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‘Por que no sabemos firmar’: Black Slaves in Early Guatemala*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robinson A. Herrera
Robinson A. Herrera*
Affiliation:
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
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Extract

Juan, a literate black slave born and raised in the Spanish town of Cáceres, labored for at least five years during the 1560s in the Honduran gold mines of Guayape. Finally, growing tired of the arduous work of placer mining and taking advantage of his isolation, he made a bid for freedom. Upon hearing of Juan's flight, his owner, a wealthy Santiago-based merchant named Santos de Figueroa, immediately began the process of securing Juan's recovery. Eventually Juan made his way to Santo Domingo where unfortunately he was captured and Figueroa notified of his whereabouts. It remains unknown if Juan was actually returned to Santiago or if Figueroa instead preferred to sell him, a rather common occurrence in cases of runaway slaves.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 57 , Issue 2: The African Experience in Early Spanish America , October 2000 , pp. 247 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2000

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was made possible by a fellowship from the Del Amo Foundation. Writing was made possible in part by a First Year Assistant Professor Summer Research Grant from the Florida State University (FSU). Completion was permitted by a sabbatical from the Department of History at FSU. I am grateful to Jane Landers, Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts. “Por que no sabemos firmar” (because we are unable to sign) appears often in notarial documents involving illiterate peoples. Literacy during the period, a topic as of yet not deeply studied, proved somewhat rare. While few people could completely read and write, more could sign their names and many more could at least manage a rough rubric. Those that could not write at all usually asked the notary or a witness to sign for them. The use of this phrase, thus, seems apropos given that literacy was extremely rare among Black slaves. Additionally in every single document consulted involving the need for Black slaves to sign, someone else inevitably did so in their place. Consequently the historical voice of Black slaves living in sixteenth-century Spanish Central America rarely appears directly, to date no diaries or other such documents have come to light and only a smattering of wills have been discovered, but rather indirectly.

References

1 Archivo General de Centro América (from here on abbreviated as AGCA). A1.20.437.8840.f.12236 (1-18-68).

2 One document states in Comayagua alone (a place of relatively large silver mining activity) 400 Blacks labored. See Alvarez-Lobos Violator, Carlos Alfonso and Palm, Ricardo Toledo, editors. Libro de los Pareceres de la Real Audiencia de Guatemala, 1571–1655 (Guatemala: Academia de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala, Biblioteca Goathemala, 5. 32, 1996), p. 23.Google Scholar For a general discussion of silver production in the area see Newson, Linda A., “Silver Mining in Colonial Honduras,” Revista de Historia de América 97 (1984), pp. 46–75.Google Scholar

3 See Lockhart, James, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560: A Social History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, first edition 1968);Google Scholar Bowser, Frederick P., The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524–1650 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974);Google Scholar and Palmer, Colin A., Slaves of the White God: Blacks in Mexico, 1570–1650 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the later colonial period see Carroll, Patrick James, Blacks in Colonial Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, and Regional Development (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991);Google Scholar and Cope, Douglas, The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660–1720 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994).Google Scholar For the nineteenth century see Blanchard, Peter, Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Books, 1992);Google Scholar and Hünefeldt, Christine, Paying the Price of Freedom, Family and Labor among Lima's Slaves, 1800–1854 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).Google Scholar Triana y Antorveza recently produced a well-written general history with useful documentation. See Triana y Antorveza, Humberto, Léxico documentado para la historia del negro en América (Siglos XV-XIX), Tomo I: Estudio preliminar (Santafé de Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Biblioteca “Ezequiel Uricoechea,” 1997).Google Scholar

4 MacLeod’s work remains a classic in its incorporation of Black slaves as part of the larger colonial society. See MacLeod, Murdo J., Spanish Central America : A Socioeconomic History, 1520–1720 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).Google Scholar Despite some shortcomings the work of Martínez Peláez deserves mention for the inclusion of free and slave Blacks as part of the larger Guatemalan colonial society. See Peláez, Severo Martínez, La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca (Guatemala: Talleres de Ediciones en Marcha, 1973).Google Scholar

5 A few scholars have briefly examined the roles of Black slaves in Spanish Central America. See Fircher, Thomas, “Hacia una definición de la esclavitude en la Guatemala colonial,” translated by Marenco, Daisy de, Pensamiento Centroamericano N. 153 (Octubre-Diciembre, 1976), pp. 41–55;Google Scholar Boland, Nigel, “Colonization and Slavery in Central America,” Slavery and Abolition 15:2 (August, 1994), pp. 11–25;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Palm de Lewin, Beatriz, “La esclavitud de negros en Guatemala,” Memoria Primer Encuentro Nacional de Historiadores, Guatemala, Noviembre 24–26 de 1993 (Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos, 1994), pp. 103–114.Google Scholar Christopher Lutz undertook the study of Blacks as part of larger quantitative works. See Lutz, Christopher H., “Santiago de Guatemala, 1541–1773: The Socio-Demographic History of a Spanish American Colonial City.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1976;Google Scholar Santiago de Guatemala, 1541–1773, City, Caste, and the Colonial Experience (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994).

6 Martínez Peláez serves as a prime example. See Peláez, Severo Martínez, La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca (Guatemala: Talleres de Ediciones en Marcha, 1973), pp. 82, 272–279.Google Scholar See also Jiménez, Alfredo, editor, Antroplogía histórica: La Audiencia de Guatemala en el Siglo XVI (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 1997);Google Scholar and Sifontes, Francis Polo, Historia de Guatemala: Visión de conjunto de su desarollo político-cultural (León, Spain: Editorial Evergraficas, 1988).Google Scholar

7 Olsen provides a solid synthesis of approaches to the use of documentary sources for the reconstruction of the Black past. See Olsen, Margaret M., “ Negros horros and Cimarrones on the Legal Frontiers of the Caribbean: Accessing the African Voice in Colonial Spanish American Texts,” Research in African Literatures 29:4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 52–72.Google Scholar

8 Blacks held onto many of aspects of their cultures, despite an intense pressure for them to conform to the cultural norms of their owners; see Viotti da Costa, Emilia, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1812 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 77–78.Google Scholar

9 For a grand narrative of these events see Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume VI: History of Central America, Volume I, 1501–1530 (San Francisco: A.L.Bancroft and Company, Publishers, 1882);Google Scholar and Díaz del Castillo, Bernal, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (México: Editorial Patria, Second Edition, 1997, first printed in 1632).Google Scholar A more recent account appears in Kramer, Wendy, Encomienda Politics in Early Colonial Guatemala (Boulder: West-view Press, 1994), pp. 25–46.Google Scholar

10 See Annis, Verle Lincoln, The Architecture of Antigua Guatemala, 1543–1773 (Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 1968), pp. 1–4.Google Scholar

11 See MacLeod, Spanish Central America.

12 See Davison, Fernando González, Guatemala 1500–1970, Reflexiones sobre su desarrollo histórico (Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 1987), p. 9.Google Scholar

13 Juan Carlos Reyes, G., “Negros y afromestizos en Colima, siglos XVI-XIX,” edited by Martínez Montiel, Luz María, Presencia africana en México (México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y la Artes, 1997, first printed in 1995), pp. 259–335, 265.Google Scholar

14 See Matthew Restall, “Black Conquistadors: Armed Africans in Early Spanish America, The Americas, this issue; Gerhard, Peter, “A Black Conquistador in Mexico,” Hispanic American Historical Review 58 (1978), pp. 451–459;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Lockhart, James, The Men of Cajamarca: A Social and Biographical Study of the First Conquerors of Peru (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), pp. 35–36, 380–84;Google Scholar and Kamen, Henry, “El negro en hispanoamérica (1500–1700),” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 28 (1971), pp. 121–137.Google Scholar For a discussion of Blacks in the military during the whole of the colonial period see Voelz, Peter M., Slave and Soldier, The Military Impact of Blacks in the Colonial Americas (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993).Google Scholar

15 See Pardo, José Joaquin, Efemérides para escribir la historia de la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Santiago de Los Caballeros del Reino de Guatemala (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional, 1944), p. 8.Google Scholar Pardo’s claim has been repeated unquestioningly for decades. See for example Valladares de Ruiz, Mayra, “Capitulo IV, Estructura social de la colonia,” In Toledo, Mario Monteforte, editor, Las formas y los días: El barroco en Guatemala (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario: Turner Libros, 1989), pp. 51–62.Google Scholar

16 See AGCA. Al.29. 4677. 40220. (1565) Probanza de Méritos de Juan Bardales.

17 Rout states that Black slaves accompanied Pedro de Alvarado but fails to cite the source. See Rout, Leslie B., The African Experience in Spanish America (London: Cambridge University Press, 1976), p. 75.Google Scholar See also Restall, , “Black Conquistadors,” The Americas, this issue.Google Scholar

18 See Licencia para esclavos de Juan Rodríguez Palma: Archivo General de Indias (from here on abbreviated as AGI): Sig.: Guatemala, 393,1. 1, f. 16 (fechas extremas 5-24-32).

19 Licencia de esclavos a Eugenio Moscoso AGI: Sig.: Guatemala, 393, 1. 1, f. 49v-50 (fechas extremas 8-5-32) and Licencia de esclavos a Gabriel de Hurueña AGI: Sig.: Guatemala, 393,1.1, f.73v-74 (fechas extremas 11-27-32). Licencia para pasar esclavos a Gonzalo de Ronquillo, AGI: Sig.: Guatemala, 393,1. 1, f. 113-113v (fechas extremas 2-6-35).

20 For a brief analysis of the Black slave trade in sixteenth-century Guatemala see my “The African Slave Trade in Early Santiago,” Urban History Workshop Review 4 (Fall, 1998), pp. 6–12.

21 See Gibson, Charles, Spain in America (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1966), p. 114.Google Scholar

22 See Curtin, Philip D., The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex, Essays in Atlantic History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, first edition 1990), p. 10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 For discussion of areas of origin and the black slave trade in general see Conrad, Robert Edgar, World of Sorrow, The African Slave Trade in Brazil (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986);Google Scholar Curtin, Philip D., The Atlantic Slave Trade. A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969);Google Scholar and Klein, Herbert S., Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

24 Work with local seventeenth-century documents might well answer this important question.

25 See Klein, Herbert S., Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 147–148.Google Scholar For the seventeenth century see Law, Robin, The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550–1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 167.Google Scholar

26 See AGCA. A1.20. 1362. 9853. f. 154 (5-31-44) and AGCA. Al .20. 439. 8842. f. 12606(6-12-70).

27 Compare with AGCA. A1.20. 446. 8849. f. 14428 (6-21-84), AGCA. A1.20. 2023. 14005. f. 31 (3-3-84), AGCA. Al.20. 424. 8827. f. 136 (10-16-86), and AGCA. A1.20. 445. 8848. f. 13832 (12-30-81).

28 Credit, although relatively little studied for the sixteenth century, served as the basis for the local economy. The near complete lack of liquid capital mandated the existence of a complex credit structure in early Guatemala. For excellent discussions of credit in the later colonial period see Quiroz, Alfonso W., Deudas olividadas: Instrumentos de crédito en la economía colonial Peruana 1750–1820 (Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontifica Universidad Católica del Peru, 1993);Google Scholar “Reassessing the Role of Credit in Late Colonial Peru: Censos, Escrituras and Imposiciones,” Hispanic American Historical Review 4 (1994), 193–230; Greenow, Linda, Credit and Socioeconomic Change in Colonial Mexico: Loans and Mortgages in Guadalajara, 1720–1820 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1983).Google Scholar

29 See A1.20. 732. 9225. f. 52(5-9-44), f. 88 (2-21-44), AGCA. A1.20. 733. 9226. f. 43 (4-6-66), f. 176 (9-9-44), f. 178 (1-31-49), 231 (10-17-52), f. 300 (5-12-62), AGCA. A1.20. 734. 9227. f. 130 (12-f29-67); AGCA. A1.20. 807. 9301. f. 125 (7-18-75), AGCA. A 1.20. 1362. 9853. f. 168 (6-23-44); AGCA. A 1.20. 1489. 9969. f. 11 (12-30-54), and AGCA. Al.15. 4079. 32373. (4-3-83).

30 See note 26.

31 See AGCA. A1.20. 732. 9225. f. 110(3-3-44).

32 See AGCA. A1.20. 423. 8826. f. 100 (8-11-84). Guevara Sanginés mentions merchants acquiring black slaves as payment for debts in early Guanajuato. See Sanginés, María Guevara, “Particpación de Los africanos en el desarollo del Guanajuato colonial,” in Martínez Montiel, Luz María, editor, Presencia africana en México (México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y la Artes, 1997, first printed in 1995), pp. 133–198, 148.Google Scholar

33 See AGCA. A1.20. 734. 9227. f. 395 (12-9-68), “Last Will and Testament of Pedro Alemán,” AGCA. A1.20. 734. 9227. f. 395 (12-9-68) and AGCA. A1.20. 422. 8825. f. 3 (2-23-83).

34 See AGCA. A1.20. 1489. 9969. f. 41 (1-3-55) and AGCA. A1.20 424 8827 f. 140 (10-21-86).

35 I reserve a full discussion of resistance for a manuscript currently in progress.

36 Martínez Peláez mentions a black slave revolt that took place in Honduras in 1548. He does not elaborate, however, if the revolt resulted from the activity of cimmarones or whether it occurred sponta neously. See Peláez, Severo Martínez, La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca (Guatemala: Talleres de Ediciones en Marcha, 1973), p. 278.Google Scholar

37 Gage’s tendency to exaggerate makes use of his work problematic. See Gage, Thomas, Thomas Gage’s Travels in the New World, edited by Thompson, J. Eric (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958, third printing 1985, Gage’s original published in 1648), pp. 195–196.Google Scholar For other areas of Latin America see Carroll, Patrick J., “Mandinga: The Evolution of a Runaway Slave Community, 1735–1827,”. Comparative Studies in Society and History 19:4 (October, 1977), pp. 488–505;Google Scholar Franco, José L., “Maroons and Slave Rebellions in the Spanish Territories,” in Price, Richard, editor, Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), pp. 34–48;Google Scholar and Schwartz, Stuart B., Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels: Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992), pp. 103–36.Google Scholar

38 Although native slavery continued in isolated instances long after the Royal ban of 1548, the large number of native slaves that characterized the trade during its apex dwindled after the mid-sixteenth cen tury. See Sherman, William L., “Indian Slavery and the Cerrato Reforms,” Hispanic American Historical Review 51 (1971), pp. 25–50,Google Scholar and Forced Native Labor in Sixteenth-Century Central America (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979), pp. 129–188.

39 See AGI: Sig.: Guatemala, 393,1. 1, f. 42-43v and Sherman, , Forced Native Labor, pp. 64–67.Google Scholar

40 See AGCA. A1.20. 437. 8840. f. 12042(1-8-68) and AGCA. A1.20. 438. 8841. f. 12427 (3-17-69).

41 See Bowser, Frederick P., The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524–1650 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), pp. 83–84.Google Scholar

42 See AGCA. A1.20. 2023. 14005 f. 7 (1-4-84). At this time the term bianco, when used in conjunction with esclavo (slave), usually meant moor.

43 The original reads “en el brazo yzquierdo una señal a manera de quemadura y tiene losnerbios delbrazo un poco encoxidos” see AGCA. A1.20. 424 8827. f. 136 (10-16-86).

44 See AGCA. A1.20 437 8840 f. 12042 (1-8-68).

45 See Lockhart, James, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560, A Social History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, first edition 1968), pp. 204–05.Google Scholar

46 Borrowed from the Central Mexican region, the term principal referred to the native noble males who had been or were presently members of the municipal or ecclesiastical councils. See Hill, Robert M. II, Colonial Cakchiquels: Highland Maya Adaptation to Spanish Rule, 1600–1700 (Fort Worth: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich Publishers, 1992), p. 165.Google Scholar

47 See AGCA. A1.20. 441. 8844. f. 12789 (9-22-70).

48 The original reads “algunos dellos tien negros y negras que les sirven.” Although the passage does not specifically identify the Blacks in question as slaves the context leaves little doubt. See Pineda, Juan de, “Descripción de la Provincia de Guatemala, Año 1594” in Serrano y Sanz, Manuel, editor, Relaciones históricas y geográficas de América Central (Madrid: Librería General del Victoriano Suárez, 1908), p.442.Google Scholar Also quoted in McBryde, Felix Webster, Cultural and Historical Geography of Southwest Guatemala (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971, first edition 1947), pp. 13–14.Google Scholar

49 For excellent discussions of the native demographic decline in Guatemala see Carmack, Robert, Early, John, and Lutz, Christopher, editors, The Historical Demography of Highland Guatemala (Albany: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, 1982);Google Scholar George Lovell, W., Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala, A Historical Geography of the Cuchumatán Highlands, 1500–1821 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1985, revised edition 1992), pp. 67–72;Google Scholar Lutz, Christopher H., and Swezey, William R., “The Indian Population of Southern Guatemala, 1549–1551: An Analysis of López de Cerrato’s Tasaciones de Tributos,” The Americas 40 (1984), pp. 459–477;Google Scholar Veblen, Thomas T., “Native Population Decline in Totonicapán, Guatemala,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 67 (1977), pp. 484–499;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed Solano, Francisco de, “La población indígena de Guatemala (1492–1800),” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 26 (1969), pp. 279–355,Google Scholar and Acosta, Elías Zamora, “Conquista y crisis demográfica: la población indígena del occidente de Guatemala en el siglo XVI,” Mesoamerica 4 (1983), pp. 291–328.Google Scholar

50 See AGCA. A1.20. 734. 9227. f. 516 (7-28-68).

51 See AGCA. Al.20. 441. 8844. f. 12840(8-1570).

52 See MacLeod, , Spanish Central America, pp. 82–95.Google Scholar

53 See AGCA. A 1.20. 733. 9226. f.116 (7-18-70).

54 See Pike, Ruth, “Sevillian Society in the Sixteenth Century: Slaves and Freedmen,” Hispanic American Historical Review 47 (1967), pp. 344–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For slaves in provincial settings see Sanz, Vicente Graullera, La esclavitud en Valencia en Los siglos XVI y XVII (Valencia, 1978);Google Scholar and Silva, Alfonso Franco, Esclavitud en Andalucía, 1450–1550 (Spain: Universidad de Granada, 1992).Google Scholar

55 Here I use the word naboría to denote a native person dependent on a Spaniard (invariably an encomendero (holder of a grant to collect tribute) and not in its later usage of a paid native laborer.

56 Not once during the testimony of natives and Spaniards alike does Domingo receive the label of esclavo. Therefore it seems highly probable that he formed part of Santiago’s free Black population. AGCA. Al.15. 4076. 32349. (3-23-71).

57 Uncovering elements of Black culture for the period under study proves extremely elusive. In some cases, such as that of the marimba (xylophone), at least some scholars argue for African roots. See Fernández, Fernando Ortiz, “La afroamericana ‘marimba’,” Guatemala Indígena 6:4 (December 1971), pp. 9–43.Google Scholar

58 See Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule, A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983, first printed in 1964), p. 147.Google Scholar

59 See AGCA. A1.20. 423. 8826. f. 39 (6-28-84).

60 In contemporary Guatemala there exists little difference between commercial enterprises and the home, people operate bakeries, all manners of stores, and even medical clinics from the same building wherein they make their homes. Author’s Field Notes, Guatemala, 1990–1997.

61 See AGCA. A1.20. 423. 8826. f. 28 (6-15-84).

62 The word tiánguiz (from Nahuatl tianquiztla) was commonly used among the population of New Spain and subsequently Guatemala. For its use in New Spain see Lockhart, James, The Nahuas After the Conquest (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), p. 191.Google Scholar

63 See AGCA. Al.15. 4075. 32343. (12-6-77).

64 Compare to Lockhart, James and Otte, Enrique, editors, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, Sixteenth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976), p. 70.Google Scholar

65 See Autos Bienes de Difuntos: AGI: Sig.: Contratación 472, n. 4, r.9 (fechas extremas 8-5-67) and Autos de Bienes de Difuntos: Relaciones de Caudales de Bienes de Difuntos: Sig.: Contratación, 473, n. 1, r. 3 (fechas extremas 1568).

66 See Peláez, Severo Martínez, La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca (Guatemala: Talleres de Ediciones en Marcha, 1973), p. 276.Google Scholar For black slaves on large agricultural estates see Brockington, Lolita Gutiérrez, The Leverage of Labor: Managing the Cortés Haciendas in Tehuantepec, 1588–1688 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1989), pp. 126–142.Google Scholar

67 See AGCA. A1.20. 443. 8846. f. 13551 (1579).

68 See AGCA. A1.20. 444. 8847. f. 13730 (9-27-81).

69 See Lane, Kris, “Captivity and Redemption: Aspects of Slave Life in Early Colonial Quito and Popayán,” The Americas, this issue.Google Scholar

70 See AGCA. A1.20. 732. 9225. f. 16 (10-19-44).

71 See AGCA. A1.20. 442. 8845. f. 13084 (12-1-76).

72 See AGCA. A1.20. 438. 8841. f. 12397 (2-8-69).

73 Compare to Bowser, Frederick P., The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524–1650 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), p. 13.Google Scholar

74 See AGCA. A1.20. 1362. 9853 f. 130(5-19-44) and AGCA. A1.20. 444. 8847 f. 13644(5-23-81)

75 For a fuller discussion of silver mining in a Central American area see Newson, Linda A., “Silver Mining in Colonial Honduras,” Revista de Historia de América 97 (1984), pp. 46–75.Google Scholar

76 Compare to Bowser, , African Slave, p. 125.Google Scholar

77 Interestingly Bartolomé had runaway four months before the transaction took place. See AGCA. A1.20. 424. 8827. f. 217 (12-31-86).

78 See AGCA. A1.20. 446. 8849. f. 14428 (6-21-84) and AGCA. A 1.15. 4074. 32340. (5-8-76).

79 See Kicza, John E., Colonial Entrepreneurs: Families and Business in Bourbon Mexico City (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983), p. 207.Google Scholar

80 See AGCA. A1.20. 733. 9226. f. 74 (5-29-66).

81 The documents identify each as having the surname de Dueñas and not as a couple followed by de Dueñas. The former implies some sort of relation while the latter leaves little doubt that they would have been the chattel of Dueñas. See AGCA. A1.20. 807. 9301. f. 87 (3-26-75) and f. 125 (7-18-75).

82 Since the free woman undertook the transaction her husband’s owner did not require notification. See AGCA. A1.20. 422. 8825. f. 319 (4-16-83).

83 See my “The People of Santiago: Early Colonial Guatemala, 1538–1587,” Ph.D. dissertation, Uni versity of California, Los Angeles, 1997, pp. 254–318. The slave family has received greater attention in other parts of Latin America. See Chandler, David Lee, “Family Bonds and the Bondman: The Slave Family in Colonial Colombia,” Latin American Research Review 16:2 (1981), pp. 107–131;Google Scholar Hünefeldt, Christine, Paying the Price of Freedom, Family and Labor Among Lima’s Slaves (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 9–36;Google Scholar and Mattoso, Kátia de Queirós, “Slave, Free, and Freed Family Structures in Nineteenth-Century Salvador, Bahia,” Luso-Brazilian Review 25: 1 (Summer, 1988), pp. 69–84.Google Scholar

84 See Higman, B.W., “Methodological Problems in the Study of the Slave Family,” in Rubin, Vera and Tuden, Arthur, editors, Comparative Perspectives on Slavery in New World Plantation Societies (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1977), pp. 591–596;Google Scholar Schwartz, Stuart B., Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels: Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p. 10;Google Scholar Bush, Barbara, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 1650–1838 (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1990), pp. 85–86.Google Scholar

85 See for example Lavrin, Asunción, “Sexuality in Colonial Mexico: A Church Dilemma.” in Lavrin, Asunción, editor, Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), pp. 47–95.Google Scholar

86 See AGCA. A1.20. 734. 9227. f. 367 (10-29-68).

87 See AGCA. A1.20. 807. 9301. f. 85 (3-20-75). The wording “su muger” is ambiguous. It could either mean wedded spouse or concubine. Nevertheless it does imply much more than a fleeting relationship between Anton and Ysabel.

88 The original reads “negro esclavo Anton…casado con una yndia que se llama Margarita,” AGCA. A1.20 441. 8844. f. 12953 (3-14-73). See also AGCA. A1.20 441. 8844. f. 12954 (3-14-73).

89 See AGCA. Al.20. 733. 9226 f. 148 (8-25-44).

90 See AGCA. A1.20. 733. 9226 f. 74 (5-29-66).

91 Last Will and Testament of Juan de Léon de la Rua AGCA. A1.20. 440. 8843. f. 11902 (10-72).

92 The 1950s saw the beginning of the systematic study of Blacks in Guatemala’s colonial society. See Correa, Gustavo, El espíritu del mal en Guatemala (New Orleans, 1955).Google Scholar Later Lutz ably took up the challenge in his landmark study. See Lutz, Christopher H., “Santiago de Guatemala, 1541–1773: The Socio-Demographic History of a Spanish American Colonial City,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1976. See also note 5.Google Scholar

93 Compare to Bowser, , African Slave, p. 273.Google Scholar

94 See Kamen, , “El negro en hispanoamérica,” pp. 121–137, 136;Google Scholar and Restall, , “Black Conquistadors,” The Americas, this issue.Google Scholar

95 See Gage, Thomas, Thomas Gage’s Travels in the New World, edited by Thompson, Eric J. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958, third printing 1985, Gage’s original published in 1648), p. 197;Google Scholar also cited in Ibid: p. 136.

96 See Díaz Soler, Luis M., Historia de la esclavitud negra en Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1965), p. 251 also cited ibid: p. 136.Google Scholar

97 See Hanger, Kimberly S., Bounded Lives, Bounded Places, Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans 1769–1803 (Durham: Duke University press, 1997), p. 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

98 See AGCA. A1.20 424. 8827. f. 40 (6-6-86).

99 Komisaruk’s work promises to shed much needed light on Black and mixed-Black women in the late colonial period. See for example Komisaruk, Catherine, “‘The Work it Cost Me:’ The Struggles of Slaves and Free Africans in Guatemala, 1770–1825,” paper presented at The International Conference of the American Society for Ethnohistory, Mexico City, 1997.Google Scholar As well Paul Lokken’s (Department of History, University of Florida) and Leonardo Hernández’s (Department of History, Brown University) forthcoming dissertations will help towards the understanding of Blacks in Santiago’s militias and interethnic interaction, respectively.