Caracas's cabildo considers 500 enslaved people for resale on credit

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...

The Archivo General de Indias catalog identifies a royal cédula dated 23 November 1592 addressed to Governor Diego de Osorio, in connection with a petition made by Simón de Bolívar. The archival...

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...

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,...

The Caracas cabildo petitioned the Crown for permission to bring 1,000 enslaved Africans into the province. This is a record of local officials seeking a larger coerced workforce, not evidence that...

A prosecutor of the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo ordered the seizure of property belonging to former governors Pedro Fajardo and Alonso Suárez del Castillo. A related Caracas record involved a...

Royal officers investigated a slave ship lost near Capatárida on the Falcón coast. After an accident, only two enslaved Africans remained in the area; the ship continued to Maracaibo, where the...

A cabildo order told shopkeepers not to conduct business with enslaved Black and mulatto people. The notice was proclaimed by Juan, a mulatto in a city official's service. It records restrictions on...