Seize Divining Slavery And Freedom: The Story Of Domingos Sodré, An African Priest In Nineteenth-Century Brazil (New Approaches To The Americas) Penned By João José Reis Conveyed As Physical Book

book gave me a whole new perspective on what slavery was like in a country other than the United States of America, I loved the authors approach writing the historic narrative, by combining legal and other records about the slaves life to form a narrative about what life was like for him and many in his situation.
With "ginzburian" taste this book in some ways remembers Carlo Ginzburgs the cheese and the worms because of his approach that takes on the train of cultural history and the microhistory with very little usage of theory and much, very much usage of documentation.
Since its

original publication in Portuguese in, this first English translation of Divining Slavery has been extensively revised and updated, complete with new primary sources and a new bibliography.
It tells the story of Domingos Sodré, an Africanborn priest who was enslaved in Bahia, Brazil in the nineteenth century, After obtaining his freedom, Sodré became a slave owner himself, and inwas arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen goods from slaves in exchange for supposed 'witchcraft'.
Using this incident as a catalyst, the book discusses African religion and its place in a slave society, analyzing its double role as a refuge for blacks as well as a bridge between classes and ethnic groups such as whites who attended African rituals and sought help from African diviners and medicine men.
Ultimately, Divining Slavery explores the fluidity and relativity of conditions such as slavery and freedom, African and local religions, personal and collective experience and identities in the lives of Africans in the Brazilian diaspora.
.