Hidden Lives of Jews and Africans: Underground Societies in the Iberian Atlantic World

by Jonathan Schorsch

The 16th- and 17th-century Iberian Atlantic was a turbulent world of adventurers, slave traders, and forced conversion to Catholicism. The Spanish and Portuguese rulers used caste and "blood" to divide the peoples of the empire, who, in turn, created their own societies to cope with their oppressors and one another. Converted Africans and Jews were persecuted in the Inquisition for secretly practicing their former religions. The Africans working in the jails of the Inquisition wielded power over the accused converted Jews (Conversos). Some were witnesses for the Inquisition; others became messengers between Converso prisoners. In this tangle of religions, cultures, and hierarchies, nothing was simple or straightforward. A conflict between two surgeons in Cartagena de Indias, one a former slave and the other a Converso, involved not only jealous lovers and persecution at the hands of Inquisitors, but also secret societies, African magic, and worldwide conspiracy theories. Another Inquisition case, against a woman known as "Mulatta Marano," the daughter of an African slave woman and a Converso father in Mexico, revealed a network of Africans engaged in Jewish rites.

Genres: Judaism

312 pages, Paperback

Published July 22, 2019

Reviews

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Schorsch has a gold mine of information in The Hidden Lives of Jews and Africans . Research and interpreting against the grain of information is a new technique I've never heard of before reading this book. There are some editing errors and Schorsch needs an editor to clean up his writing; it was hard to keep track of the main narrative of the book at times. I felt like each chapter was its own essay that had been compiled for this book. I appreciate the main premise of The Hidden Lives of Jews and Africans ; seeing how Jewish conversos and Afroiberans perceived each other in Atlantic society sparks so many ideas and thoughts in my mind about situations and research topics. I think it is a tragic part of history that there aren't more primary sources on things because of a lack of literacy or care on the part of people back then. Jonathan Schorsch does produce many definite answers in The Hidden Lives of Jews and Africans but he produces ideas and questions that stick with the reader after they've finished this book.