Traces the history of a community of free people of African descent from its 18th-century beginnings to the present, relying on family reconstitution methods to trace the history of whole families through several generations. Contains a brilliant exploration of how free blacks and mulattoes in Caimito constructed group identity and solidarity in opposition to an encroaching State. The 19th-century chapters, which constitute the book's core, provide valuable insights on issues such as the social marginality in an emerging plantation economy; the family and the demographic history of the free black group; peasant resistance to the State and to landowners; and the social meaning of race, among others. Unfortunately, neither intra-community conflict nor the actual class influences on the ever-encroaching State are adequately explored. For the 20th century, coverage of key issues (e.g., the family) is sparse. Nonetheless, this is a praiseworthy attempt to reconstruct the social history of a marginal community across more than two centuries. [FAS]