Republics of Difference: Religious and Racial Self-Governance in the Spanish Atlantic World

Spanish monarchs recognized the jurisdictions of many self-governing corporate groups, such as Jews, Muslims, indigenous peoples, and enslaved and free people of African descent, which is examined in Karen B. Graubart's book Republics of Difference. This study offers a new understanding of the distinct standings of these communities in their urban settings and the limits, benefits, and dangers of living under one's own law in the Spanish empire.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 10 August 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Spanish monarchs acknowledged the authority of numerous self-governing corporate groups, encompassing Jews and Muslims on the peninsula, indigenous peoples in their American colonies, and enslaved and free individuals of African descent throughout the empire. The study, titled Republics of Difference, explores fifteenth-century Seville and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Lima to examine the functioning of religiously and racially-based self-governance in a society with diverse legal systems. By comparing these marginalized communities on both sides of the Spanish Atlantic world, the study offers a fresh perspective on the distinct positions of these communities within their urban contexts. Drawing on legal and commercial records from late medieval Spain and colonial Latin America, Karen B. Graubart paints insightful portraits of the daily lives of residents to highlight the discriminatory barriers as well as the occupational structures, social hierarchies, and networks in which they thrived. Through this analysis, she demonstrates the limitations, benefits, and dangers of living under one's own law in the Spanish empire, including the ways in which self-governance enabled certain communities to preserve their practices and cultures over time.

Weight: 654g
Dimension: 241 x 159 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190233839