Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World

“A fine, well-constructed and cogently argued piece of microhistory.” —The Americas

“This book should become mandatory reading for graduate students as well as faculty working on Atlantic history. . . . The skillful prose of this work also should be a model for other historians.” —Journal of World History

“[This book] will be of significant interest to specialists of the Atlantic World, particularly those of the Black Atlantic, and will likely generate lively discussions in graduate seminars.” —Register of The Kentucky Historical Society

“Sweet offers not only a glimpse into the intellectual life of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world but perhaps even an epistemological model for the struggles of our own time.” —HAHR

“[A] laudable and exemplary new study. . . . This richly detailed account will be considered among the best of a generation of Black Atlantic histories.” —International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Demonstrates an interesting, well-written, and rigorous methodological approach to studying the commonalities of the life and politics of Domingo Álvares. . . . Sweet has produced a comprehensive examination of the African diaspora with emphasis on the Black Atlantic.” —The Historian

“[A] well-written narrative. . . . Sweet exposes one of the many ways in which African cultural practices profoundly shaped the interactions between 18th-century Africans and Europeans.” —Journal of African American History

“[An] insightful examination of the politics of healing.” —Early American Literature

“Domingos Álvares imaginatively re-creates the life of a fascinating character brought before the Portuguese Inquisition, and in so doing the book highlights the social and political ramifications of vodun-inspired healing practices and other forms of cultural diffusion linking the Bight of Benin to Brazil during the eighteenth century.” —William and Mary Quarterly

“Sweet’s contribution to the literature is profound as he brings Africa to the center of an Atlantic historiography.” —Latin American Research Review