Los procesos judiciales de liberación de esclavos palmeses y guanches en Sevilla (1496-1512).Nuevos datos para su estudio

Resumo

It is very difficult to try to explain the violent enslavement carried out by the Governor Alonso de Lugo during and after the conquest of Tenerife. On many occasions, the conduct of Lugo has another explanation that an excessive collection effort coupled with a stunning lack of scruples. However, making Lugo was not something unusual for the era that had him live. The enslavement of the vanquished by weapons was part of everyday life in the 14th and 15th centuries. Without going any further, in the war of Granada, with a rival of culture and civilization similar to Spanish, they captivated and deported entire populations of their cities. At a time when the slave trade began a boom that would not cease in the following centuries, it was common to see African captives and other exotic in mainland markets. The Canarian indigenous was not conceptualized better than other types of slave originating in distant lands. They happened to be a valuable commodity from capture, so it almost always the captors lost sight, blinded by the pursuit of profit, the notion of person of their captives. This inhuman vision, from our current point of view, was running and daily currency in the Andalusian ports in the years in which we speak. In this paper we will analyze the reaction of the Spanish Crown concerning the unjust enslavement of the Canarian indigenous people, focusing on the episodes related to Palmeses and Guanches in the light of new documents that have appeared in recent years.