Spanish Crown liberalizes the slave trade to Caracas Province

Juan Francisco de León surrendered to Spanish authorities and gave testimony in the Caracas city council chamber. The surrender followed the 1749–1752 movement against the Guipuzcoan Company and its...

Governor Felipe Ricardos ordered Juan Francisco de León and his son Nicolás sent to the La Carraca prison in Cádiz. Other supporters were executed or imprisoned. This punishment extended the...

A royal cédula established a Caracas-based intendancy with authority over royal revenue and military administration across Venezuela, Cumaná, Guayana, Maracaibo, Trinidad, Margarita, and related...

A royal order dated 13 June 1777 permitted merchants and planters in parts of colonial Venezuela to acquire enslaved Africans in foreign colonies, chiefly through exchanges involving livestock,...

The Crown placed Cumaná, Guayana, Maracaibo, Trinidad, and Margarita under the governmental and military authority of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, headquartered in Caracas. The decree...

Juana Ignacia, described in the file as enslaved, sought through the Caracas Síndico Procurador to be sold by her owner Rafael Arjona. The surviving case is a legal appeal about a change of owner, not...

A royal cédula dated 24 November 1791 granted Spanish and foreign traders conditional permission to traffic enslaved Africans with the Captaincy General of Caracas and other Spanish American...

Francisca Mesones, an enslaved woman, presented a case to the Audiencia of Caracas concerning her son Simón, a free man, and his marriage to Soledad Ponce, who was enslaved. The court ruled for...

At the Macanillas estate in Curimagua, enslaved and free Afro-descendant and Indigenous people rose against colonial rule. The insurgents called for abolition of slavery, an end to alcabala...

After new outbreaks of violence on 12 May, colonial authorities intensified repression. The Coro revolt was defeated, but its demands for freedom, abolition of slavery, and the removal of burdensome...