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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Centurione Giorgio
1737–1745A Genoese nobleman, son of Lorenzo Centurione. His will, drawn up in Genoa in 1737, provided for the division of assets and bequests consisting of shares of the South Sea Company, the company holding the asiento for the slave trade. Those assets were encumbered with legacies in favour of family members, fellow confraternity members and Genoese charitable institutions.
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Doria Gio Stefano
c. 1631–1647He supported the company of his relative Nicola Salvago, active in the distribution and sale of enslaved people to Buenos Aires.
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Durazzo Giacomo Filippo
1770–1790A member of the Genoese aristocracy, son of Marcello Durazzo. Concerned about the sums invested by his father in the asiento of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros, he sought information from his agent in Cádiz, the naturalised Genoese Joseph Antonio Mosti, and in 1772 ended his participation in the enterprise. In 1779 he sought the intermediation of Francisco Cambiaso and his son José María, but the collaboration did not take hold. In 1783 he was receiving correspondence from José María Enrile from Havana. In 1784 Joseph Sigori entrusted him with the sale in Genoa of a cargo of indigo and American goods. He also attempted to establish himself as an importer of Portuguese goods in Genoa, turning to Giuseppe Salomone in Lisbon in order to enter the networks of the great merchants.
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Durazzo Marcello
1765–1772He invested in the Compañía Gaditana de Negros, and thus in the slave trade, through José María Enrile.
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Imperiale Francesco Maria
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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Sauli Franceso Maria
1620–1699Francesco Maria Sauli operated in Genoa on behalf of Grillo and Lomellini: he received and sold the goods arriving from Cádiz, procured credit and insured the asiento ships. His activity, however, went far beyond this: he invested in Roman and Neapolitan public debt, traded in grain, silver, silk textiles and marble, and invested in the Genoese shipyards. In 1666 he supplied Grillo and Lomellini with galleons of 500 tons each for the slave trade. In 1667 he procured for Feroni, in Amsterdam, funds to buy enslaved people for the asiento. At the beginning of 1668 Grillo asked him to insure the ship Santa Cruz, of 500 tons, with 34 guns and a crew of 70 men, commanded by Giovanni Francesco Garibaldo: the ship was to sail from Cádiz to Angola, load enslaved people there and carry them to Curaçao, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico, perhaps also to Cumaná and Caracas, and then transport silver from Cádiz to Genoa. In March 1668 Sauli won the tender for the insurance.