Cited by 6Historical Studies in Latin AmericaColonialism, slavery, and tradeAfro-Latin American Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 22 of the 22 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 26 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Guerras, libertad y ciudadanía. Los afro-descendientes de Esmeraldas en la independencia

Open access
Morelli, Federica·2016·Revista de Indias

Abstract

El artículo analiza el papel jugado por la crisis del imperio español y de las guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas en la trasformación de las jerarquías raciales y sociales de la época colonial y en la configuración de nuevos derechos de ciudadanía. Estudiando el caso de Esmeraldas, una región de frontera al noroeste de Ecuador, se quiere poner en evidencia los variados mecanismos que los afro-descendientes, tanto esclavos como libres, utilizaron para acceder a la libertad y la ciudadanía durante el derrumbe de la Monarquía. Se trató de estrategias diferentes a las empleadas por los esclavos y libres de color en otras regiones de Hispanoamérica ya que respondieron a dinámicas propias de una región de frontera.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

The article argues that in Esmeraldas, a frontier region of Ecuador, Afro-descendants—both enslaved and free—used the crisis of the Spanish monarchy and the independence wars to gain freedom and citizenship, even without major battles or mass military recruitment. Their path differed from other Spanish American regions but produced a broad process of slave liberation and access to citizenship.

Key findings

  • In Esmeraldas, Afro-descendants were only indirectly involved in militia formation and the independence wars and were not influenced by Haitian events; nevertheless, the reforms and monarchy crisis radically transformed how they perceived and pursued freedom and citizenship.
  • The 1815 mining district had about 400 enslaved people out of a total population of 2,300 in Esmeraldas, organized in cuadrillas across four reales de minas: Playa de Oro, San Antonio de Cachavi, Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción del río Bogotá, and Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Guembi.
  • Enslaved miners used customary Saturdays and “días de guardar” to collect gold, buy their own or relatives’ freedom, and in 1815 Governor Andrés de Castro accepted their proposal to become mining tenants paying a pension/jornal; the Real Hacienda recorded 1,100 pesos from the pension of the Black miners at the end of 1815.
  • During independence, Esmeraldas slaves generally supported the insurgents rather than the royalists, seeking to exploit the crisis for freedom; in 1826 captains including Justo and Cornelio Arroyo, Agustín and Guillermo Valencia, and later Pío and Félix Valencia and Manuel Feliciano and Tomás Valencia petitioned the protector general de esclavos, invoking both customary liberties and the new liberty decrees such as the 1821 Cúcuta libertad de vientres law.

Methods

  • Historical case study of Esmeraldas as a frontier region, analyzed within the broader Atlantic and Spanish American independence context and compared with Tierra Firme (Colombia and Venezuela).
  • Uses archival sources including visitas pastorales and government visits, inventories of the Reales de Minas, population padrones, and judicial records, especially from the Archivo Nacional del Ecuador (e.g., Serie Haciendas caja 213, 1815; Fondo Especial caja 194 and caja 207; Tierras caja 213; Serie Esclavos caja 23, exp. 3).
  • Qualitative social and political history combining “history from below” and “history from above,” with attention to legal petitions, manumission, land claims, and slave resistance.

Limitations

  • The paper states that few archival sources exist for this frontier region because of the scarce presence of civil and religious authorities; the surviving documents are mainly pastoral and government visits and inventories of the Reales de Minas.
  • Evident from the text: the study is a single-case analysis, so its findings are not presented as broadly generalizable; motivations and everyday life are often inferred from fragmentary legal and official records rather than from direct testimony.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3989/revindias.2016.003

Cites

22 of 22 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

Mapa 1. Esmeraldas y las tierras bajas del Pacifico
Mapa 1. Esmeraldas y las tierras bajas del PacificoCC-BY · From the PDF

Verification

Claims the paper makes

39 Own interpretation · 28 No basis given · 25 Sources not found · 1 Own result

Show all 43 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 48
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 12
50 of 50
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The Afro-descendant groups of Esmeraldas were not influenced by the Haitian events.

    “Los grupos que vivían en este territorio fueron involucrados en el proceso de formación de milicias o en las guerras de independencia de manera muy indirecta y no fueron influenciados por los eventos haitianos.”
1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 20 references

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Baldry, I. K., et al. 2010, MNRAS, 404, 86

Metadata

Authors
Morelli, F.
Affiliations
University of Turin (IT)
Corresponding author
Morelli, Federica
Venue
Revista de Indias
Published
2016-04-30
Volume
76
Issue
266
Pages
83-108
ISSN
  • 0034-8341 (ISSN-L)
  • 1988-3188
OpenAlex
W2357993693
Cited by
6
References
20
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
FWCI
24.95
Type
journal article
Language
es
Open access
Locations
  • Revista de Indias (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Americanae (AECID Library) (acceptedVersion)
  • Institutional Research Information System University of Turin (University of Turin) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Historical Studies in Latin America
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Afro-Latin American Studies
Keywords
Afro-descendants, Esmeraldas, Spanish American independence, citizenship, freedom, slavery, racial hierarchy, social hierarchy, Spanish Empire, borderlands, free people of color

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