The Journeys of Eleven African Captives to the Mines of Antioquia, New Kingdom of Granada (1573-1589)

This article analyzes the journeys of eleven African captives up to their arrival in the province of Antioquia in the northern part of the New Kingdom of Granada, where Spanish enslavers had introduced thousands of enslaved people, especially after the 1580 discovery of large gold deposits in Zaragoza. Based on the proof of sales provided in a lawsuit filed in 1589, the article traces the trans-Atlantic and intra-American journeys and, drawing on the terms used as surnames to distinguish the captives, examines the socio-political and economic contexts of the Upper Guinea Coast and Angola from which they came. Moreover, it analyzes the official and unofficial captive mobilities used by enslavers in the last decades of the sixteenth century to forcibly transport Africans through intra-American ports such as Concepción, Tolú, Santa Marta or Mompox to the newly discovered gold mines of Zaragoza in Antioquia.