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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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 Bartolome
1800–1820Born in San Maurizio di Genova, the legitimate son of Francisco Grillo and Francisca Calandra (AGN, Protocolo 84, 1808). Between 1805 and 1807 he is documented in three transactions involving enslaved people.
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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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Guerci Bartolome
1783–1815Between 1783 and 1809 he is documented in Lima in at least eighteen transactions involving enslaved people, as buyer, seller and intermediary. The sources attest purchases and subsequent resales, and the sale on behalf of third parties of an enslaved bozal person, that is, born in Africa, who had been sent to him on consignment from Guayaquil. Other transactions concern enslaved people from Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
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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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Maffei Beltrame
1681–1689Partner of Carlo Andrea Maffei in Cádiz, he signed with him and handled the correspondence with Benjamin Burlamacchi in Amsterdam between 1681 and 1689. He was involved in the brokering of transatlantic shipments of enslaved Africans to the Spanish West Indies within the framework of the asiento de negros.
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Maffei Carlo Andrea
1681–1689A Genoese merchant, partner in the Maffei firm in Cádiz. Between 1681 and 1689 he maintained with Benjamin Burlamacchi in Amsterdam a business correspondence of thirty-eight letters, in which the trade in «negros» is explicitly discussed in relation to the asiento de negros of Balthasar Coymans and to the shipments to Curaçao, coordinated with the agent Balthasar Beck.
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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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Maza Juan Maria
1775In Lima he owned a chocolate shop and three enslaved people.
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He owned a chocolate shop in which three enslaved people worked.
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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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Mosti Joseph Antonio
1760–1789 (decade)A Genoese merchant naturalised Spanish, son of Esteban Mosti and with him agent in Cádiz of the Durazzo for maritime loans. In 1773 his house specialised in sea-loan contracts on shipments bound for Havana, Cartagena, Honduras and Buenos Aires. Through him and through Enrile, Giacomo Filippo Durazzo financed the expeditions of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros, Enrile's partner in the slave trade. He also kept Durazzo informed about the progress of the Compañía Gaditana de Negros and acted as intermediary between him and Enrile in the settlement of the balances, when in 1772 participation in the enterprise was ended.
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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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Patron Bartolomé
1751–1800 (part of century)He took part in the Atlantic slave trade together with his brother Benito.
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Patron Juan Bautista
1789–1803Captain of a ship that transported enslaved people to Buenos Aires on behalf of the merchant Ramón de Palacios, holder of the asiento for the supply of enslaved people to the Río de la Plata as agent of the English trading house Robert Main of Cádiz.
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Pavarin Luis
1800–1821Born in Turin, in the Kingdom of Sardinia. In his will he declares that he owns six enslaved people (AGN, Perú, Protocolo 30, escribano Ignacio Ayllon Salazar, 1818). Between 1809 and 1818 he is documented in fifteen transactions involving enslaved people.
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Piuma Campodonico Giovanni Battista
1654–1657A Genoese resident in Cádiz, in 1654 he obtained licences to introduce 150 enslaved people into any port of the Spanish colonies in America. Captain and owner of a ship built in Livorno, the Nuestra Señora de Guapelo y Guadalupe, he probably departed from Genoa and called at Cádiz, where he embarked other Genoese resident in the city. The voyage was financed, among others, by Francesco Maria Imperiale and by Giovanni Battista Montovio, another Genoese resident in Cádiz, who as security for their investments had the latter's brother board the ship. Piuma arrived in Luanda between the end of 1654 and the beginning of 1655. He spent more than a year there trying to obtain permission to trade from the local authorities, and there he died, together with Montovio, in April 1656. His ship, with more than 100 enslaved people in excess of what the Spanish licences allowed, reached Santo Domingo at the end of 1657, although its final destination was Cartagena de Indias.
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Poleo Bartolomé
1790–1815Vecino of Lima, born in Savona, in the Republic of Genoa («vecino de Lima, natural de Savona, en la República de Génova»). Between 1790 and 1815 he is documented in 33 transactions involving enslaved people.
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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.