Abstract:<p>La mayoría de los teólogos y gente del común, de los siglos XVI y XVII, consideraban la esclavitud posible y aceptable. La legislación respecto a la esclavitud es más antigua que la entrada masiva de africanos al Nuevo Mundo. Data de las Siete Partidas de Alfonso el Sabio, promulgadas en el siglo XIII. El derecho indiano metropolitano y el provincial americano emitieron ordenanzas para satisfacer las necesidades legales de la población negra. El esclavo fue considerado un objeto de propiedad, como tal… Show more
This article explores how some enslaved Black Africans litigated for their freedom in Spanish royal courts in the sixteenth century on the basis that—as Christians—they had been unjustly enslaved in Africa. With a focus on the port cities of Seville and Cartagena, I explore how freedom litigation suits illuminate how individuals from starkly different social worlds and intellectual milieus—who inhabited the same urban sites—affected and shaped one another's intellectual landscapes. I trace how enslaved Africans’ epistemologies of just slavery shaped broader discourses on the just enslavement of Africans in the Spanish Empire.
This article explores how some enslaved Black Africans litigated for their freedom in Spanish royal courts in the sixteenth century on the basis that—as Christians—they had been unjustly enslaved in Africa. With a focus on the port cities of Seville and Cartagena, I explore how freedom litigation suits illuminate how individuals from starkly different social worlds and intellectual milieus—who inhabited the same urban sites—affected and shaped one another's intellectual landscapes. I trace how enslaved Africans’ epistemologies of just slavery shaped broader discourses on the just enslavement of Africans in the Spanish Empire.
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