Captivity and Redemption

Aspects of Slave Life in Early Colonial Quito and Popayán

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8877838
AutoresKris Lane (William & Mary, autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen57
Número2
Páginas225-246
Fecha de publicación2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Americas A Quarterly Review of Latin American History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-1615 • E-ISSN: 1533-6247
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/tam.2000.0011
OpenAlexW2061293730
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas19

In mid-July 1594 a notary recorded the last wishes of an elite woman on her deathbed in Quito. Ysabel de Baeza was a native of the old Kingdom of Granada, a four-time widow, owner of some houses in Seville and a modest estancia in Ambato, a few days' ride south of Quito. She also claimed five slaves: Magdalena and her four children, Luisa, Felipe, Juan, and Antón. Doña Ysabel's real estate was to go mostly to her children and grandchildren in Quito, but the fate of the slaves was more carefully circumscribed. Magdalena would serve her dying master's daughter for four years, after which she would be freed. Luisa was to serve Baeza's granddaughter, Leonor de Ayala, and Felipe a great-grandson, Alonso Bonifaz, both “until the time when they ransom themselves ( se rescaten ) and give each one on their own behalf four hundred pesos of current silver.” The younger Juan and Antón were to stay in the household of Baeza's executors until they also freed themselves, each for 300 pesos. The slaves were not to be sold by these temporary masters, and the 1,400 pesos thus collected was to be placed in a chaplaincy fund ( capellanía ) administered by Quito's Augustinians. The masses thus financed by the self-redemption of Ysabel Baeza's slaves would in turn help release her soul from the temporary captivity and untold pain of Purgatory

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Captivity · Elite · Estate · Literature · Political science · Purgatory · Ransom · Soul · Theology · Early Modern Women Writers · Historical Studies in Latin America · History · Latin American history and culture · Law · Philosophy