canary aborigines slavery valencia seville

Canary aborigines sold as slaves in Valencia and Seville

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

Canary aborigines sold as slaves in Valencia and Seville

Valencia and Seville were the main markets where aboriginal Canary Islanders captured during the Conquest of the islands by the Crown of Castile between the 15th and 16th centuries were sold as slaves. That is the conclusion of a study carried out by Rocío Jiménez Díaz, a researcher at the University of Teramo in Italy, as part of a jointly supervised programme run by the two public universities of the Canary Islands.

The research reveals how the enslavement of the aboriginal peoples of the Atlantic islands served as a precedent for what was to come with the then incipient conquest of the Americas. According to the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Jiménez has reconstructed the dynamics of the enslavement of the islands’ aborigines and how they were inserted into the Atlantic trading circuits that were taking shape at the time, in a preliminary step towards the trade that would take millions of African slaves to the Americas in the centuries that followed.

Valencia, the main destination

Most of the people enslaved in the Canary Islands were taken to Valencia, where their value was lower than in Seville, given Valencia’s redistributive role in the Mediterranean context compared with Seville’s dependence on other primary ports. The author notes that these people were used as an economic resource to settle debts and generate profits. Their predominant age range was between 14 and 25, although the presence of enslaved people under the age of 13 in Valencia and over the age of 35 in Seville is documented. Both men and women were traded in these markets.

A subsidiary subject within slavery studies

Jiménez Díaz stresses that enslaved Amazigh-Canarian people have always been a subsidiary subject within monographs or broader studies on slavery in Europe. Her work therefore seeks to deepen understanding of the specific dynamics of slavery originating in the Canary Islands, gathering more information about the lives of these people: who they were, where they came from, how they reached this city, how they fitted into the heterogeneous group of enslaved people, how they were valued and what processes are reflected in the historical documentation.

Similarly, the researcher considers it necessary to review the historiographical language traditionally used. She prefers to dispense with the word “slave”, because it objectifies the person, and to use “enslaved person” instead, as she believes this shifts the action towards the enslaver. In her view, avoiding dehumanising perspectives and not accepting colonial discourse makes it possible to reposition these people at the centre of their own processes and of the geographical dispersal to which they were forced.

Loss of identity and cultural erasure

Another aspect highlighted in the study concerns the depersonalisation suffered by enslaved people, which entailed the loss of their cultural and linguistic identity. Baptism, for example, replaced their aboriginal names with Christian ones, making it harder to trace them in the documentary record.

Living outside their place of origin also encouraged the adoption of European languages and customs, and the gradual erosion of their original identity, the research adds.

🧭 Explore the Canary Islands with us
📰 Read more Canary Islands news ☀️ Check Canary Islands weather 🏖️ Find the best beaches in the Canaries 📲 Join us on WhatsApp

Source

Scroll to Top