https://archive.org/details/black-voices-hf

Black Voices from Harper's Ferry: Osborne Anderson and the John Brown Raid by Jean Libby; Osborne Perry Anderson

Topics
#OsbornePerryAnderson, #harpersferry, #harpersferryraid, #johnbrown, #slaveinsurrection, #slaveuprising, #unitedstatesofamerika, #historyofvirginia, #historyofwestvirginia, #historyofslavery, #socialhistory

"Shown together from their far-flung points of origination, the role of the black community around Harpers Ferry is obvious in far greater significance than has been previously credited." - introduction

After a fallow period during which I had serious difficulties with my eyes, I was at last able to resume working today. +661 words on this #team500 day!

Today's final sentence: In March, the Dutch burned a large quantity of the Esopus’s stored seed corn, and Peter Stuyvesant himself oversaw a sortie that resulted in the capture of twelve Esopus men, “of the principal runners and ringleaders."

#histodons #amwriting #historyofslavery

If you read one thing today, make it Charles Blow's excellent column on the Florida #history #slavery #historyofslavery education standards: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/opinion/desantis-slavery.html

Unfortunately I don't know how things turned out for Don Luis, or what happened to him. Only one document in this entire 1600 page legajo addresse Don Luis and his motivations at all!

What did happen is that in 1639 Don Juan Orpín captured several Piritus, enslaved them, and sent them to fish for pearls on Cubagua. #slaveryarchive #historyofslavery #histodons
/fin

This is a portion of the inventory of Martín Alonso from 15 December 1528 (Alonso was murdered by Pedro de Barrionuevo, in case you were wondering).

Alonso owned
15 "yndios esclavos"
4 "yndias esclavas"
and
3 "yndios lucayos" who were being kept on Coche with Cristobal de Castilla

[Lucayos were people from the Bahamas.]

#histodons #HistoryOfSlavery

Testimony of Pedro, 25 October 1548

"that he saw many Indians could not bear the work of fishing for pearls and they came out half drowned, but that [when that happened] they were hung by one leg until they coughed up the water they had drunk and afterwards they were well again, and that others fell ill and bled from their ears and noses and that these were usually young [inexperienced] divers that could not endure holding their breaths."

#HistoryOfSlavery #histodons

....y que otros caian malos y echaban sangre por los oidos y narices y y que estos eran chapetones que no podrian sufrir el resuello y trabajo de las perlas "

#HistoryOfSlavery #histodons

(translation in the next toot)

Today in the #HistoryofSlavery I'm reading about Indigenous testimonies of violence in the pearl fisheries. in 1548, Pedro, indio esclavo de Pedro González, told investigators that "muchos indios vió que de no poder sufrir el trabajo de sacar perlas salían medio ahogados, pero que como los colgaban de una pierna les hacian echar el agua que habían bebido y despues volvian a estar bueno...

#histodons

and in Rio de la Hacha she has a son named Juan living in the household of the mariscal (Miguel de Castellanos) and in the Valle of Upar she has another son named Bartolomé the son of Pero Básquez [Pedro Vásquez] who also testified and also she never preferred to marry.

I'll be spending my afternoon writing about Juana, sexual violence, reproductive labor, family separation, and Juana's commitment to keeping track of her children and affirming her kinship ties.
#HistoryOfSlavery #histodons

#HistoryOfSlavery #histodons I finally understand what Juana said. She said that she was not married but that she was the mother of three daughters and two sons, one daughter named Catalina on Santo Domingo where her father Andrés Pérez brought her, another named Ynes who has testified, another daughter named Maria who is the daughter of Baltasar Yndio, a pearl fisherman in the service of Alonso de Barrera, 1/

And the next line is resolving itself--I think early morning transcribing is good for me! Juana names her second daughter Ynes "que a declarado" == meaning, who has testified. A few pages earlier a woman named Ynesica, from the Valle de Upar, testified. I think this Ynesica is Juana's daughter.

This makes the act of giving testimony also a family reunion, and might partially explain why Juana might have volunteered so much information about her children.

#HistoryOfSlavery #histodons

I've been up since 5am worrying away at Juana Yndia's testimony (see below--it's gnarly) and my work has been rewarded, because I finally deciphered the line where she talks about her daughter Catalina, whose father took her with him to Santo Domingo. "la una en santo domingo llamada Catalina que le llevó su padres Andrés Pérez"

This #HistoryOfSlavery is about forced reproduction and about family separation. I'm pretty sure none of Juana's children were with her in 1570. #histodons

I'm thinking about Juana Yndia o my #histodons and I'm also writing about her.

It's pretty clear that Spanish slaveholders held that enslaved Indigenous women were sexually available.

Juana's response though is to say that she has "three daughters and two sons." She talks about all her children, and she knows where all of them are.

She lists her daughers first. She honors their matrilineal origins. She enforces their Indigeneity.
#HistoryOfSlavery

Today in the #HistoryOfSlavery I'm writing about Juana yndia, who gave testimony on 23 July 1570. Asked if she was married, she replied that no, she was not, but then told, unprompted, of her five children, and who their Spanish fathers were. Most of her children remained with Spanish slaveholders in other locations.

Writing about sexual exploitation in slavery is really, really difficult.
#histodons

Today in the #HistoryOfSlavery

On 15 February 1554 Melchior Gubrel reported that he needed "una yndia de leche para criar a un niño" and so he bought an enslaved woman from another man, and when he no longer needed her, he traded her to another Spanish slaveholder in exchange for a cow.

*a breast-feeding Indian woman to take care of a child

#histodons

Hey #team500 316 new words today. I might try to do some more writing after supper. We'll see.

Final sentence: Orayma, identified as the wife of Pomie and living in Taguaxen’s village, told investigators that Torquemada “took them from their people by force and tied them with heavy ropes and beat them with sticks.”

#histodons #HistoryOfSlavery

I knew I was going to get to this in my work on chapter three. I'm working with a judicial inquiry where witnesses testified about whether Spanish officials "an tenido azeso carnal con yndias ynfieles y las an corronpido o forçado"

"Did they have sexual intercourse with infidel [i.e., not converted to Christianity' Indian women and did they corrupt them or rape them?"

I'm not looking forward to this, though I must bear witness and write about it. #histodons #HistoryOfSlavery

Welp Alonso Pérez de Tolosa got into some trouble over his slaving. In 1553 he was charged with selling an india named Elena for "a gold necklace that weighed 15 or 16 pesos" and he sold another india to Juan Lucas for 15 pesos. He also permitted other residents to "sell, trade, and buy" Indigenous people without punishing them.

Pérez responded to the charges in 1554 by saying that these were totally false. He only rented [alquilarse] those indias to those men!
#histodons
#historyofslavery

In 1550, Alvaro de Canseco testified that his fellow Spaniards did not openly sell indios, but..."los venden cuando tienen necesidad de dinero." They sell them when they are in need of money.

#histodons
#historyofslavery

‘A search for ourselves’: shipwreck becomes focus of slavery debate https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/08/a-search-for-ourselves-shipwreck-becomes-focus-of-slavery-debate?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

#HistoryOfSlavery
#SubmarineArchaeology