[170] In the sixteenth century, Negro, Moorish, and Morisco slaves made up a sizable and conspicuous part of the population of Seville. Throughout the century slaves abounded among the crowds that filled the streets of this teeming metropolis. They could be found in all the focal points of the city -- along the wharves, in the Arenal, and in the public squares and market places. To many contemporaries, the presence of so many slaves did much to create the cosmopolitan atmosphere for which the city was well known. Some observers even claimed that there were almost as many Negro and Moorish slaves as free citizens. Others compared the city to a giant chessboard containing an equal number of white and black chessmen. ⁽¹⁾

[171] People usually referred to the Moorish and Morisco slaves as esclavos blancos. The Moors were most often North African prisoners of war. The conflict in the Mediterranean between Spain and the Turks and their allies, the Barbary pirates, brought a steady stream of North African slaves into Seville during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1508, for example, the Spaniards took eight thousand prisoners at Oran, and in 1535 Charles V's campaign against Tunis netted eighteen thousand captives. Most of the Moriscos came from Granada. The wars against Granada at the end of the fifteenth century resulted in the seizure of many prisoners who were eventually enslaved. In addition, an undetermined number of Moriscos became slaves during the course of the sixteenth century, mainly after the uprisings of 1500 and1568-1570. ⁽²⁾

Some information about Morisco slaves in Seville appears in the census of 1580. In that year there were 148 such slaves in the five parishes of San Pedro, San Ildefonso, San Gil, San Andrés, and San Marcos. The largest contingent was in San Andrés (47), followed by San Ildefonso (43); the smallest number were in San Gil which, as has been noted, contained a large free Morisco population. In general, female slaves outnumbered males, and there were few captive children. The overwhelming majority of slaves -- male and female -- were between twenty and forty years of age. There were almost none over the age of sixty and a very small number of youths and older children, clearly a reflection of the low birth rate and limited life span among slaves. The frequent practice of manumission also helped [172] to reduce the numbers of slaves in the older group (forty to sixty years) and among the children. Most Morisco slaves in Seville were women between the ages of twenty and forty years.⁽³⁾

While contemporary writers often exaggerated the size of the unfree population of Seville, there is no doubt that in the sixteenth century Seville harbored the largest slave community in Spain. We can never know their exact numbers throughout the century, but we do have fairly satisfactory statistics from a census taken by church officials in 1565. In that year Seville had 6,327 slaves out of a total population of 85,538 people, that is, one slave for every fourteen inhabitants. ⁽⁴⁾ Although this account does not tell what proportion of these slaves were Negroes, Moors, or Moriscos, other sources indicate that Negroes outnumbered the other two groups, especially in the second half of the century. ⁽⁵⁾ The majority of slaves in Seville, therefore, would appear to have been Negroes.

Sixteenth-century Sevillians found nothing new or unusual about the existence of numerous slaves in their city. Negro slavery, especially, had been a part of its life for many centuries. We do not know when the first Africans were introduced into Seville after its reconquest from the Moslems in 1248, but the chroniclers state that by the end [173] of the fourteenth century many Negro slaves had been brought there by merchants engaged in the trans-Saharian trade. During this period the municipal authorities tried to ease the rigors of servile life by allowing the Negroes certain privileges, such as the right to gather together on feast days and perform their own dances and songs. Eventually it became customary for one of them to be named by city officials as mayoral (steward) over the rest, with authority to protect them against their masters, defend them before the courts of law, and settle their quarrels. ⁽⁶⁾ In a similar manner the church, although primarily interested in conversion, also tried to ameliorate the physical conditions of slavery. During the last years of the fourteenth century the church expressed its charitable intentions by establishing the Hospital of Our Lady of the Angels in the parish of San Bernardo to serve the Negro population. A short time later the church made a further gesture toward incorporating Negroes into the spiritual fold by creating a Negro religious confraternity to run this hospital. In subsequent years many wealthy Sevillians helped to maintain Our Lady of the Angels; a notable donor was the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who at his death in 1463 left 1,000 maravedís for the poor of this institution. ⁽⁷⁾

The duke's donation to the Hospital of Our Lady of [174] the Angels came at a time when Seville had already begun to feel the effects of the opening of West Africa by the Portuguese. Greater numbers of Negro slaves were entering the river port, as Andalusian shipowners, including members of the highest nobility, competed with the Portuguese in organizing raiding expeditions on the West African coast. It was not until 1479 that the Spaniards finally recognized the Portuguese monopoly, and even then they did so reluctantly. Throughout the second half of the fifteenth century, Negroes were brought directly into the ports of southern Spain by Spanish shippers. Others were transported overland from Lisbon by Spanish and Portuguese merchants, a practice which accounts for the presence of Negro slaves in such frontier towns as Huelva, Badajoz, and Jerez de los Caballeros. By the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Negro population of Seville had grown so large that the Catholic kings decided to place them under greater royal supervision and control. In 1475 Juan de Valladolid, a royal servant, who was known popularly as the "Negro count," was appointed mayoral of the Seville Negro community. ⁽⁸⁾

After the discovery of the New World the constant demand for a source of cheap labor to work the mines and plantations of America increased the flow of Negroes into Seville during the sixteenth century. The city soon became one of the most important slave centers in Western Europe, second only to Lisbon. In fact the first Negro [175] slaves introduced into the New World came from Seville, and some of them had been born in that city. During the first decades of the sixteenth century, the Spanish monarchs, anxious to keep the colonies free from religious taint, insisted that the slaves sent to America be Christians -- that they should have been born in Spain or have resided there long enough to be baptized. In 1510, for example, King Ferdinand gave permission to ship as many as two hundred slaves from Seville for sale to the settlers of Hispaniola or for work on the royal properties there. ⁽⁹⁾ Eventually slaves were shipped directly from Africa to America, though they continued to come to Seville as well. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Throughout the century, merchants, sea captains, and others brought slaves to the Sevillian market, located in the heart of the business district. Here slaves were bought and sold amidst the noise and bustle of street vendors hawking their wares and future conquistadors recruiting men for their New World expeditions. Apparently they were not exhibited and sold at the block as was the custom elsewhere. Instead a group of slaves and their owner would go about the streets accompanied by an auctioneer who called out to onlookers offering them for sale. According to Cervantes [176] in El trato de Argel, Christian slaves were sold in this same manner in Morocco. ⁽¹¹⁾

The price range was wide and depended on the age, sex, and physical condition of the slave. An able-bodied slave brought a high market price, the average being slightly lower. Children brought the lowest price because of the element of risk and the expense of rearing them to a profit-bearing age. Some approximate average prices can be estimated on the basis of figures taken from the numerous deeds of purchase and sale among the Sevillian Protocols. During the first decade of the sixteenth century, the average price paid for a slave in Seville was about 20 ducats; in the second and third decades of the century prices fluctuated between 30 and 40 ducats. ⁽¹²⁾ At mid-century a prospective buyer would have to pay from 80 to 90 ducats for an adult slave, and by the last quarter of the century, 200 ducats or more. Prices of slaves rose steadily during the course of the century, for like other commodities they were caught in the great inflationary wave that overwhelmed all Spain during this period.

Though the branding of slaves was a common practice, this cruel custom was not applied to all, nor was it considered an absolute necessity. There are many examples of unbranded slaves during this period. Some people branded their slaves as a kind of insurance. John Brooks points out that the branding of Carrizales' slaves in Cervantes' Celoso extremeño[177] "may be considered significant of his character and plans." ⁽¹³⁾ Moreover, branding was specifically used as a punishment for refractory and runaway slaves. Carrizales branded his four "white slaves" but did not apply the same treatment to his two Negro slaves, perhaps because contemporary opinion was that Moorish and Morisco slaves were deceitful and potential runaways, while Negroes were trustworthy and loyal to their masters. Almost all of the Morisco slaves listed in the census of 1580, for example, were branded. Brands were not uniform in shape or location. The most frequent one consisted of an S and a line (clavo), standing for esclavo, on one cheek and the owner's initial or mark on the other. But several other kinds were also in use. In 1500, for example, there is mention of a slave branded with a fleur-de-lis on one cheek and a star on the other. In another instance, a slave bore the full name of his owner on his face. ⁽¹⁴⁾

Most of the slaves branded and sold in Seville were destined for domestic service in the city's households. Slaves were employed in the kitchen, laundry room, and stable. They served as doorkeepers, as nursemaids for children, as attendants of adults, as valets, porters, and waiters. According to contemporary literature, an especially desirable accomplishment of the female slave was the ability to make [178] fruit preserves and jellies. Since scientific treatises of the day taught that water taken by itself was harmful, orange flower, quince, peach, pear, and cherry preserves were kept on hand and offered to visitors, together with iced water. The master usually took some male slaves with him on his daily activities, perhaps as an escort on foot if he was riding. Merchants like the one portrayed by Cervantes in El coloquio de los perros usually went to the Exchange followed by a Negro servant. ⁽¹⁵⁾ Slaves also did odd jobs in connecction. with their master's business. Such was the case of Juan Fernández, a mulatto slave belonging to the inspector of weights and measures in the municipal meat market. When Fernández was called upon to testify in a lawsuit involving his master in 1598, he stated that "he always accompanied his master on his daily round of business, and that on the day in question he had delivered, on his master's orders, a special luncheon to several members of the city council." ⁽¹⁶⁾

Another especially desirable quality in a slave was the ability to sing, play, and dance, as music and dancing were popular pastimes during the period. Negroes showed particular fondness and aptitude for both music and dance and were often in great demand as entertainers at private parties and public celebrations. Loaysa in Cervantes' Celoso extremeño noted that three of his Negro pupils, all slaves of wealthy aldermen, played and sang well enough to perform in any dance or tavern. Moreover, Negroes were [179] among the most accomplished interpreters of the numerous popular dances of the day, including the two favorites, the zarabanda and the chacona. Several dances -- the guineo, ye-ye, and zarambeque or zumbé -- had a distinctly African flavor and were probably introduced into Spain by Negro slaves. ⁽¹⁷⁾

In the wealthier homes of the city slaves were considered a necessity -- part of the conspicuous consumption of the period that called for long entourages of servants and for coaches, costly wearing apparel, and ornate home decoration. Nevertheless, the ownership of slaves in Seville was not confined to the wealthy classes -- nobility and rich merchants -- but was widely distributed among all levels of the population. The deeds of purchase and sale among the Sevillian Protocols clearly show that artisans of various occupations, professional people such as physicians, lawyers, clergymen, and even religious orders owned household slaves. Indeed almost every family of some means had two or more of them.

Treatment of domestic slaves varied, depending greatly on the character of the owner, though in general their position did not differ substantially from that of the free servants. There is even some evidence that in Spain slaves received better treatment than free servants. ⁽¹⁸⁾ Many slaves [180] were closely bound to their masters and had their full confidence. Female slaves were particularly close to their mistresses; in the plays of Lope de Vega they are usually portrayed as their confidantes and go-betweens in their love affairs. ⁽¹⁹⁾ The religious life of the slave was of great concern to the owner. Much care was taken to see that slaves performed their religious duties and that children of domestic slaves were duly baptized. Godparents, sometimes prestigious ones, were provided for slave children. As members of the Christian community, slaves were buried in their parish churches and in some instances in family vaults. It was also customary to have requiem masses said for them at the expense of their former owners. ⁽²⁰⁾ On the other hand, like free servants, slaves who committed misdemeanors were often whipped. More serious offenses could bring a form of punishment known as pringar or lardear -- the dropping of pork fat, melted by a large taper, or the wax of the taper itself on the naked skin. Cervantes indicates that this was the regular punishment for fugitive slaves, but it was also used on household servants as a means of exacting information from them. Another more drastic method of dealing with incorrigible slaves was to "sell them overseas," that is, to the Spanish colonies, or to donate them to the crown to be used as galley slaves. There were even some masters who chose to free rebellious and troublesome slaves; in other words, they turned them out to starve. Delinquent slaves [181] seem to have been the exception, however, and individual acts of violence committed by slaves against their masters were infrequent. ⁽²¹⁾

Although most slaves were well behaved, the existence of a large servile population created security problems for the municipal government. The city fathers feared that the urban slaves, led by the Moriscos, might band together and seize the town, and this official uneasiness found expression in a series of municipal ordinances restricting the movements of slaves. Slaves were prohibited, for example, from carrying arms except in the company of their masters or in the performance of their regular duties. The government also strictly limited the number of slaves permitted to assemble at any given time in public places such as taverns, inns, and cheap restaurants. City officials expressed concern about the gangs of slaves who frequented the Sevillian taverns both day and night and who often became intoxicated and disorderly. A tavern brawl or any disturbance involving slaves was considered especially dangerous to public order. Furthermore, many taverns served as meeting places for members of the city's underworld, who were quick to take advantage of slaves. Unscrupulous tavern owners in league with criminal elements encouraged slaves to steal in order to repay debts and later resold the booty for their own profit. ⁽²²⁾

[182] Municipal legislation curtailing the actions of slaves may have reassured the city fathers, but these regulations like so many other municipal ordinances were difficult to enforce. Effective policing of a city like Seville was nearly impossible anyway, and the presence of large numbers of slaves must have seriously exacerbated the problem. The municipal authorities had the power to curb the activities of slaves when public security was involved, but they could not interfere in the relationship between masters and slaves or in any way reduce the authority of owners. Slaveholders could be as arbitrary as they pleased with their property, but slaves were subordinate to their masters' will. The owner could free his slaves whenever he was inclined to do so, but he usually did this by inserting a provision in his will. ⁽²³⁾ Manumission by will had advantages, for the master retained the services of the slaves as long as he needed them; the prospect of freedom encouraged good conduct on the part of the slave; and the slaveholder could depart this life with a freer conscience. Sometimes wills included trust provisions directing the slaveholder's heir to free a particular slave or slaves at his own death or after a given number of years of service. That such an arrangement could lead to difficulties can be seen in the case of Ana, a mulatto slave belonging to the Sevillian aristocrat Juan de Pineda. When Pineda died in 1526, he willed Ana to his grandson Pedro, with the proviso that she receive her freedom after ten years of service. Two years later Pedro died suddenly. Like [183] his grandfather, he chose not to free Ana, but to include a trust provision for her in his will. Accordingly she was required to spend eight more years of servitude with Pedro's uncle (also named Juan de Pineda). Finally in 1537 Ana received her freedom, and one year later she emigrated to America. ⁽²⁴⁾

On the other hand, it was not always necessary for slaves to wait until the death of their owner, for they often received their freedom in return for special services, money payments, or both. In 1580, for example, Diego Bello, a Seville resident who had just returned home from a trip to Peru, freed his slave Tomé because of "the services that the said slave had rendered him, especially on the voyage from Peru, in addition to the payment of 100 pesos." The enfranchisement of slave children was a particularly frequent occurrence. Some slave owners even freed the unborn children of slaves because of special circumstances. The priest Alvaro de Castro did this in 1526 when on the eve of his departure for Cuba he freed the yet unborn child of his slave Catalina as compensation for her separation from her husband Antonio, also a slave of the priest, who had to remain in Seville. ⁽²⁵⁾

Besides domestic slavery there existed in Seville (as well as in the rest of Andalusia) the systematic exploitation of slave labor for profit. Many Sevillians considered the ownership of slaves an excellent capital investment and a profitable source of income. Some people were totally dependent on the earnings of their slaves; this practice added another [184] class of laborers to the city's large unskilled working force. They were a common sight on the Seville waterfront, where they worked as stevedores. Many performed menial tasks in the famous soap factories or in the public granary. Others earned a living as porters, street vendors, and bearers of sedan chairs. There is also some evidence that they served as corchetes (constables), a rather unpopular calling in sixteenth-century Seville. ⁽²⁶⁾

Though slaves worked at many occupations, the city's guilds refused to admit them. On the other hand, there were no restrictions against their employment by master craftsmen in their shops. Both slave and free Negroes were employed in many Sevillian printing shops, and other craftsmen purchased slaves for use in their establishments. In 1503, for example, a mulatto slave, Diego de Zamora, was working as a swordmaker in his owner's shop, and in 1554 Juan de Torres, a sword guard maker, had a Negro slave named Francisco as his apprentice. ⁽²⁷⁾ Moreover, the Sevillian Protocols indicate that they were used in the trade between Seville and the New World. Several interesting examples of Negro slaves employed as business agents in America emerge from these documents. As early as 1502, the Sevillian trader Juan de Córdoba sent his Negro slave and two other agents to sell merchandise for him on the [185] island of Hispaniola. Seven years later Juan de Zafra, a Negro slave, was commissioned by his master, the well known Sevillian physician Dr. Alvarez Chanca, to sell goods in the New World. Zafra remained in America for several years, and until his death in 1555 he acted as a commission agent for his master.⁽²⁸⁾ Most famous of all the Negro traders in America was Pedro Franco, who was freed by his master Franco Leardo, a wealthy and prominent Genoese merchant of Seville, just a few months before he left for America. Leardo gave him 300 ducats and sent him to Panama as his agent, probably under the usual four year partnership contract (compañía). Several other Sevillans besides Leardo entrusted him with merchandise to be sold in the New World. Unfortunately, Pedro Franco was not able to fulfill the terms of his contract with Leardo, for he died within a year after his arrival on the Isthmus. In his last will and testament he left all of his property to his former master. ⁽²⁹⁾

Slaves who worked at outside jobs to support themselves and their owners usually did not reside in their masters' homes. Although they were scattered throughout the poorer sections of Seville, their traditional quarter was the parish of San Bernardo, located outside the city walls in a swampy region dominated by a foul-smelling stream called the Tagarete. This was a poor parish inhabited by working [186] people -- gardeners employed in the nearby Alcázar, employees of the municipal slaughterhouse, and bakers who worked in the many baking establishments in the district. It was also a high crime area and was known for its numerous ruffians and bullies, many of whom occasionally worked at odd jobs in the slaughterhouse. ⁽³⁰⁾

By the last quarter of the century the population of San Bernardo had increased so greatly that church and municipal authorities decided to divide San Bernardo and to create the new parish of San Roque. The chapel of the Hospital of Our Lady of the Angels was chosen to serve as a temporary parish church for San Roque, and, maintained by the Negro religious confraternity, it remained the center of the district's religious life until the completion of the church of San Roque in 1585. Nine years later the confraternity purchased three lots opposite the new church and built a chapel that they occupied in the last years of the century.⁽³¹⁾

In addition to the parishes of San Bernardo and San Roque, several other Sevillian barrios were especially noted for their numerous Negro residents. The parish of San Ildefonso, for example, contained a sizable population of slaves and freedmen. During the second half of the sixteenth century there were enough mulattoes there to justify the creation of a religious confraternity. The confraternity maintained its own chapel in the parish church of San Ildefonso with a private entrance through a back door that opened into a small side street, called appropriately the "Street of Mulattoes." Contemporary literature also tells [187] us that the plaza in front of the church of Santa María la Blanca was a favorite meeting place for Sevillian Negroes.⁽³²⁾ Some of them must have lived in the neighborhood, although no evidence of their residence there has survived.

Among the Negroes who assembled in the Plaza de Santa María la Blanca were many freedmen and women. Although most Sevillian Negroes were slaves, the city also contained a significant free Negro population. Enfranchisement was not a step toward economic and social betterment, however, for Negroes and mulattoes, whether slaves or freedmen, remained on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. Ex-slaves continued to work in unskilled and menial jobs and to reside in the same neighborhoods as before their emancipation. A combination of discrimination and unfavorable economic conditions prevented freedmen from rising in society. The artisans feared Negro competition and jealously excluded them from the few skilled positions which the inadequate Sevillian industry afforded. Even unskilled jobs were at a premium in Seville because of the steady flow of landless peasants from the countryside into the town. Chronic unemployment and severe food shortages were the realities of life for the majority of Sevillians throughout the sixteenth century. ⁽³³⁾

Competition for jobs strained relations between freedmen and the white Sevilhian laborers. The whites showed [188] their contempt for Negroes with the customary sidewalk jeer (estornudo). ⁽³⁴⁾ On the individual level, however, Negroes and whites mixed freely, and contacts were friendly. Miscegenation and common-law unions were frequent. Many Sevillians, including members of the clergy, maintained illicit relations with female household slaves and in some instances recognized their illegitimate children. Among the servant class miscegenation was common practice, and mixed marriages were not unknown.⁽³⁵⁾

Although Negro freedmen and slaves lived on the fringe of Sevillian life socially and economically, they enjoyed full membership in the church. True religious conversion among newly baptized Negroes was unusual, but by the second generation many had become sincere and pious Christians. The very willingness of Negroes to become Christians and to remain faithful to their new religion facilitated their popular acceptance. In addition, their incorporation into the social and ritual activities of the church accelerated the process of their Hispanization. Through their parish churches and their confraternities slaves and freedmen took part in all the city-wide religious celebrations of the period. The Negro and mulatto brotherhoods marched in full regalia in the many religious processions, including those of Holy Week. On one such occasion, the dress and the insignias of the Negro brotherhood were [189] so elaborate and costly as to draw censure from the clergy. In another instance, according to the chronicler Ortiz de Zúñiga, a member of the Negro confraternity sold himself as a slave in order to cover the high cost of his group's participation in a religious festival. Negro performers also took part in the autos connected with the festival of Corpus Christi. In 1590 the city government paid eight ducats to Leonor Rija, a mulatto, to appear on a float in the Corpus Christi celebration and to sing, dance, and play the guitar, together with four other mulatto women and two men. ⁽³⁶⁾

If it was difficult for freedmen to improve their status in Seville, they might seize the opportunity to emigrate to the New World. The registers of the Casa de Contratación indicate that many Negro freedmen crossed the ocean to America during the sixteenth century. ⁽³⁷⁾ Most of these emigrants were single men and women, but we can also find instances of women with young children and of family groups. A good example was the Bonilla family -- husband, wife, and two children -- who signed up at the Casa de Contratación in 1555. Many freedmen accompanied their former masters to the New World as servants. In 1538, for instance, the freedman Bernardo declared that he was traveling to Florida as a valet of his ex-master Captain Pedro Calderón. A year later another freedman by the name of Domingo went to Peru with his former owner, the adventurer [190] Lope de Aguirre, whose later exploits in the Amazon region won him the unfortunate epithet of "the tyrant." Many newly freed women came to America as ladies' maids or as members of the large and varied entourages that customarily accompanied wealthy families emigrating to the colonies. Such was the position of Quiteria Gómez, a former slave, who with three other servants -- one white male and two white females -- traveled with the widow Francisca de Carrera and her seven children to Peru during 1555. Doña Francisca's two sisters made up the rest of the party-, fourteen persons in all. ⁽³⁸⁾

On the other hand, not all the Negroes who crossed the Atlantic went westward. In the second half of the sixteenth century there was a countermigration of Negroes from the New World to Seville. As previously noted, many Spaniards, having enriched themselves in America during the first decades of the sixteenth century, eventually returned home to Seville, where they could maintain their contacts, usually commercial, with the Indies. These returning Spaniards, nicknamed indianos, invested their newly found wealth in elegant town houses staffed with Negro slaves from the colonies. Don Alvaro, in Castillo Solórzano's novel La niña de los embustes, Teresa de Manzanares, was a typical indiano who, with 50,000 ducats obtained in Lima, two white servant boys, and four Negroes, established himself in Seville, spending his days at the Casa de Contratación. ⁽³⁹⁾ [191] Creole slaves, as the Negroes from the colonies were called, also served in the homes of wealthy Sevillian merchants who were engaged in the Indies trade. The witty and attractive creole slave Elvira in Lope de Vega's Servir a señor discreto was the maid and confidante of Doña Leonor, the daughter of such a New World trader. The charm and beauty of the creole slave women soon made them a solicited commodity in the Sevillian slave market, as can be seen from the numerous deeds of purchase and sale which appear among the Sevillian Protocols. In 1580, for example, Diego de la Sal, a member of that famous elite family, purchased a "twenty year old creole slave named Isabel de García" from a returning Spaniard. ⁽⁴⁰⁾ In time many of these creole slaves obtained their freedom either through purchase or the death of their owners, after which they sought to return to America. This accounts for the numerous references to them as passengers to the New World in the Casa registers during the last quarter of the sixteenth century.

Negro slaves and freedmen left many marks on sixteenth century Sevillian life. Whereas Moors and Moriscos remained on the fringes of society, isolated and disliked by all, Negroes and mulattoes freely accepted Christianity and Spanish culture. When contemporary writers introduced Negro characters into their plays and novels, they only reflected the significant place that freedmen and slaves held in their society. The ethnic variety that characterized sixteenth-century Seville set it apart from other Spanish centers and increased its similarity to the cities of the New [192] World. To this ethnic variety Negroes, Moors, and Moriscos made a unique contribution.

1. Domínguez Ortiz, "La esclavitud en Castilla durante la Edad Moderna," Estudios de historia social de España, II (1952), 377-378.

2. Domínguez Ortiz, Orto y Ocaso, p. 62; M. A. Ladero Quesada, "La esclavitud por guerra a fines del siglo XV: El caso de Málaga," Hispania, XXVII (1967), 80.

3. AMS, Varios Antiguos, no. 334. In 1589 there were 381 slaves (98 males, 283 females) in Seville out of a total Morisco population of 6,655. See Lapeyre, L'Espagne morisque, p. 135.

4. Matute y Gaviria, Noticias, p. 51. In comparison, Lisbon had some 10,000 slaves out of a population of 100,000 in 1552 (João Lúcio Azevedo, Èpocas de Portugal económico [Lisbon, 1929], p. 75).

5. The deeds of purchase and sale involving slaves among the Sevillian Protocols give ample proof of this statement.

6. Ortiz de Zúñiga, Anales, III, 78. On slavery in medieval Spain, see Charles Verlinden, L'esclavage dans l'Europe médiévale, I: Péninsule Ibérique -- France (Bruges. 1955), and on the trans-Saharian trade, see Antonio Rumeu de Armas, España en el Africa Atlántica (Madrid, 1956), I, 163-166.

7. José Bermejo y Carballo, Glorias religiosas de Sevilla (Seville, 1882), p. 381. The exact date of the construction of the Hospital of Our Lady of the Angels is not known, but it occurred during the period in which Gonzalo de Mena was Archbishop of Seville, 1393-1401.

8. Rumeu de Armas, España en el Africa, pp. 123-128, 149-154; Domínguez Ortiz, "La esclavitud en Castilla," p. 372; AMS, Archivo de Privilegios, Tumbo, carpeta I, no. 197. See also Ortiz de Zúñiga, Anales, III, 78.

9. Clarence H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947), p. 219; Salvador Brau, La colonización de Puerto Rico (San Juan, 1930), p. 87.

10. Ship captains reported to officials of the Casa de Contratación on their return to Seville instead of on their outward voyage. This permitted direct transport from Africa to America while the captains also complied with the regulation that all slaves had to be registered at the Casa de Contratación (Georges Scelle, La traité négrieére aux Indes de Castille [Paris, 1906], I, 142; Elena F. Scheuss de Snider, La trata de negros en el Río de la Plata durante el siglo XVIII [Buenos Aires, 1958], p. 52).

11. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, El trato de Argel, in Comedias y entremeses (Madrid, 1920), V. 229; Morgado, Historia, p. 167; Fernández de Oviedo, Historia general, CXVIII (Madrid, 1959), 400.

12. Domínguez Ortiz, "La esclavitud en Castilla," p. 399.

13. John Brooks, "Slavery and the Slave in the Works of Lope de Vega," Romantic Review XIX (1928), 234-235.

14. Christóbal Suárez de Fiueroa, Plaza universal de todas ciencias y artes (Perpignan, 1629), fol. 321V; APS, M. Segura (IV), 29 May 1539, Libro I, fol. 88I. For the slave with the fleur-de-lis and the star, see ibid., F. Segura (IV0, 5 Sept. 1500, Libro II, fol. Principio del legajo. Both documents are also cited in Gestoso, Curiosidades, pp. 86, 89.

15. A. de Castillo Solórzano, La niña de los embustes -- Teresa de Manzanares (Madrid, 1929), p. 214; Brooks, "Slavery in Lope de Vega," pp. 235, 240-241; Félix Lope de Vega Carpio, Servir a señor discreto, Act I, in Obras de Lope de Vega, XV (Madrid, 1913), 573; La Dorotea, Act I, scene i (Berkeley, Calif., 1958), p. 124.

16. Ariño, Sucesos de Sevilla, p. 348.

17. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, El celoso extremeño in Novelas ejemplares (Madrid, 1957), II, 112. For a discussion of these dances, see Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Colección de Entremeses, Loas, Bailes, Jácaras y Mojigangas desde fines del siglo XVI a mediados del XVIII, in Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (Madrid, 1911), XVII, ccxxxiii-cclxxiii.

18. Jean Bodin, The Six Bookes of a Commonweale (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), Book I, 44. He condemned the Spaniards for branding their slaves.

19. Elvira, in Lope de Vega's Servir a señor discreto; and Esperanza, in Amar, servir y esperar, in Obras de Lope de Vega, III (Madrid, 1917).

20. Juan de Mata Carriazo, "Negros, esclavos y extranjeros en el barrio sevillano de San Bernardo," Archivo Hispalense, XX (1954) 130-132. For the baptismal certificates of slaves belonging to Sevillian printers, see Hazañas y La Rua, La imprenta.

21. M. de Cervantes Saavedra, La Gitanilla in Novelas ejemplares (Madrid, 1952), I, 65. A white servant is given this same treatment in Lope de Vega's El acero de Madrid, Act III, scene ix, in Obras escogidas, I (Madrid, 1952), 992. See also Domiriguez Ortiz, "La esclavitud en Castilla," p. 389.

22. López Martinez, Mudéjares y Moriscos, pp. 54-55; AMS, Ordenanzas, Reales Provisiones, carpeta 24, no. 194; Manuel Chaves, Cosas nuevas y viejas (Seville, 1903), p. 37.

23. The following conclusions are based on a study of wills and property inventories from the Sevillian Protocols. See also Hazañas y La Rua, La imprenta, for published testaments of Sevillian printers.

24. CPI, II, no. 4724, 282, 16 March 1538.

25. APS, Cívico (VIII), 22 Oct. 1580, Libro IV, fol. Principio del legajo; ibid., Castellanos (y), 13 Jan. 1526, Libro I, fol III.

26. William E. Wilson, "Some Notes on Slavery during the Golden Age," Hispanic Review, VII (1939), 173; Domínguez Ortiz, "La esclavitud en Castilla," p. 401; AMS, Escribanías del Cabildo, siglo XVI, tomo 4, no. 45. Regarding slaves in the Sevillian soap factories, see Morgado, Historia, p. 156.

27. Gestoso, III, 191, 219; APS, M. Segura (IV), 23 Jan. 1513, Libro II, fol. carece "Indias"; ibid., 8 Nov. 1525. Regarding slaves in the printing shops, see Hazañas y La Rua, La Imprenta.

28. APS, M. Segura (IV), 16 April 1509, Libro II, fol. 1060. Material about the Negro slave of Juan de Córdoba is in APS, F. Segura (IV), 8 Jan. 1502, Libro I, fol., Principio del legajo.

29. Enrique Otte, "Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y los genoveses," Revista de indias, XXII (1962), 519; APS, Cazalla (XV), 29 April 1540, Libro único, fol. 994; ibid., M. Segura (IV), 26 April 1515, Libro II, fol. 676v; CPI, I, no. 5, 78, 13 Sept. 1538.

30. Cervantes, El coloquio de los perros, pp. 217-218; Mata Carriazo, "Negros," p. 123.

31. Bermejo y Carballo, Glorias, pp. 383, 385.

32. For the description of such a gathering, see "El entremés de los mirones," in Cotarelo y Mori, Colección de Entremeses, p. 162; AGS, Expedientes de hacienda, leg. 170. "The Street of Mulattoes" disappeared with the destruction of the church of San Ildefonso in 1794 (Bermejo y Carballo, Glorias, p. 179).

33. See Chapter III for a discussion of the Sevillian unskilled labor market.

34. Lope de Vega referred to this custom in his Servir a señor discreto, Act II, scene iii, in Obras de Lope de Vega, XV, 587. See also Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, Boda de Negros, in Obras completas (Madrid, 1952), p. 379.

35. Conclusions in this paragraph are based on a study of wills, deeds of purchase and sale, and letters of enfranchisement among the Sevillian Protocols. See also the statements of Negro and mulatto passangers to the New World in CPI, I-III.

36. José Sánchez Arjona, Anales del teatro en Sevilla (Seville, 1898), p. 81. Negro confraternities in religious processions are described in Domínguez Ortiz, "La esclavitud en Castilla," p. 394, and Bermejo y Carballo, Glorias, p. 386.

37. The registers are incomplete and cannot be used for statistical purposes. They do, however, give some idea of types and backgrounds of the Negro and mulatto passengers to America.

38. CPI, III, no. 2538, 180, 1555; for the Bonillas, see ibid., I, no. 1997, 141, Aug. 16, 1515; for Bernardo, ibid., II, no. 4481,, 267, Feb. 27, 1538; for Domingo, ibid., III, no. 163, March 15, 1539.

39. Castillo Solórzano, La niña de los embustes, p. 524. For more on indianos see Chapter II.

40. Lope de Vega, Servir a señor discreto, in Obras de Lope de Vega, XV, 572; APS, Almonacid (IX), 4 Jan. 1580, Libro I, fol. 35 3V.