Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640

“David Wheat’s Atlantic Africa boldly rewrites the early history of the Spanish Caribbean, demonstrating how Africans and their descendants became Spain’s ‘surrogate colonists’ in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Exhaustively researched, this book reveals the indelible imprint of various groups of Africans on the history of the Spanish Caribbean.” — James H. Sweet, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Brilliantly researched and elegantly written, Wheat’s study of the centrality of slavery and Africans in the pre-sugar Caribbean challenges much of what we think we know about the early Caribbean, New World slavery, and the early Spanish empire. This is a must-read book for students of Atlantic, African diaspora, and colonial Latin American history.” — Ada Ferrer, New York University

“Wheat makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the Atlantic slave trade and the experiences of Africans and African-descended peoples in the Caribbean. The work underscores the continuing importance of the Spanish Caribbean in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and suggests that the ‘Africanization’ of the Caribbean began well before the rise of sugar economies in British, French, and Dutch colonies.” — Ida Altman, University of Florida

“Because Wheat’s capacity to tell such nuanced and new stories is so meticulously buttressed by his sources that it leaves readers wanting him to go even further. . . . A vital contribution to the fields of Black/African history, Caribbean history, and early modern history more broadly.” — Reviews in American History

“Expertly and imaginatively transcends the conventional parameters not just of 'Latin American' and of 'Atlantic' history but also of the conceptual conventions of studying 'slavery' itself, as such. Do not miss it.” — Slavery & Abolition

“[An] exceptional study that explains a misunderstood period in the early history of post-contact colonies in the Spanish Caribbean. Highly recommended.” — CHOICE

“Wheat’s innovative and deeply-researched book contributes to a growing body of work aimed at re-conceptualizing the Atlantic World and the roles of African people within it.” — Almanack

“[A] unique view into the archives and into a key but only partially understood early colonial period in this region [that] will interest both scholars of Iberian colonization and imperialism and students learning how to trace western Africa’s influence on the Spanish Caribbean.” — The Americas

“Extremely well documented and tightly argued. . . . A signal contribution that should reframe scholarly debates about slavery in the Caribbean for some time to come.” — H-Net Reviews

“Elegantly written and thoughtfully constructed. . . . Scholars interested in the early Spanish Caribbean and the Atlantic world will need to rethink how the two regions were interconnected and how free and unfree Africans created social and economic niches for themselves in their new environments.” — Hispanic American Historical Review