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After Brazil and the United States, Colombia has the third-largest population of African-descended peoples in the Western hemisphere. Yet the country is commonly viewed as a nation of Andeans, whites, and mestizos (peoples of mixed Spanish and indigenous Indian ancestry). Aline Helg examines the historical roots of Colombia's treatment and neglect of its Afro-Caribbean identity within the comparative perspective of the Americas. Concentrating on the Caribbean region, she explores the role of free and enslaved peoples of full and mixed African ancestry, elite whites, and Indians in the late colonial period and in the processes of independence and early nation building.Why did race not become an organizational category in Caribbean Colombia as it did in several other societies with significant African-descended populations? Helg argues that divisions within the lower and upper classes, silence on the issue of race, and Afro-Colombians' preference for individual, local, and transient forms of resistance resulted in particular spheres of popular autonomy but prevented the development of an Afro-Caribbean identity in the region and a cohesive challenge to Andean Colombia.Considering cities such as Cartagena and Santa Marta, the rural communities along the Magdalena River, and the vast uncontrolled frontiers, Helg illuminates an understudied Latin American region and reintegrates Colombia into the history of the Caribbean.
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& - This page intentionally left blank Aline Helg & in Caribbean Colombia -- The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill & London © The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Designed by Eric M. Brooks Set in Monticello by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Helg, Aline, – Liberty and equality in Caribbean Colombia, – / Aline Helg. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. - - - (cloth: alk. paper) - - - (pbk.: alk. paper) . Blacks—Colombia—Atlantic Coast Region— History. . Colombia—History— th century. . Colombia—History— th century. . Blacks— Race identity—Colombia—Atlantic Coast Region. . Social classes—Colombia—Atlantic Coast Region—History. . Discrimination— Colombia—Atlantic Coast Region. . Colombia— Race relations. I. Title. . . ' —dc cloth paper Parts of this book have been reprinted in revised form from ‘‘Simón Bolívar and the Fear of Pardocracia: José Padilla in Post-Independence Cartagena,’’ Journal of Latin American Studies , no. (August ): – ; ‘‘A Fragmented Majority: Free ‘of All Colors,’ Indians, and Slaves in Caribbean Colombia during the Haitian Revolution,’’ in The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, edited by David Geggus, – (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, ); and ‘‘The Limits of Equality: Free People of Color and Slaves during the First Independence of Cartagena, Colombia, – ,’’ Slavery and Abolition (August ): – . This page intentionally left blank Now the night was rising from the land itself and began to engulf everything, the dead and the living, under the marvelous and ever-present sky. No, he would never know his father, who would continue to sleep over there, his face forever lost in the ashes. There was a mystery about that man, a mystery he had wanted to penetrate. But after all there was