Royal cédula extends slave-trade privileges to Caracas province

A royal cédula established a Caracas-based intendancy with authority over royal revenue and military administration across Venezuela, Cumaná, Guayana, Maracaibo, Trinidad, Margarita, and related...

A royal order dated 13 June 1777 permitted merchants and planters in parts of colonial Venezuela to acquire enslaved Africans in foreign colonies, chiefly through exchanges involving livestock,...

The Crown placed Cumaná, Guayana, Maracaibo, Trinidad, and Margarita under the governmental and military authority of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, headquartered in Caracas. The decree...

A royal cédula authorized Spanish and foreign merchants to trade enslaved Africans with Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and the Province of Caracas under specified rules. The measure treated...

Juana Ignacia, described in the file as enslaved, sought through the Caracas Síndico Procurador to be sold by her owner Rafael Arjona. The surviving case is a legal appeal about a change of owner, not...

Francisca Mesones, an enslaved woman, presented a case to the Audiencia of Caracas concerning her son Simón, a free man, and his marriage to Soledad Ponce, who was enslaved. The court ruled for...

At the Macanillas estate in Curimagua, enslaved and free Afro-descendant and Indigenous people rose against colonial rule. The insurgents called for abolition of slavery, an end to alcabala...

After new outbreaks of violence on 12 May, colonial authorities intensified repression. The Coro revolt was defeated, but its demands for freedom, abolition of slavery, and the removal of burdensome...

The Real Audiencia of Caracas sentenced Chirino after the suppression of the 1795 revolt. The case criminalized an anti-slavery rebellion that had challenged colonial rule, racial hierarchy, and...

Spanish colonial authorities uncovered a republican conspiracy organized by Manuel Gual and José María España. Its participants included pardos, free people of African descent, and some enslaved...