A royal cédula sends Simón de Bolívar’s petition to the governor of Venezuela

Maracaibo's council empowered Rodrigo de Argüelles to seek 250 enslaved people on credit for cattle raising and other production; Carora made a similar request. These were requests, not a verified...

Representatives of the province’s cabildos instructed procurator Simón de Bolívar to present 27 petitions to the Council of the Indies. These included a request to import 3,000 enslaved people from...

Caracas cabildo minutes noted that Portuguese trader Rui Gómez Bravo, sailing with a licensed slave ship bound for Cartagena, was forced to disembark at La Guaira. The source does not establish a...

Caracas’s municipal council had bought Antonio for service at the convent of San Francisco. After he escaped, the council ordered that he be sold wherever he was captured and that the proceeds be sent...

A royal cédula dated 13 May refers to a Portuguese holder of a canoe with thirty enslaved divers and service workers, including people described as from Guinea, as well as Indigenous people brought...

A royal cédula ordered the sending of 200 enslaved Africans to Nueva Andalucía. The order demonstrates colonial authorities' efforts to direct African forced labor to eastern Venezuela; the cited...

Caracas cabildo minutes identify Francisco, a Black man, as a public town crier. This official role makes visible a Black worker whose labor served public communication, even as the archive’s racial...

After labor shortages at Margarita's pearl grounds, Governor Pedro Fajardo sought 400 enslaved people for Margarita and 200 for Cumaná. A royal cédula dated 4 October ordered the request studied; it...

Caracas councilors discussed obtaining 500 enslaved people on credit for sale to local residents. The proposal reveals the cabildo's role in expanding the human trade through local credit; the meeting...

Church officials in Coro proposed using church funds to buy 12 enslaved Africans from Maracaibo to advance building work. Their appeal framed Indigenous population decline as a labor shortage,...