Bearing arms for his majesty
Subtitle: the free-colored militia in colonial Mexico
By: Ben Vinson III
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 304
Subjects: Blacks -- Mexico; Freemen -- Mexico; Sociology, Military -- Mexico; New Spain -- Militia -- Minorities; Spain -- Colonies -- America -- Defenses
Description: "This study uses the participation of free-colored men, whether mulatos, pardos, or morenos (i.e., Afro-Spaniards, Afro-Indians, or "pure blacks"), in New Spain's militias as a prism for examining race relations, racial identity, racial categorization, and issues of social mobility for racially stigmatized groups in Colonial Mexico.

By 1793, nearly 10 percent of New Spain's population was made up of people who could trace some African ancestry - people subject to more legal disabilities and social discrimination than mestizos, who in turn fell below white creoles, who in turn fell below the Spanish-born, in the stratified and caste-like society of Colonial Spanish America."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-293) and index