The Afro-Portuguese Maritime World and The
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THE AFRO-PORTUGUESE MARITIME WORLD AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF SPANISH CARIBBEAN SOCIETY, 1570-1640 By David Wheat Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History August, 2009 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Jane G. Landers Marshall C. Eakin Daniel H. Usner, Jr. David J. Wasserstein William R. Fowler Copyright © 2009 by John David Wheat All Rights Reserved For Sheila iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without support from a variety of institutions over the past eight years. As a graduate student assistant for the preservation project “Ecclesiastical Sources for Slave Societies,” I traveled to Cuba twice, in Summer 2004 and in Spring 2005. In addition to digitizing late-sixteenth-century sacramental records housed in the Cathedral of Havana during these trips, I was fortunate to visit the Archivo Nacional de Cuba. The bulk of my dissertation research was conducted in Seville, Spain, primarily in the Archivo General de Indias, over a period of twenty months in 2005 and 2006. This extended research stay was made possible by three generous sources of funding: a Summer Research Award from Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2005, a Fulbright-IIE fellowship for the academic year 2005-2006, and the Conference on Latin American History’s Lydia Cabrera Award for Cuban Historical Studies in Fall 2006. Vanderbilt’s Department of History contributed to my research in Seville by allowing me one semester of service-free funding. In Spring 2008, under the auspices of a Vanderbilt University Graduate School Dissertation Enhancement Award, I traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, where I conducted research in the Archivo General de la Nación. The following summer, a Robert Penn Warren Center Dissertation Writing Fellowship provided me with research funds which I used to visit archives in Lisbon, Portugal, principally the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino. The Warren Center also gave me invaluable time to write during the academic year 2008-2009. To each of these institutions and organizations, I offer my sincere gratitude. iv I am grateful to the staffs of the Archivo General de la Nación in Bogotá, the Sagrada Catedral and Archivo Nacional de Cuba in Havana, and the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon. I would especially like to thank the staff of the Archivo General de Indias in Seville. My research in Seville was enriched by the presence of fellow researchers and colleagues who are too numerous to mention, but I would like to single out Michael Francis, Mark Lentz, Kaja Cook, Juan José Ponce-Vázquez, Jeremy Baskes, Esther González, Lupe Fernández, and Asmaa Bouhrass. Special thanks are due to several historians who offered me assistance in each of the archives I visited. Rina Cáceres Gomez introduced me to the section Contaduría in the Archivo de Indias, pointing me towards an invaluable set of source materials of which I was previously unaware. In the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Coralia Alonso graciously helped me access a computer database containing detailed abstracts of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century notarial records. Renée Soulodre-La France provided helpful advice and information which made my research in Colombia’s Archivo General de la Nación far more productive than it otherwise would have been. Walter Hawthorne, Daniel Domingues da Silva, and Jessica Dionne introduced me to the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino and the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. John Thornton also facilitated my research in Lisbon by generously sharing some of his own research notes. This dissertation has benefited tremendously from the tireless work of Marilyn Pilley, Jim Toplon, and the Interlibrary Loan staff at Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Library. For providing a stimulating and encouraging environment in which to work, I would like to express my gratitude to a number of faculty and staff members at Vanderbilt, including Jane Anderson, Michael Bess, Bill Caferro, Polly Case, v Celso Castilho, Paula Covington, Mona Frederick, Brenda Hummell, Anthère Nzabatsinda, Frank Robinson, Heidi Welch, and Eddie Wright-Rios. I am deeply grateful to Katie Crawford for her generosity and openness, and her wonderful sense of humor. My thanks also go out to Richard Blackett, Jeff Edmonds, Pablo Gómez, Donald Jellerson, David Lafevor, J. León Helguera, Sonalini Sapra, Derrick Spires, Laura Taylor, and Jonathan Wade, each of whom has read versions of one or more of these chapters, providing constructive feedback. I would especially like to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Jane Landers, Marshall Eakin, Daniel Usner, David Wasserstein, and Bill Fowler. Since I first came to Vanderbilt in 2001, I have been encouraged and inspired by Daniel Usner, who challenges me to rethink my arguments in broader, comparative terms. It has also been a tremendous pleasure to work with Marshall Eakin, who in addition to providing me with guidance and support countless times during the past eight years, sets an example of generosity and dedication which I can only hope to follow. I cannot begin to describe my immense appreciation and gratitude towards my mentor, Jane Landers. Her insight, enthusiasm, and unfailing kindness have truly been the pillars of my graduate education. I would like to thank a number of additional friends and scholars who have given me their encouragement, helpful comments, or hospitality, though they may not remember. First and foremost, I am grateful to Michael Larosa, who introduced me to Latin American history, and who has been a wonderful source of support and encouragement ever since. I am also grateful to Jim Amelang, Richmond Brown, Mariana Pinho Candido, Yacine Daddi Addoun, Sara Gómez Zuluaga, Virginia Meacham Gould, Oscar Grandíos Moráguez, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Walter Hawthorne, vi Martin Klein, Douglas Libby, María Cristina Navarrete, Linda Newson, Nicolas Ngou- Mve, Michael Polushin, Fabricio Prado, Carla Rahn Phillips, David Richardson, Justina Sarabia Viejo, Fernando Serrano Mangas, Elisée and Maria Soummoni, and Margarita Zuluaga Tobon. Mariza de Carvalho Soares has provided me with encouragement and valuable suggestions a number of times over the past few years. Paul Lovejoy treated me seriously as a historian from very early on; this support, and his insightful responses to my written work and presentations, have been very helpful. I would also like to thank Joseph Miller, who generously commented on an early version of my dissertation chapter “Becoming Latin,” and David Eltis, who very kindly read and commented on a draft of my chapter, “The First Great Waves.” I could never have finished this dissertation without the love, support, and understanding of my parents, John Ross Wheat and Patricia Hallman Wheat, from beginning to end. También a mis suegros, Julio González Zahinos y Micaela Estrecha Flores, les agradezco de todo corazón su apoyo y amor. Jeremy Wheat, Rick Moore, Philippe Adell, Pablo Gómez, and Kathrin Seidl have each shown me incredible generosity, encouragement, and hospitality. Their friendship alone has been more than enough to make my time in Nashville worthwhile and rewarding. Most of all I want to thank my partner Sheila González Estrecha, who gave me the incentive to embark on this project, and who has accompanied me in one way or another through nearly every stage. This dissertation is dedicated to her. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION............................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................xii Chapter INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 I. THE PORTUGUESE MARITIME WORLD AND THE SPANISH CARIBBEAN ....................................................................................................14 Slave Ship Crews and Passengers................................................................20 Portuguese Ashore in the Caribbean............................................................29 Portuguese Mariners and the South Atlantic World ....................................39 The Indian Ocean and Pacific Worlds .........................................................51 Portuguese Knowledge of Africa and Africans...........................................59 Luso-Africans and Afro-Iberians.................................................................70 Conclusion ...................................................................................................76 II. “THE FIRST GREAT WAVES”: CARTAGENA DE INDIAS AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE, 1570-1640 ..................................77 New Developments ......................................................................................83 Royal Officials and Port Entry Records.......................................................86 Upper Guinea versus Angola in Peruvian and Mexican Sources ................98 Overlapping Waves: Chronology and Provenance....................................104