The Afrodescendant Presence and the Legal Practice in Lima and Mexico in the 17th Century

Abstract

In the present work we will analyze the canonical legislation that was born in the Spanish America during the colonial period. In the first colonial site, this legislation started a few decades after the settlement of the Spanish domain, having a notorious influence from the Council of Trent and the different American sites where the Church created and promulgated synodal and provincial constitutions. In this way, the new human relations were legislated, providing the slaves with spiritual rights and using the excommunication as an element of punishment against the offending masters. In other words, since the first century of the colonial domain, the Church lawfully protected the slaves. This right was recurrently used by the slaves since the early colonial period, something that is stated in the different judicial processes of Lima and New Spain. There is no doubt that the city got a fundamental role in the learning of the enslaving canon law, as it allowed the slaves not only to interact with the law sources but also to use writing in order to seek improvements in their condition. In the case of the Portuguese America, the canon law arrived late and, as well as the case of Cuba, another plantation economy, the Church did not fight against the stately property.