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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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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Bieluto Alberto
1660–1679 (decade)A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, in the 1660s and 1670s he was a partner in the expeditions of the asiento ships to the Caribbean. The same network included Giovanni Battista Porrata, Giovanni Rolato, the brothers Giovanni Battista and Pantaleo Grasso, Pietro Del Forno and Giovanni Battista Priaruggia.
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Bustanzo Giuseppe
1663–1667Between 1663 and 1667 he organised the networks of the Grillo and Lomellini asiento in the Caribbean from his base in Cartagena de Indias. In the 1650s he had founded in Cádiz, with his brother Giovanni, a trading house that had already dealt with Grillo and Lomellini before the asiento was granted.
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Del Forno Pietro
1660–1679 (decade)A Genoese merchant settled in Cádiz, in the 1660s and 1670s he was a partner in the expeditions of the asiento ships bound for the Caribbean. The same network included Giovanni Battista Porrata, Giovanni Rolato, the brothers Giovanni Battista and Pantaleo Grasso, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto.
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Enrile Jose Maria
1765–1779He was one of the original partners of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros, which was granted the exclusive right to engage in the slave trade with the Americas by the Crown from 1765 to 1779. Initially operating from Puerto Rico and subsequently from Cuba, the company also invested in the buying and selling of grain, sugar, coffee, timber, and other goods. Enrile also invested in a London company that imported enslaved people to Cuba.
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Before entering the service of Grillo and Lomellini he had served in the Armada Real and in the naval squadron of the Prince of Montesarchio. He began his career representing Grillo and Lomellini in Cádiz, where he supervised the work of other factors and organised the city's naval resources. In 1667, on the initiative of Ambrogio Lomellini, he left for the Indies as a factor; having reached Cartagena de Indias, he began to sail with the company's ships in the Caribbean. Between 1671 and 1672 he transported 1,563 enslaved people between the ports of Curaçao, Portobelo, Veracruz and Cartagena, always aboard the Santa Cruz.
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Grasso Giovanni Battista
1660–1679 (decade)A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, in the 1660s and 1670s he took part in the expeditions of the asiento ships to the Caribbean together with his brother Pantaleo Grasso and the partners Giovanni Battista Porrata, Giovanni Rolato, Pietro Del Forno, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto, who formed a single Cádiz network.
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Grasso Pantaleo
1660–1679 (decade)A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, in the 1660s and 1670s he took part in the expeditions of the asiento ships to the Caribbean together with his brother Giovanni Battista Grasso and the partners Giovanni Battista Porrata, Giovanni Rolato, Pietro Del Forno, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto.
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Grillo Bartolomeo
1601–1700 (century)A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, he was a partner of Francesco Ferrari, Domenico Recagno and Ambrogio Lomellini in organising the transport of enslaved people to American ports. Despite the surname, there is no firm evidence of a family relationship with Domenico Grillo.
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A Cádiz firm described as a cartel of Ligurian investors, holder of 52 shares of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy. The company note of 1 July 1790 lists the brothers Joseph and Tomás Ardizone as co-partners.
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Masnata José Rafael
1765–1772He took part in the expeditions of the ships of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros.
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Monsagrati Juan Isidoro
1770–1784A native of Lucca, in 1770 he was appointed administrator and later factor in Cádiz of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy. He was paid 1% on the sales of goods landed from Havana and 1% on purchases destined for the colonies. The accounts he signed include the item «en negros»: 12,161 pesos and 6 reales in the Estado de los Fondos of 1777 and a further 10,295 pesos among the actual holdings in Havana in the accounts of 1782. He handled the fitting out and insurance of the fleet, including the Santa María de Gracia, a paquebote purchased for the «conducción de negros».
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Monsagrati María Justa
1782–1789Eldest daughter of Juan Isidoro Monsagrati and widow of Juan Francisco Xavier Guidoti, she was a founding partner of the company Monsagrati Hijos, Montis y Compañía, established on 25 September 1782. On her father's death she continued to run the Cádiz factory of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy.
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Monsagrati María Petronila
1787–1803Second daughter of Juan Isidoro Monsagrati, unmarried and over twenty-five years of age, she entered the company Monsagrati Hijos, Montis y Compañía on the renewal of the contract, in 1787, declaring that she was succeeding her late father. She contributed to the company her own share of the inheritance, while the partners Montis and Roche contributed their personal labour. She remained at the head of the Cádiz factory until the business was closed, on 31 May 1803.
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Montesisto Giuseppe
1765–1772Genoese consul in Cádiz, he invested in the Compañía Gaditana de Negros and thus in the slave trade to the Spanish colonies.
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Montovio Giovanni Battista
1654–1655He financed the voyage of the slave ship Nuestra Señora de Guapelo y Guadalupe, which was owned by Giovanni Battista Piuma Campodonico and was set to transport enslaved people from Luanda to Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.
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Panesi Fulgencio
1665–1679 (decade)Brother of Giovanni Andrea Panesi, with whom he ran in Cádiz what contemporaries considered the largest trading house in the city in the 1670s. At the beginning of 1665, when a ship of the asiento attempted to smuggle silver into Cádiz, the Panesi brothers paid the price for protecting Domenico Grillo's interests in the cargo. In June 1666 Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini granted power of attorney to Giovanni Andrea and Fulgencio Panesi and to Giovanni Francesco Garibaldo.
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Panesi Giovanni Andrea
1665–1679 (decade)A merchant of Cádiz, close partner of Domenico Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini. With his brother Fulgencio he ran what contemporaries considered the largest trading house in the city in the 1670s. At the beginning of 1665, when a ship of the asiento attempted to smuggle silver into Cádiz, the Panesi brothers paid the price for protecting Grillo's interests in the cargo, and Giovanni Andrea ended up in prison.
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Porrata Giovanni Battista
1661–1670A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, between 1661 and 1670 he was a trading partner of the asiento and took part in the expeditions of its ships to the Caribbean. He belonged to the same Cádiz group as Giovanni Rolato, the brothers Giovanni Battista and Pantaleo Grasso, Pietro Del Forno, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto.
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Priaruggia Giovanni Battista
1660–1679 (decade)A Genoese merchant active in Cádiz, in the 1660s and 1670s he took part as a partner in the expeditions of the asiento ships to the Caribbean, together with Giovanni Battista Porrata, Giovanni Rolato, the Grasso brothers, Pietro Del Forno and Alberto Bieluto.
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Ratto Manuel
1685–1689A Genoese merchant, partner of Balthasar Coymans in Cádiz in the firm «Coymans en Ratto», recorded in the archive index as «Conio e Ratto». Between 1685 and 1689 he directly managed the financial operations, remittances and shipping freights on behalf of the asiento company, holder of the monopoly of the slave trade in the Spanish colonies.
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Recagno Domenico
1601–1700 (century)A Genoese merchant settled in Cádiz, he took part with Francesco Ferrari of Amsterdam, Bartolomeo Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini in a company for the transport of enslaved people to American ports. He is a different person from Bernardo Recagno, active in the same Cádiz merchant colony.
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Rolato Giovanni
1661–1663A Genoese merchant and partner of the asiento in Cádiz between 1661 and 1662, he was investigated for smuggling in the Indies. He belonged to the same trading network as Giovanni Battista Porrata and the other Cádiz partners who took part in the slave-trading expeditions in the Caribbean, including the Grasso brothers, Pietro Del Forno, Giovanni Battista Priaruggia and Alberto Bieluto.
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In 1634, he was among those who obtained licences to sail from the ports of Seville, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz, Lisbon and the Canary Islands. They were permitted to load enslaved people at Cape Verde, Guinea, São Tomé, Angola and Mina, before transporting them to New Spain and Tierra Firme (modern-day Colombia and Venezuela).
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Terri Antonio
1755–1767Born in the Marquisate of Finale, in the Republic of Genoa, the legitimate son of Antonio Terri and Angela Adriano. In Cádiz he married Antonia Álvarez Campana Cardona, whose mother was a native of Finale (AGN, Protocolo 20, 1780). Between 1755 and 1767 he is documented in three transactions involving enslaved people.