“Mastering the Law is a rich and valuable contribution to the history of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic World, a necessary read for scholars of the African diaspora, and well suited to both graduate and undergraduate courses.”
—New West Indian Guide
“Salazar Rey passionately presents intriguing case studies that provide insights into ongoing debates about the function and processes of Spanish law codes and slavery in the Americas. These case studies effectively narrate evidence taken from multiple church and civil courts to demonstrate the legal persona of slaves in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Province of Cartagena.”
—Nicole von Germeten, author of Profit and Passion: Transactional Sex in Colonial Mexico— -
“Seven decades ago, historian Frank Tannenbaum argued that the Spanish and Portuguese endowed enslaved people with more legal and moral personality than the British Empire. Salazar-Rey returns to this persistent debate, drawing from the archives of the Spanish Empire's secular and religious courts. He focuses on the major Atlantic port city Cartagena de Indias (today in Colombia), questioning whether African slaves and their descendants found better opportunities and treatment through the Iberian empire’s legal system. Salazar-Rey’s numerous case studies of enslaved Afro-Iberians at court will fascinate readers with their quotidian detail of 16th- and 17th-century life. More importantly, these examples show that the Spanish legal system provided only a modicum of redress for slaves owned by the most powerful masters and imperial administrators. Too many enslaved people were excluded or tortured by the lash to prove they 'molded a legal ecology that was hostile but not monolithic'. Connecting personal experience to the historical record, Salazar-Rey explains in an affecting preface how, as an 18-year-old Guatemalan economic migrant, he hastily mastered legal procedures to fight for his right to employment, 'echo[ing] the experiences' of his subjects. This work demonstrates the author’s enormous potential as a rising scholar. Highly recommended."
—CHOICE— -