“In his detailed biography of the life of Juan Nepomuceno Prieto, Henry B. Lovejoy takes the story of one enslaved Yorí¹bí¡n in Cuba to reveal the broader context of the transatlantic slave trade and colonial life on the island. . . . In presenting Prieto’s story, Lovejoy opens up the broader history and narrative of identity and its construction in terms of both race and religion. . . . Prieto adds to [the] conversation, providing us with another window onto the world of enslaved and freed slaves in the nineteenth century.”—New West Indian Guide
“Lovejoy not only immersed himself in Pietro’s historical record but also in the other scholarly reconstitutions of the diverse cultures in the Americas and especially those in Cuba. . . . The incorporation of this wideranging investigation gives the reader a fuller picture not only of Prieto’s life but also of the lives of the peoples in his world and a notion of how his world evolved into ours.”—Nova Religio
“In the process of reconstructing Prieto’s life, Lovejoy manages to make sense of how they identified themself as Lucumí, and how the knowledge he acquired throughout his life converged in the way he proposed the dynamics of the cabildo. . . . [Prieto’s] story deserves to be known.”—Hispanic American Historical Review
“The enslaved African known in Cuba as Juan Nepomuceno Prieto is a fascinating example of an Atlantic Creole. Working through Prieto’s voluminous trial record and the registers of Africans brought to Cuba, Lovejoy shows how Prieto’s eventual downfall was tied to the escalation of racial fears of slave conspiracies.”—Jane Landers, Vanderbilt University
“Through the life story of a single individual, Prieto illuminates the important role African forms of association and religious worldviews played in shaping the experiences of enslaved and free blacks. An important contribution to the understanding of blacks’ resistance to slavery, this is a welcome addition in the fields of Cuban, Caribbean, and Latin American history, African diaspora studies, and religious studies more broadly.”—Matt D. Childs, University of South Carolina
