Bound lives

"Bound Lives chronicles the lived experience of race relations in northern coastal Peru during the colonial era. Rachel Sarah O'Toole examines how Andeans and Africans negotiated and employed casta and, in doing so, constructed these racial categories. Royal and vice regal authorities separated 'Indians' from 'blacks' by defining each according to specific labor demands. Casta categories did the work of race, yet not all casta categories were uniformly applied since Andeans, Africans, and their descendants were bound by their locations within colonialism and slavery. The secular colonial legal system clearly favored indigenous populations. Andeans were afforded greater protections as native vassals, whereas Africans were often subject to the judgements of local slaveholding authorities. Africans claimed new kinships to protect themselves in disputes with their captors and countered slaveholders' claims on their time and labor by invoking customary practices."--p. [4] of cover.