The Year of the Lash: Free People of Color in Cuba and the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments The development and completion of The Year of the Lash has been a shared journey. This project would not have come to fruition without the initial support of several faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. I owe a special thanks to Aline Helg and Toyin Falola, who shepherded the dissertation phase of this study and continued to make suggestions as I converted the work into a book manuscript. I would also like to thank Jonathan Brown, Ginny Burnett, Susan Deans-Smith, Myron Gutmann, James Sidbury, and Pauline Strong for their guidance and support. Critical financial assistance from the following institutions and organizations facilitated research in Cuba and Spain: the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of History, Institute of Latin American Studies, College of Liberal Arts, and Study Abroad Office; the Fulbright Commission , the Conference on Latin American History, and the Program for Cultural Cooperation at the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports in United States Universities. The knowledgeable staff at the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid, and the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, and the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística in Havana, as well as the insights of Asmaa Bourhass, Tomás Fernández Robaina, Fé Iglesias García, and Pedro Pablo Rodríguez enriched this study. Numerous institutions provided financial support for revising the manuscript. A postdoctoral fellowship from the Center for the Americas at Wesleyan University enabled me to initiate changes and conduct xii / acknowledgments additional research. I especially thank Ann Wightman, who provided early comments on converting the dissertation to book form, as well as Demetrius Eudell, Patricia Hill, Kēhaulani Kauanui, Claire Potter, Lorelle Semley, Anthony Webster, and Carol Wright for creating a collegial atmosphere in which to nurture this project. I also thank Adriana Naveda Chavez-Hita for her guidance and Irina Córdoba for her research assistance in Mexico. Scholarships from the Newberry Library and the University of Florida allowed me to explore their rich collections, and funding from my home institution, Georgia State University, facilitated indexing and the presentation of chapters-in-progress at conferences. I would also like to thank Jeff Needell and Richard Phillips for their assistance and hospitality in Gainesville. A postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University’s Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry and a summer scholarship from the John Carter Brown Library enabled me to complete manuscript revisions. My interdisciplinary reading group with Regine Jackson, Esther Jones, and Yael Simpson Fletcher was phenomenal, and Yael’s editorial and indexing skills have been invaluable. Lively discussions with staff and scholars in both settings , particularly Keith Anthony, Colette Barlow, Martine Brownley, Amy Erbil, Hazel Gold, Philip Misevich, Mark Sanders, and Rivka Swenson in Atlanta, and Nicholas Dew, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Evelina Guzauskye, Javier Villa-Flores, Ted Widmer, and Ken Ward in Providence , helped enhance this work, as well as my developing project on race, freedom, and migration in the age of revolution. Several scholars took time from their busy schedules to review individual chapters and offer insightful suggestions. Toyin Falola, Aline Helg, and Jane Landers provided important commentary on the opening sections. Caroline Cook, Mark Fleszar, Frank Guridy, and Jeffrey Lesser shared unique perspectives on analyzing black mobility and Rachel O’Toole offered thoughtful questions regarding urban labor and black resistance. Amanda Lewis, Ben Narvaez, and Christine Skwiot’s expertise on the Chinese in the Caribbean and Spanish America and labor migration, respectively, aided the formulation of the final chapter. Sandra Frink read multiple versions of the conclusion with patience and a critical eye toward illuminating the humanity of free people of color until the last word. I received additional intellectual support from scholars and friends at Georgia State University (GSU) and across the country. At GSU, my thanks go out to Mohammed Hassen Ali, Robert Baker, Carolyn Biltoft, Kimberly Cleveland, Ian Fletcher, Jonathan Gayles, Amira Jamarkani, acknowledgments / xiii Kelly Lewis, Jared Poley, Jake Selwood, Shelley Stevens, Cassandra White, and Kate Wilson for their intellectual exchange and friendship. I bounced professional and personal issues off of mi hermano, Charles Beaty-Medina, and mis hermanas Beauty Bragg, Jenifer Bratter, Margo Kelly, and Anju Reejhsinghani. Adventures and conversations with Abou Bamba, Denise Blum, Sherwin Bryant, David and Sasha Cook, Duane Corpis, Michal Friedman, Kristin Huffine, Russ Lohse, Gillian McGillivray, Marc McLeod, Kym Morrison, Melina Pappademos, Lauren Ristvet, and David Sartorius also informed this...