Encyclopedia of free Blacks and people of color in the Americas /
editor: Stewart R. King ; associate editor: Beverly C. Tomek.
- [Enhanced Credo edition]
- 1 online resource (28 entries) : 54 images ; digital files.
Includes bibliographical references.
List of documents -- List of maps -- List of tables -- About the editors -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- List of contributors -- Chronology -- Entries A-Z.
Access restricted to authorized users and institutions.
When Columbus arrived in 1492, the first free black person -- a sailor -- set foot in the Americas. Over the next 400 years, as slavery spread and became entrenched in the Western Hemisphere, free blacks built communities throughout North and South America, playing a critical role in every region, colony, and country. From Canada to the Caribbean to Chile, they established vital economic and social institutions, championed the cause of abolition, and formed a bridge between the worlds of free whites and enslaved blacks.