Abstract
This study is based on judicial processes and inquisition trials that
concern West African women in the gold mines of Antioquia, New
Granada, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. African women constituted around half of those enslaved in the mines, and their participation was structural both to the operation of the mines and in the revolts, escapes and formation of maroon communities that began in 1597. The ethnic origins suggested in their names allows a discussion of the influence of the African context surrounding their background. The women examined here reveal responses that were used in opposing the oppressive conditions of the mines and how they formulated strategies to obtain freedom.
concern West African women in the gold mines of Antioquia, New
Granada, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. African women constituted around half of those enslaved in the mines, and their participation was structural both to the operation of the mines and in the revolts, escapes and formation of maroon communities that began in 1597. The ethnic origins suggested in their names allows a discussion of the influence of the African context surrounding their background. The women examined here reveal responses that were used in opposing the oppressive conditions of the mines and how they formulated strategies to obtain freedom.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Regenerated Identities |
| Subtitle of host publication | Documenting African Lives |
| Editors | Paul E. Lovejoy, Henry B. Lovejoy, Erika Melek Delgado |
| Publisher | Africa World Press |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781569027936 |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Sept 2022 |