"Combining modern scholarship with a wealth of documentary and archival evidence, this is an authoritative portrait of the lives of slaves and freed persons of colour in colonial Brazil." "Using a direct and accessible style, the author charts the working conditions, domestic lives, preoccupations, and aspirations of slaves and their fellow freedmen. In a work which underlines the validity and importance of minority histories, he argues that the slaves and freedmen of colonial Brazil maintained and preserved their own cultural identity, taking decisions independently of the white ruling class. The result is not a history of extremes - black and white, slave and master - but instead an account of the ambiguities surrounding issues of race, freedom, and the individual, which provides much insight not only into the past and present of Brazil, but also into areas of racial and social identity." "With an extensive preface outlining recent developments in the field, and a full and updated bibliography, this new edition of a groundbreaking work constitutes essential reading for students and historians alike."--BOOK JACKET.