In this comprehensive collection of sources offered in Spanish and English, historian Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva compiled and edited 118 documents on enslaved people in Mexico, from 1520 to 1829. Sierra Silva uses features such as introductions to the volume and each chapter, a glossary, a timeline, maps, and a source essay to explain the actions and experiences of enslaved African and Asian people and their descendants. Featuring English and Spanish versions of each document on facing pages, the book guides us through nine chapters, each gathering documents around a particular theme: (chapter 1) conquest and physical domination, from 1520 to 1645; (chapter 2) slave trade in the Atlantic and Caribbean, from 1560 to 1681; (chapter 3) Transpacific slave trade, from 1570 to 1714; (chapter 4) rebellion and marronage, from 1537 to 1804; (chapter 5) Afro-Indigenous interactions, from 1538 to 1693; (chapter 6) religion and politics, from 1587 to 1787; (chapter 7) freedom papers, from 1581 to 1780; (chapter 8) debt and belonging, from 1590 to 1788; and (chapter 9) the vulnerability of freedom, from 1612 to 1829.

This documentary history is an essential tool for researchers, teachers, and students seeking to learn more about the enslaved and freed in colonial Mexico in both English- and Spanish-centered courses.