Across National Borders, Across Color Lines: How a Brazilian Soldier Became a Poster Child for US Abolitionism

For many Black Atlantic Creoles, social and geographic mobility were mutually enabling strategies that often produced a dynamic, fluid racial awareness determined by the cultural context and social environment. This shifting self-representation is evident in the inter-American networking strategies of Emiliano Felipe Benício Mundrucú (1791–1863), a Brazilian militiaman, entrepreneur, and activist. As Mundrucú crossed national borders, he also crossed color lines, downplaying or centering his racial identity depending on the stakes at hand. This article investigates Mundrucú’s upward mobility as a product of social exchange and migration, focusing on how his racial image was animated by South American racial landscapes and the interests of North American abolitionist elites. An analysis of the discursive practices underlying Mundrucú’s inter-American networking traces the racialized manifestations of social capital, including but not limited to Black respectability politics, back to the centuries-long efforts of Black Atlantic Creoles to navigate race and racism.