Using the city of Puebla de los Angeles, the second-largest urban center in colonial Mexico (viceroyalty of New Spain), Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva investigates Spaniards' imposition of slavery on Africans, Asians, and their families. He analyzes the experiences of these slaves in four distinct urban settings: the marketplace, the convent, the textile mill, and the elite residence. In so doing, Urban Slavery in Colonial Mexico advances a new understanding of how, when, and why transatlantic and transpacific merchant networks converged in Central Mexico during the seventeenth century. As a social and cultural history, it also addresses how enslaved people formed social networks to contest their bondage. Sierra Silva challenges readers to understand the everyday nature of urban slavery and engages the rich Spanish and indigenous history of the Puebla region while intertwining it with African diaspora studies.

Focuses on enslaved families and their social networks in the city of Puebla de los Angeles in seventeenth-century colonial Mexico.

About the Author
Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at the University of Rochester, New York.


Book Information
ISBN 9781108419819
Author Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva
Format Hardback
Page Count 242
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 500g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 159mm * 19mm