Interview with Michele Reid-Vazquez about her book, The Year of the Lash

THE YEAR OF THE LASH reveals the untold story of the strategies of negotiation used by free blacks in the aftermath of the “Year of the Lash”—a wave of repression in Cuba during the mid-1800s that had great implications for the Atlantic World for two decades. Drawing on archival material from Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and the United States, Michele Reid-Vazquez provides a critical window into understanding how free people of color challenged colonial policies of terror and pursued justice on their own terms using formal and extralegal methods.

The Early American Places (EAP) series focuses on historical developments in specific places of North America. Though these developments often involved far-flung parts of the world, they were experienced in particular communities—the local places where people lived, worked, and made sense of their changing worlds. By restricting its focus to smaller geographic scales, but stressing that towns, colonies, and regions were part of much larger networks, EAP will combine up-to-date scholarly sophistication with an emphasis on local particularities and trajectories.

This is the second video featuring an EAP author. In each video, the author is asked three questions:
1) Why did you focus your research on this particular place/area/region?
2) Please tell us a little more about your book.
3) Is your study specific to your area or is it applicable to other places/area/regions?