Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640
FAIN: FA-56490-12
David Wheat
Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI 48824-3407)
This book documents African influences in the formations of Spanish Caribbean society, with emphasis on maritime networks, coerced and free migration, and the transmission of socioeconomic roles. Unlike better-studied Spanish American viceroyalties with vibrant native populations, the early colonial Caribbean contained substantial black majorities. This chapter in the history of the African diaspora remains virtually unknown. Rather than envisioning the region as a "backwater," my project places the Spanish Caribbean in the context of a broader African and Portuguese maritime world. The histories of the Cape Verde Islands, Elmina, Sao Tome, and Luanda provide important models for viewing African roles that have long been invisible in Caribbean history. This study will be the first to address the early Spanish Caribbean's unique relationship to Atlantic Africa, and one of very few focusing on the experiences of Africans and their descendants in the early colonial Caribbean.
Media Coverage
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Alex Borucki
Publication: The Historian
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: The Historian 80:1 (Spring 2018)
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640, de David Wheat (review) (Review)
Author(s): Alejandro García-Montón
Publication: Nuestra Historia
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Nuestra Historia 7 (2019), pp. 121-124. ISSN 2529-9808
URL: https://revistanuestrahistoria.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/nh7_pp121-124_agmonton.pdf
David Wheat. Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Christopher Crenshaw
Publication: H-Florida, H-Net Reviews
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: H-Florida, H-Net Reviews. March, 2017.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=47049
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): David M. Stark
Publication: Hispanic American Historical Review
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Hispanic American Historical Review 97:3 (August 2017): 540-542.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-3933976
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Fabrício Prado
Publication: William and Mary Quarterly
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: William and Mary Quarterly 76:2 (Ápril 2019): 351-354.
URL: https://doi.org/10.5309/willmaryquar.76.2.0351
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Gérard Chouin
Publication: Labor
Date: 5/1/2019
Abstract: Labor 16:2 (2019): 170-172.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-7324023
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribberan, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): W. C. Rucker
Publication: Choice Reviews
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Choice Reviews 54:7 (March 2017). Choice review #: 54-3375.
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 by David Wheat (review) (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: The Americas
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: The Americas 73:4 (October 2016): 522-524.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/tam.2016.86
Africans in the Atlantic World (Review)
Author(s): Manuel Barcia
Publication: Journal of African History
Date: 10/19/2017
Abstract: Journal of African History 58:3 (2017): 516-517.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853717000470
Wheat, David, Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Rodrigo Bonciani
Publication: Anuario de Estudios Americanos
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Anuario de Estudios Americanos 75:1 (2018): 386-391.
David Wheat, Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Robert C. Schwaller
Publication: Journal of Latin American Studies
Date: 6/4/2019
Abstract: Journal of Latin American Studies 51:2 (May 2019): 443-445.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X19000373
David Wheat, Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Stephen Webre
Publication: International Journal of Maritime History
Date: 5/9/2017
Abstract: The International Journal of Maritime History 29:2 (May 2017): 472-473.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0843871417691715aa
New Geographies of the Atlantic World: Connecting Lusophone Africa and Spanish America (Review)
Author(s): Tessa Murphy
Publication: Almanack
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Almanack 14 (Dec 2016): 308-313.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463320161414
David Wheat. Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): John Garrigus
Publication: American Historical Review
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: The American Historical Review 122:2 (April 2017): 553-554.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/122.2.553
Whither Atlantic History? (Review)
Author(s): Jessica A. Krug
Publication: Reviews in American History
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Reviews in American History 45:1 (March 2017): 6-10.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1353/rah.2017.0001
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s): Joseph C. Miller
Publication: Slavery and Abolition
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Slavery and Abolition 37:4 (2016): 766-769.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2016.1242904
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Agricultural History
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Agricultural History 91:2 (Spring 2017): 254-256.
URL: https://doi.org/10.3098/ah.2017.091.2.254
Wheat, David, Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Revista de Indias
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Revista de Indias 77, num. 270 (2017): 681-685.
URL: https://revistadeindias.revistas.csic.es/index.php/revistadeindias/issue/view/109
David Wheat (2016), Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (review) (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Revista de História da Sociedade e da Cultura
Date: 4/1/2022
Abstract: Revista de História da Sociedade e da Cultura 19 (2019): 491-493.
Associated Products
Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (Book)Title: Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640
Author: David Wheat
Abstract: This work resituates the Spanish Caribbean as an extension of the Luso-African Atlantic world from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, when the union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns facilitated a surge in the transatlantic slave trade. After the catastrophic decline of Amerindian populations on the islands, two major African provenance zones, first Upper Guinea and then Angola, contributed forced migrant populations with distinct experiences to the Caribbean. They played a dynamic role in the social formation of early Spanish colonial society in the fortified port cities of Cartagena de Indias, Havana, Santo Domingo, and Panama City and their semirural hinterlands. David Wheat is the first scholar to establish this early phase of the "Africanization" of the Spanish Caribbean two centuries before the rise of large-scale sugar plantations. With African migrants and their descendants comprising demographic majorities in core areas of Spanish settlement, Luso-Africans, Afro-Iberians, Latinized Africans, and free people of color acted more as colonists or settlers than as plantation slaves. These ethnically mixed and economically diversified societies constituted a region of overlapping Iberian and African worlds, while they made possible Spain's colonization of the Caribbean.
Year: 2016
Primary URL:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/atlantic-africa-and-the-spanish-caribbean-1570-1640/oclc/906234195?referer=br&ht=editionPrimary URL Description: worldcat.org link
Secondary URL:
http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/13233.htmlSecondary URL Description: UNC Press web page for this book
Access Model: for purchase or by subscription
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 97814696234
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes
Prizes
Jamestown Prize
Date: 6/29/2015
Organization: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Abstract: The Jamestown Prize recognizes an exceptional book-length scholarly manuscript pertaining to the early history and culture of the Atlantic world.
Harriet Tubman Prize
Date: 10/11/2017
Organization: The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Abstract: Awarded to the best nonfiction book published in the United States on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery in the Atlantic World.