Mine register records the death of Juan Bran

A census dated 19 November covered enslaved Black men in the towns of Tucani and Torondoy, in the jurisdiction of Mérida. The record’s date and place connect the counting of enslaved people to rural...

A census for the Valle del Río de Castro, within Mérida’s jurisdiction, listed twenty-one enslaved Black men across estates. Some entries preserve names, kin relationships, and African or locally born...

Pedro Hernández Galarza’s census in the Valle de los Bobures listed enslaved people by estate, naming people identified as Angola, Congo, Matamba, Malemba, and locally born. The document reports sixty...

A Caracas cabildo land register, described as a “sensuario a solares,” names nineteen Black, mulatto, and morena women. Some are explicitly identified as free; the record does not establish that every...

A Cocorote mine register recorded the death of Antonio Cachanga, an enslaved Black man, on 4 July 1662. The entry notes three yards of coarse cloth used for his burial shroud. Its attention to the...

The Cocorote mine register records that Miguel, described as a married enslaved man, died on 16 October 1663. It lists the cotton cloth used for his burial. The record briefly makes visible a family...

Caracas cabildo minutes record an official asking for the whereabouts of Francisco de Aguirre Villela. Manuel, described as his enslaved mulatto, replied that his master was in the countryside. The...

Councilors cited the deaths of enslaved people from disease and the loss of Indigenous labor while proposing that the Crown license 500 or 1,000 more enslaved Africans. The record links epidemic...

A Caracas cabildo record copied a will attributed to Rafael de Flettes. It directed his executors to sell six enslaved people judicially, for cash or on credit, and place the proceeds into a rent...

A debt or annuity instrument issued in El Tocuyo listed Baltasar, aged fourteen, and Luis, aged forty, as enslaved Black men among the security for an obligation benefiting the local hospital. Their...