diasporic communities of notable diversity and vibrant social, cultural, and intellectual lives. We also examine how these dynamics played out in enslaved Indigenous and Asian communities. Utilizing a range of sources, from film and literature to professional scholarship and primary sources, we strive to adhere as closely as possible to the lived experiences of the enslaved and, wherever possible, to understand history from their words.