/ Crime, power, and transformation of slavery in Santo Domingo, 1600-1650

Crime, power, and transformation of slavery in Santo Domingo, 1600-1650

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51274/ecos.v29i24.pp47-62

How to Cite

Ponce Vázquez, Juan José. 2022. “Crime, Power, and Transformation of Slavery in Santo Domingo, 1600-1650”. Journal ECOSUASD 29 (24):47-62. https://doi.org/10.51274/ecos.v29i24.pp47-62.

Published

2022-12-20

Issue

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Abstract

In the first decades of the seventeenth century, the important socioeconomic changes that took place in Hispaniola led to important transformation in the relationship between white and Afrodescendant residents, either free or enslaved. The Spanish elites on the island began assigning new responsibilities to enslaved men and women, including their participation in their conflicts with other members of the local elites, which included violent attacks, as well as murder attempts of their rivals. At the same time, free Afrodescendants tried to take advantage of their punctual collaboration with the elites to advance their own personal and communal interests. Despite such opportunities, these men and women often had to confront extraordinarily violent actions by the white population if they ever defied their subordinate status in colonial society.


Keywords:

Santo Domingo, Afro-descendants, slavery, race relations, violence, colonial hierarchies

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Author Biography

Juan José Ponce Vázquez, University of Pennsylvania and University of Alabama, United States

Juan José Ponce Vázquez is a PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania, Associate Professor at the University of Alabama, and author of Islanders and Empire: Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580-1690, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. One edition in Spanish of this work is currently being produced under the auspices of the Dominican Academy of [email protected]



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