Slavery and identity : ethnicity, gender, and race in Salvador, Brazil, 1808-1888 /

This ethnohistory is an interesting contribution to the rich historiography of Salvador da Bahia, one of the great cities of the African Atlantic. Nishida's intent is to examine how "powerless individuals and their descendants ... created and re-created distinctive identities in diverse situations" in order to chart the "intricate historical process of identity formation." The study is based on extensive archival research and grounded in the relevant historiography of Brazil, Cuba, and the US. In novel fashion, Nishida (Hartwick College) reads baptismal records, inventories, manumission documents, and the wills of freed slaves as ethnographic texts. Part 1 provides historical context and charts the multiple ethnicities ascribed to and manipulated by African slaves, such as the Nago or Congo, at the beginning of the century. Part 2 covers related issues until 1888, examining identity and practice as more Africans obtained their freedom and charting how specific identities were replaced by the generic category of "African." In Part 3, Nishida tells the related but distinct histories of the Brazilian-born slave and the free population of color. Overall, the book succeeds admirably in delving into the complex process of identity formation in Brazil. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. Rosenthal SUNY College at Oneonta