Subordinate but proud: Curaçao's free blacks and mulattoes in the eighteenth century

Abstract

Focuses on the socio-economic position of free non-whites in 18th-c. Curaçao. The manumission rate was relatively high and consequently a large group of free non-whites was created. Blacks and mulattoes enjoyed religious freedom as well as considerable economic freedom. Their growing numbers and social and economic assertiveness alarmed the whites, who gradually admitted the most successful mulattoes in their circles.

Keywords

• Curaçao
• Social History