Abstract
This article will show that throughout the Audiencia of Quito enslaved rebels and fugitives consistently contributed to white fears and to white law making from the very earliest moments of the colonial enterprise. It highlights, moreover, slaves'long history of playing directly and indirectly upon those fears in their interactions with slaveholders; and, in the legal cases they brought before colonial courts, showing the continuities in slave resistance strategies over time. Not only did slaves use the courts in deeply political and radical ways from very early on, but existing documentary evidence from Quito's courts reveals a continuum, not a break, between earlier cases and those emanating from the late colonial era and early independence period. Although this continuum is sometimes difficult to document-principally because slaves' most successful tactic in the pre-Revolutionary era was in fact to claim to be divorced from politics and rebellion and to be seeking individual mercy-we can identify early legal precedents that are reflected in civil court cases heard by the audiencia (high court) of Quito over the entire course of the colonial era. In so doing, we gain a more in-depth understanding of the realities of bondage in colonial Quito, and the continuities and points of departure within slaves' resistance tactics, as well as the gendered challenges facing enslaved men and women in their courtroom performances.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 7-46 |
| Number of pages | 40 |
| Journal | Colonial Latin American Review |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2004 |
Funding
Versions of this article were presented at the ‘African Diaspora Paradigms: New Scholarship in Black History’ conference at Michigan State University (2001), the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, DC (2002), and at a joint session of the American Historical Association and the Conference on Latin American History Annual Meetings, Chicago (2003). This article was greatly enriched by the questions and comments from audience members, panelists, and commentators from each of these meetings. Research funds were provided by: the Center for International Studies at Ohio State University, the Department of History at Ohio State University, the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Commission of Ecuador, the Latin American Studies Center at Ohio State University, the Office of the Provost at Kenyon College, and the University of Notre Dame. While accepting complete responsibility for any errors that appear in this version, I wish to extend a very special thanks to Kenneth J. Andrien, Lolita G. Brockinton, Nancy E. van Deusen, Kris E. Lane, Roberto Padilla, Frank Safford and Camilla Townsend for their encouraging and insightful suggestions. Unless otherwise specified, all translations are the author’s.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
