title: Blacks and Blackness in Central America: Between Race and Place
author: Lowell Gudmundson
description: <div>&ldquo;This enlightening collection is destined to become essential reading for all those interested in the history of race, particularly as it pertains to the black presence in Central America. With its meticulous research, rich interpretive frameworks, and broad chronological sweep from the early colonial period into modern times, <I>Blacks and Blackness in Central America</I> will change how we think about racial mixture, nation-building, African survivals, black identity, and the development of society in Latin America. Thanks to this book, &lsquo;Afro-Central America&rsquo; will become standard language in the vocabulary of the African Diaspora.&rdquo;&mdash;<B>Ben Vinson III</B>, author of <I>Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free-Colored Militia in Colonial Mexico</I></div><br /><br /><div>&ldquo;This important collection of essays puts Central America firmly on the African Diaspora map. <I>Blacks and Blackness in Central America</I> is the one-stop volume that gathers together the leading scholars of the topic. They offer clear windows into their many years of research and discovery, collectively convincing the reader that Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica were far from marginal to the historical trajectories of people of African descent in the Americas.&rdquo;&mdash;<B>Matthew Restall</B>, author of <I>The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan</I></div><br /><br /><div>&ldquo;... [T]aken together, the essays in the volume go a long way toward addressing the complicated and messy topic of the history of blacks in Central America, and they certainly have the potential to lead to studies that will indeed transform the ways we think about the Atlantic world, race in Central America, and the construction of national identities.&rdquo;</div> (Elizabeth W. Kiddy <i>History: Reviews of New Books</i>)<br /><br /><div>&ldquo;A trailblazing effort, this volume represents an important contribution to Central American historiography and African diaspora studies. It should be considered required reading for students and specialists alike.&rdquo;</div> (Andrew Fisher <i>H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews</i>)<br /><br /><div>&ldquo;All the essays in this excellent volume, whether in colonial or post-colonial contexts across Central America, offer a new vision of blacks and&#160;blackness in the region.&rdquo;</div> (Dario A. Euraque <i>Ethnic and Racial Studies</i>)<br /><br /><div>&ldquo;[A] captivating addition to the growing historiographical discussion on race.&#160;Africans have populated the shores of Central America since the 1500s. Yet rarely has a single work brought together such diligent contributing authors who provide the depths of discussion in such fascinating, unraveling ways.</div> (Margery Coulson-Clark <i>Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians</i>)<br /><br /><div>&ldquo;[A] major contribution to the scholarly literature. . . .&rdquo;</div> (Anne S. Macpherson <i>American Historical Review</i>)
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  # The Case of the Negro
  
  
  ### Booker T. Washington
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  ALL attempts to settle the question of the Negro in the South by his removal
  from this country have so far failed,
  
  
  and I think that they are likely to fail. The next census will probably show
  that we have nearly ten million black
  
  
  people in the United States, about eight millions of whom are in the Southern
  states. In fact, we have almost a
  
  
  nation within a nation. The Negro population in the United States lacks but
  two millions of being as large as the
  
  
  whole population of Mexico, and is nearly twice as large as that of Canada.
  Our black people equal in number the
  
  
  combined populations of Switzerland, Greece, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba,
  Uraguay [sic], Santo Domingo,
  
  
  Paraguay, and Costa Rica. When we consider, in connection with these facts,
  that the race has doubled itself
  
  
  since its freedom, and is still increasing, it har