Joseph Francisco Caviedes petitions to buy his freedom with saved wages

An incomplete file titled “Liberation of an enslaved woman” names María, a mulatta child about three years old, and identifies her mother Francisca as mulatta. The surviving description does not...

Francisco de Suñiga, identified as a free moreno, accompanied the capture of Spanish smugglers in Choroní. The case concerned contraband that included dealings in enslaved Africans and foreigners. His...

A report to the Crown discussed a dispute involving an enslaved Black man captured by an enemy and then escaped from that captor. The catalog description preserves neither the man’s name nor the final...

A royal cédula established the Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas and granted it privileged trade between Spain and Venezuela. The company later helped organize the colonial export economy,...

While seeking to capture the maroon leader Andresote, governor Sebastián García de la Torre issued a proclamation declaring him a traitor and offering 600 pesos and pardon to whoever killed him. The...

Thousands of cultivators and residents, many described by the Venezuelan chronology as being of African origin, entered Caracas with Juan Francisco de León and reached Chacao. They demanded the end of...

Juan Francisco de León and a large crowd reached Caracas’s Plaza Mayor and asked the city council to judge whether the Guipuzcoan Company had benefited or harmed the royal treasury. Their demands...

At De León’s request, the Caracas council held an open meeting attended by 97 people and unanimously signed a critique of the company. The council blamed it for shortages and high prices of Spanish...

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...