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Slavery and Race in the Evolution of Latin American Societies: Some Recent Contributions to the Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Magnus Mörner
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Extract

Why are the patterns of race relations in Latin America and Anglo-America today so different, particularly those between ‘Blacks’ and ‘Whites’? Is the explanation to be found, primarily, in the differences between the previously existing ‘systems of slavery’? Ever since Frank Tannenbaum, in 1947, made his famous statement on the ‘benign’ nature of ‘Latin American slavery’ as opposed to the ‘harsh’ nature of that in North America, these two issues have triggered a most lively debate, largely historical in nature but attracting representatives of other disciplines as well.1

Type
Review Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , May 1976 , pp. 127 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 Frank, Tannenbaum: Slave and Citizen: the Negro in the Americas (New York, 1947).Google Scholar

2 Marvin, Harris: Patterns of Race in the Americas (New York, 1964).Google Scholar

3 David, Brion Davis: The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (Ithaca, N.Y., 1966), p. 288.Google Scholar

4 See David, W. Cohen, and Jack, P. Green (eds): Neither Slave nor Free. The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave Societies of the New World (Baltimore & London, 1972).Google Scholar

5 Magnus, Mörner: Race Mixture in the History of Latin America (Boston, Mass., 1967).Google Scholar See also his article ‘The History of Race Relations in Latin America: Some Comments on the State of Research’, Latin American Research Review (LARR) i (1966), 17–44.Google Scholar

6 See especially Frederick, P. Bowser: ‘The African in Colonial Spanish America: Reflections on Research Achievements and Priorities’, LARR, 7 (1972), 77–94.Google Scholar

7 Hoetink, H.: The Two Variants in Caribbean Race Relations. A Contribution to the Sociology of Segmented Societies (London, 1967).Google Scholar

8 This brilliant article, ‘Comparative Slave Systems in the Americas: A Critical Review’ appeared in Richard, Graham and Peter, H. Smith (eds.): New Approaches to Latin American History (Austin, Texas and London, 1974), 156–74.Google Scholar

9 Fernandes, F.: The Negro in Brazilian Society (New York 1969);Google ScholarConrad, R.: The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 (Berkeley, Cal., 1972),Google ScholarToplin, R. B.: The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil (New York, 1972);Google ScholarKnight, F. W.: Slave Society in Cuba During the Nineteenth Century (Madison, Wise., 1970);Google ScholarLombardi, J. V.: The Decline and Abolition of Negro Slavery in Venezuela, 1820–1854 (Westport, Conn., 1971).Google Scholar

10 See also his interesting recent article “The Profitability of Slavery in the Colombian Chocó, 1680–1810”, The Hispanic American Historical Review, LV (1975), 468–95.Google Scholar

11 It is worthwhile to compare this with Franklin W. Knight's ‘revisionist’ statement on self-purchase in Cuba that it was probably mostly an ’urban affair and not very widespread’ (p. 216).

12 He claims, for instance, that the attitudes of magistrates were the ‘most important (sic) among the influences’ making slavery in New Granada ‘distinctive’, ‘different’ from elsewhere in colonial Spanish America (pp. 179, 197). What he fails to explain is why on earth Spanish officials in New Granada would differ from their colleagues in other parts of the Empire in their attitudes on that issue.

13 Compare his own remark in the article referred to above (note 6), p. 77: ‘Economic and demographic trends interacted to alter radically the tone and importance of slavery through time from area to area’.

14 In my own work, La corona y los foraneos en los pueblos de América (Stockholm, 1970), I was forced to use the same approach. Like Bowser I then also faced the problem that so many lawsuit dossiers never contained any final decision.Google Scholar

15 See my article, ‘Legal Equality-Social Inequality: A Post-Abolition Theme’, Revista Interamericana Review, III (Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, 1973), 24–41.Google Scholar

16 Regarding the comparative study of race relations in the United States and Brazil see also Skidmore's article on the topic in this journal, IV (1972), 1–28 and Carl, N. Degler's book, Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States (New York, 1971).Google Scholar