Tamara J. Walker

985/.25500496009033

23

Trade Paperback

1107445957

9781107445956

Yes

Scholarly & Professional

0.6 in

9.1 in

12.3 Oz

6 in

F3601.9.B55W35 2019

English

242 Pages

Exquisite Slaves : Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima

2019

Cambridge University Press

Advance praise: 'Exquisite Slaves represents a unique and distinctive contribution to the history of racial formation in Spanish America which will command the attention of the scholarly community. This book considerably deepens our understanding of colonial racial formation.' Herman Bennett, City University of New York

Slavery, Fashion & Accessories, Black Studies (Global), Customs & Traditions, Latin America / General, Latin America / South America

Design, Social Science, History

Exquisite Slaves examines how slaves in Lima, Peru used elegant clothing to express attitudes about gender and status. Drawing on a diverse range of sources and analyses, Walker demonstrates that in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Lima clothing signified both the reach and limits of slaveholders' power and racial domination., In Exquisite Slaves, Tamara J. Walker examines how slaves used elegant clothing as a language for expressing attitudes about gender and status in the wealthy urban center of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Lima, Peru. Drawing on traditional historical research methods, visual studies, feminist theory, and material culture scholarship, Walker argues that clothing was an emblem of not only the reach but also the limits of slaveholders' power and racial domination. Even as it acknowledges the significant limits imposed on slaves' access to elegant clothing, Exquisite Slaves also showcases the insistence and ingenuity with which slaves dressed to convey their own sense of humanity and dignity. Building on other scholars' work on slaves' agency and subjectivity in examining how they made use of myriad legal discourses and forums, Exquisite Slaves argues for the importance of understanding the body itself as a site of claims-making.

Introduction; 1. Slavery and the aesthetic of mastery; 2. Legal status, gender, and self-fashioning; 3. Black bodies and boundary trouble; 4. Painting, print culture, and colonial ideation; 5. Ladies, gentlemen, slaves, and citizens; Epilogue.

Textbook

Cambridge University Press

9781107445956