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Manumission on the Land: Slaves, Masters, and Magistrates in Eighteenth-Century Mompox (Colombia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2017

Edgardo Pérez Morales
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In the mid-1700s, the town of Mompox flourished in the Spanish viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada, today part of the Republic of Colombia. Built on the banks of the northern Magdalena River, an important waterway connecting the Andean interior with the Caribbean Sea, Mompox constantly buzzed with travelers and trade alike. Mompox was home to a community of merchants who profited handsomely from both legal trade and smuggling, their networks reaching places as far away as Lima in Peru and Cádiz in Spain. These merchants were frequently also slaveholders and landowners. On haciendas outside of town, slaves cultivated the land and tended large herds of cattle. They gathered wood and resins and hunted for game and jaguars (panthera onca) that preyed on livestock. Along with free people of color, slaves also worked as artisans, journeymen, and oarsmen on boats transporting goods and people up and down the river (see Figure 1).

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Law and History Review , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , May 2017 , pp. 511 - 543
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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2017 

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Footnotes

The author thanks Rebecca J. Scott, Jean M. Hébrard, Daniel Gutiérrez Ardila, María Eugenia Chaves, Adriana Chira, Eric Schewe, Carly Steinberger, and the anonymous reviewers for Law and History Review for their valuable help and suggestions.

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22. “Libro de compras,” ff. 5v–9v.

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24. Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to Alcalde Ordinario [Martín Ribón], Mompox, n.d., “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 804r–805v.

25. For a discussion of “negotiation and conflict” among slaves and masters in Brazil, see Reis, João José and Silva, Eduardo, Negociação e conflito. A resistência negra no Brasil escravista (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1989)Google Scholar. The idea of masters eliciting accommodation from their slaves seems particularly valuable to describe what happened in La Honda. See Bradley, K. R., Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire. A Study in Social Control (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 139–43Google Scholar.

26. McKinley, “Till Death,” 381–401; and Bradley, Slaves and Masters, 81–112.

27. Pinzón, Hermes Tovar, De una chispa se forma una hoguera: esclavitud, insubordinación y liberación (Tunja: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, 1992), 24–25 Google Scholar; and McKinley, “Till Death.”

28. Even when no promises of freedom existed, some slaves monitored changing circumstances around them. The replacement of an overseer, the death of a master, or internal feuds among slaveholders sometimes prompted slaves to seize the moment and push for concessions or freedom. Tovar Pinzón, De una chispa, 31–39.

29. Deposition of Francisco Javier, Mompox, July 2, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 795v–801r.

30. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 787v–788r.

31. Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, February 15, 1800; and Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, February 29, 1800, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 821r–824r.

32. Instructions by Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to José María Rodríguez, Mompox, June 13, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 774r–778v.

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34. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 784r–785r.

35. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 785r–787r. On Cartagena de Indias during the 1700s, see Stevenson, Haroldo Calvo, ed., Cartagena de Indias en el siglo XVIII, (Bogotá: Banco de la República, 2005)Google Scholar.

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38. Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain (hereafter AGI), Estado, 52 N.76. Helg, Liberty, 39, 42, 248–53.

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40. AGI, Estado, 53, N.76 and N.77.

41. Tovar Pinzón, Hacienda, 58.

42. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 787v–788r.

43. Tovar Pinzón, De una chispa, 59, 62; and Reis and Silva, Negociação, 7–12, 18–19, 66–68.

44. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 788v–789r.

45. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 788v–789r, 792v.

46. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 788v–790v. Abundant information on tithes collection in the New Kingdom of Granada is available in AGN, Colonia, Diezmos.

47. On patronato real, see Juan Solórzano Pereyra, Política, vol. 2, Libro Cuarto.

48. Herrera Ángel, Ordenar, 86–94.

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67. “Don José Antonio Ambros,” f. 701v.

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72. “R. Instrucción sobre la educación, trato y ocupación de los esclavos,” Aranjuez, May 31, 1789, in Colección de documentos para la historia de la formación social Hispanoamericana. 1493–1810, ed Konetzke, Richard (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1962)Google Scholar, vol. III, 2 (1780–1807), doc. 308, 643–52. See also Salmoral, Manuel Lucena, ed., Los códigos negros de la América Española, (Alcalá de Henares: Ediciones Unesco, Universidad de Alcalá, 1996), 95–123 Google Scholar.

73. Helg, Liberty, 114–17; and Echeverri, “Enraged,” 415–20.

74. “Don Melchor Sáenz de Ortíz contra don Francisco de la Barcena Posada sobre la libertad de una esclava,” 1803–1804, f. 265r–v, Colonia, Negros y Esclavos de Bolívar, vol. 9, doc. 3, AGN; Febrero reformado y anotado, o librería de escribanos que compuso don Joseph Febrero Escribano Real y del Colegio de la corte, y ha reformado en su lenguaje, método, estilo y muchas de sus doctrinas, ilustrándola y enriqueciéndola con varias notas y adiciones para que se han tenido presentes las Reales Órdenes modernas, el Lic. D. Joseph Márcos Gutierrez: Obra no solo necesaria á los escribanos sino tambien utilísima á todos los jueces, abogados, procuradores, agentes de negocios y á toda clase de personas. Parte II. De inventarios, tasaciones y particiones de bienes, y de los juicios ordinario, ejecutivo y de concurso de acreedores, como tambien del criminal que faltaba y se añade á esta obra, 2nd. ed. (Madrid: Imprenta de Villalpando, 1802), III:211.

75. Research on this topic remains scant. See Berquist, Emily, “Early Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the Spanish Atlantic World, 1765–1817,” Slavery & Abolition 31 (2010): 181–205 Google Scholar.

76. I borrow the expression “efficacy of ink on paper” from Scott, Rebecca J. and Hébrard, Jean M., Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 26 Google Scholar.

77. Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to Alcalde Ordinario [Martín Ribón], Mompox, n.d, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” f. 765v.

78. Burns, The Siete Partidas, Part. III, Tit. XVIII, Law C, 4:745; Part. VI, Tit. X, 5:1258–60; de Palomares, Thomas, Estilo nuevo de escrituras públicas, donde el curioso hallará diferentes géneros de contratos, y advertencias de las leyes, y prematicas destos reynos, y las escrituras tocantes a la navegación de las Indias, a cuya noticia no se deven negar los escrivanos (Madrid: En la Imprenta Real, 1656), 81–82 Google Scholar; and Colom, Joseph Juan y, Instrucción de escribanos, en órden a lo judicial: utilísima también para procuradores, y litigantes, donde sucintamente se explica lo ritual, y forma de proceder en las caufas civiles, y criminales, afsi en la theorica, como en la practica, fundada sobre las leyes reales, y eftilo de tribunales ordinarios (Madrid: En la Imprenta de Antonio Marín, 1761), 255–300 Google Scholar.

79. Instructions by Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to José María Rodríguez, Mompox, June 13, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 777r–778r.

80. Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, December 15, 1799, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” f. 809r.

81. Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, January 8, 1800, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” f. 812v.

82. Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, December 8, 1799; Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, January 25, 1800; Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, February 5, 1800; and Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, February 9, 1800, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 807r–v, 815r, 816r–817r, 817v–818v.

83. Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, February 15, 1800 (two letters), “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 820v, 821r–822r.

84. General inventory of slaves, Hacienda de La Honda, June 25, 1795, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” f. 833r.

85. On the organization and distribution of labor in haciendas around Mompox, see Fals Borda, Historia, 118B–123B.

86. Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to Mis amados esclavos de la hacienda de la Honda, Mompox, February 23, 1800; Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to Norberto Aconcha, Mompox, February 23, 1800; and Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, May 25, 1800, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 827r–831v.

87. Juan Nepomuceno Surmay to Alcalde Ordinario [Domingo López], Mompox, n.d., “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” f. 837r.

88. Ibid., f. 836v.

89. Ibid.,ff. 836v–837r.

90. Ibid., ff. 837v–838r.

91. Deposition of José María Rodríguez, Mompox, July 1, 1799; and Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, February 15, 1800, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 787v–788r, 821v.

92. Gabriel Martínez Guerra to the Viceroy, Santa Fe, n.d. [c. October 1, 1801], “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” ff. 845r, 846r.

93. “Propiedad de la hacienda,” f. 35v; Colonia, Miscelánea, vol. 117, doc. 3, f. 952r, AGN; Colonia, Juicios Criminales, vol. 59, doc. 17, f. 880r, AGN.

94. Norberto Aconcha to Juan Nepomuceno Surmay, Morales, January 8, 1800, “Don Gabriel Martínez Guerra,” f. 813r; Inventory and estate appraisal, San Bartolomé de La Honda, May 10, 1802, “Propiedad de la hacienda,” ff. 15r–v, 35v.

95. Inventory and estate appraisal, San Bartolomé de La Honda, May 10, 1802, “Propiedad de la hacienda,” f. 15r–v.

96. María Isabel and José Emeterio de Mier y Setuaín to Real Audiencia, Mompox, July 13, 1807, ff. 951r–952r, Colonia, Miscelánea, vol. 117, doc. 73, AGN.

97. María Isabel de Mier y Setuaín to Real Audiencia, Mompox, September 13, 1808, ff. 317r–318v, Colonia, Miscelánea, vol. 132, doc. 45, AGN.