"Superb scholarship..a landmark work, an essencial source of knowledge for those who venture into the history, culture, and social life of the Afro-Atlantic world."--Antonio Benitez-Rojo, Amherst College

"The Masters and the Slaves redresses the stunning and disappointing dearth of studies of cultural theory in the Americas that are willing to look critically at the ideological uses of mestizaje as normative in the formation of the hemisphere’s racial democracies. Focused on but by no means limited to Brazilian cultural theory, the essays in this volume help to resituate discussions of slavery’s racial and social legacies in a much “deeper” south than is found even in the more recent comparative studies of literature in the Americas. Together they make a compelling case for rethinking the theoretical meanings and uses of mestizaje in American histories." -- George Handley, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Brigham Young University

"This is an excellent anthology. Containing provocative and theoretically sharp essays, it is an incisive and timely contribution to a growing and increasingly important field – the comparative analysis of slave and race relations in southern and northern Americas and the Caribbean. Critically deploying the varied ideological and political functions of “mestizaje,” The Masters and the Slaves provides a powerful critique of the exclusionary white-black racial binary that tends to dominate U.S.-centered discourse on slavery."--Abdul JanMohamed, English Department, University of California at Berkeley