People database
People from the Italian peninsula involved in the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, 15th–19th centuries. Search by name or filter by role, place, network and period.
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Abo Nicola
1631He was the partner of Nicola Salvago and the captain of the slave ship Santísima Trinidad. The ship sailed from Cádiz to Luanda, and then on to Buenos Aires.
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Affaitati Giovan Francesco
1494–1529A merchant from Cremona who arrived in Lisbon around 1494, he entered the circuits linking the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and northern Europe and concluded contracts with the Portuguese Crown for sugar, spices and enslaved people. In 1526 he was involved in the contract concluded by Stefano Spinola with the king for 600 peças of enslaved people.
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Albasini Antonio
1823–1830Registered as Italian, in August 1829 he arrived in Brazil from Lourenço Marques, present-day Maputo, in Mozambique, with a cargo of enslaved people.
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Amatori Benozzo
1503–1517He acted as a procurator for various Florentine merchants in Lisbon, including Marchionni, Morelli and Sernigi, as well as for Portuguese merchants. He also maintained ties with other Florentines based on the Iberian Peninsula: in 1506, for instance, he sent an enslaved boy of thirteen from Madeira to Andrea Canigiani, who was living in Valencia.
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Antelmi Arrigo
1645–1675Captain of the ship Sant'Iacopo of Livorno. His account books and logbooks, covering the years from 1645 to 1657, record transactions relating to the crew and sales of enslaved people; among his papers there is also a register entitled «Ruolo delli schiavi che si trova in essere il S.or Capitano Arrigo Antelio a 20 di luglio 1657».
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Ardizone Joseph
1790–1793Co-partner of the firm Juan Bautista Eustaquio Pedemonte y Compañía, according to the company note entered in the register on 1 July 1790. With his brother Tomás he belonged to the Genoese group that held 52 shares of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy. The dividend, 1,300 pesos, was paid out on 13 April 1793 and collected on their behalf by their attorney Felipe Victorio de Ravara.
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Ardizone Tomás
1790–1793Brother of Joseph Ardizone and, with him, co-partner of the firm Juan Bautista Eustaquio Pedemonte y Compañía. The group held 52 shares of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy. The total dividend, 1,300 pesos, was collected on 13 April 1793 through the attorney Felipe Victorio de Ravara.
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Ayrolo Pedro Maria
1631THe financed the voyage of the slave ship Santísima Trinidad, owned by Nicola Salvago, together with Benito Vitale. The ship sailed from Spain to Luanda, and then transported enslaved people to Buenos Aires.
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Bacarreza Ambrosio
1769–1796Lieutenant of the Dragoon regiment of the Lima militia until 1790, when he requested royal licence to enter the Franciscan order (AGI, Lima, 689B, N. 10). Between 1770 and 1772 he is documented in three transactions involving enslaved people.
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Bacarreza Antonio
1763–1790Born in Genoa, son of Josef Bacarreza and Angela Conforte (AAL, Licencias matrimoniales, 1773). Between 1771 and 1787 he is documented in six transactions involving enslaved people.
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Bacarreza Cayetano
1778–1830Born in Genoa, the legitimate son of Jose Bacarreza and Lucía Conforte (AGN, Protocolo 60, 1830). In his will he declared that he owned four enslaved people. Between 1809 and 1817 he is documented in three transactions involving enslaved people. The deed by which he received his wife's dowry also included some enslaved people, entrusted to his administration.
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Balbi Antonio
1632–1635A Genoese, in 1632 he was an attorney at court and represented Giacomo Saluzzi in collecting the sums owed for sales and shipments of enslaved Black people in Seville and in the Indies.
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A Genoese merchant and banker. On his death, in 1665, he left to his wife all the enslaved people he owned.
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Baldase Bernardo
c. 1791–1810A merchant of Italian origin resident in Havana. With his brother Vicente Baldase, a merchant resident in Cádiz, he was joint owner of the sugar ingenio «La Santísima Trinidad», purchased in May 1795 from Juan de Sequeira. Between 1796 and 1797 the firm went bankrupt, and from the quiebra arose a long legal dispute between the Consulado of Havana and that of Cádiz over the settlement of the debts. The precautionary seizure of the plantation led to the drawing up of the inventory of assets and the detailed list of the enslaved people who worked there, including the family groups of Aldonza de Luca and Nicolasa Luca.
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Balestrieri Nicolau
1823–1830Registered as Italian and a merchant (negociante), on 1 October 1829 he moved to Porto Alegre with his wife, a daughter and an enslaved woman.
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Balocco Cesare
1666–1668Agent of the Grillo and Lomellini asiento. In 1666 he was sent to London to conclude an agreement with the Company of Royal Adventurers for the shipment of enslaved Africans to the Caribbean.
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Banfi y Montoto María Catalina
1781–1784Only daughter and universal heir of José Banfi y Parrilla, a banker of Genoese origin, knight of the Order of Calatrava and minister of the Supreme Council of the Indies. By an executory decree of the Council of Castile of 2 March 1781 she obtained full and independent administration of her dowry and of her father's estate. On 24 July 1784 she appeared in person at the offices of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy, and collected the dividends on her 14 shares, what remained of the 16 in her father's inventory.
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Banfi y Parrilla José
until 1781A banker of Genoese origin, knight of the Order of Calatrava and minister of the Supreme Council of the Indies, he died before 1784. His inventory included 16 shares of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy, with a nominal value of 500 scudi of 128 quarti each, later reduced to 14 and registered in the name of his daughter María Catalina.
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Barbaria Giorgio
1776–1800 (part of century)In the last quarter of the eighteenth century he was the most important producer and merchant of glass beads in Venice and a member of the guild of the Perleri. His business combined large-scale production and trade, with shipments to the western (Ponente) ports. His beads were destined above all for large merchant houses involved in the Atlantic slave trade, which used them as goods of exchange on the African coasts. Decisive for his success was his relationship with the firm Juvalta, Frisoni & Giese of Lisbon, active in Atlantic trade (colonial goods, ivory, enslaved people) and with partners in Luanda. His case shows the link between Venetian manufacturing and the circuits of the slave trade.
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Barbaria Giovanni
c. 1781–1800Brother of Giorgio Barbaria and like him a manufacturer and merchant, in the last decades of the eighteenth century he shipped glass beads to the western (Ponente) ports.
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Barberi Lucas
1788–1821Lucas Barberi y Blanco, resident in Lima, was born in Arenzano, «five leagues from Genoa». In his will he declares that he owns three enslaved people (AGN, Protocolos notariales, no. 638, escribano Jose Maria de la Rosa, 1821). Between 1790 and 1819 he is documented in ten transactions involving enslaved people.
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Barbieri Esteban
1789–1804The Buenos Aires census of 1804 recorded that he arrived in the city in 1789. Aged fifty, he owned a grocery shop, a furnished house, five enslaved people, and 1,000 pesos.
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Bardi Giacomo
1576Together with Stefano Lercaro he obtained the concession for the trade in enslaved people and raw materials with the port of Mina, in present-day Ghana.
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Baroncini Cesare
1594He fitted out two ships for the transport of enslaved people and held licences for the slave trade.
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Barzi Cesare
1486–1519Marchionni's agent in Valencia. Between 1489 and 1497, he imported an average of 268.5 enslaved Black people into Valencia each year, totalling 2,148. In the 1490s, he was the city's leading slave trader. He was also a marine insurer, typically insuring cargoes of sugar bound for the Mediterranean (Pisa) or Flanders, either on his own behalf or on behalf of other operators, primarily Italians or conversos. In 1510, he founded a trading company in Lyon with several other partners, including Venturi, Carnesecchi and Boninsegni.