Divining Slavery and Freedom

João José Reis is Professor of History at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. An award-winning historian and lifetime Honorary Foreign Member of the American Historical Association, he has published extensively on the history of slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil. H. Sabrina Gledhill is the author of many scholarly articles, essays and book chapters, and has translated over thirty books.

• Preface; 1. Cops and Candomblé in Domingos Sodré's day; 2. From an African in Onim to a slave in Bahia; 3. Domingos Sodré, diviner; 4. Witchcraft and slavery; 5. Witchcraft and manumission; 6. Meet some friends of Domingos Sodré, 7. Domingos Sodré; Epilogue.

'The main character in this book was an African born in Lagos and taken to Brazil on a slave ship; but there he obtained manumission and became owner of slaves. Although a diviner and healer, the leading figure of a candomblé house of worship, Domingos Sodré married in a Catholic church. He led a society devoted to buying the freedom of enslaved Africans; however, the organization lent money for a profit. João José Reis offers a brilliant account of the complexities of life in Atlantic slavery. This book is an instant classic.' Sidney Chalhoub, University of Campinas, Brazil