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 …
"A Negro and by consequence an alien" : local regulations and the making of race, 1500s-1700s -- The "inconvenience" of Black freedom : manumission, 1500s-1700s -- "The natural right of all mankind" : claiming freedom in the age of revolution, 1760s-1830 -- "Rules ... for their …