"Intimate Bonds illuminates how slaves and free people of color challenged the hardening racial and social hierarchies of the eighteenth century. . . . The well-crafted blend of deep archival research and insightful prose makes Intimate Bonds a terrific addition to seminars on race, colonialism, and gender, as well as the Atlantic World, early America, early Latin America, and France." (Journal of Social History) "A striking and original study that will engage both scholars and students in its vivid exploration of families and people in eighteenth-century Atlantic France. Extensive and detailed archival research undergirds each narrative gem. The prose is simple and lively, hiding the author's hard work of empirically verifying familial and historical connections." (Sue Peabody, Washington State University) "Intimate Bonds is a deeply-researched book that offers an important intervention in the fields of early modern French and French Atlantic history. Analyzing a broader range of actors than previous historians, Jennifer L. Palmer sheds important new light on the contested, constructed, and shifting meanings of 'race' in the French Atlantic world." (Brett Rushforth, University of Oregon)
