Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2020
This article explores how some enslaved Black Africans litigated for their freedom in Spanish royal courts in the sixteenth century on the basis that—as Christians—they had been unjustly enslaved in Africa. With a focus on the port cities of Seville and Cartagena, I explore how freedom litigation suits illuminate how individuals from starkly different social worlds and intellectual milieus—who inhabited the same urban sites—affected and shaped one another's intellectual landscapes. I trace how enslaved Africans’ epistemologies of just slavery shaped broader discourses on the just enslavement of Africans in the Spanish Empire.
This article is dedicated to Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra for his solidarity, mentorship, friendship, and unwavering commitment to ensuring that diverse voices enter and remain in the historical profession. I also thank Susan Deans-Smith, Nelson Fernando González Martínez, Martin van Gelderen, Julie Hardwick, Tamar Herzog, Mark Hutchinson, Matthew Kruer, Aishwary Kumar, Jane Landers, Paul Lovejoy, Giuseppe Marcocci, Adrian Masters, Rachel Sarah O'Toole, Brian Owensby, Richard Ross, Erin Rowe, Andres Vélez Posada, the anonymous RQ reviewers, and the Leverhulme Trust.