Antonio escapes municipal enslavement in Caracas

A royal cédula authorized the purchase in Cabo Verde and Guinea and transport of 150 enslaved Africans to Margarita's pearl fishery. The order shows the Crown's role in organizing coerced labor across...

The Crown authorized the transport of 25 additional enslaved Africans to Margarita for fortification construction. Their coerced labor was to serve colonial defense infrastructure; the surviving...

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...

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...