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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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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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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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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Bassignana (Basiñana) Pedro Benito
1520–1540He formed a partnership with the cleric Alvaro de Castro at Concepción (Hispaniola), who had obtained permission to introduce 200 enslaved people into the island for the plantations of the area, including those of Castro himself. When the agreement with Castro ended, Bassignana obtained further licences to bring enslaved people to Cuba as well, where in two voyages he introduced 115 of them, whereas the licence provided for 80: 35 were therefore introduced illegally. This gave rise to a clash with the governor of the island, which led to Bassignana's imprisonment.
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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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Bonafante Camilo
c. 1591–1610A Genoese, resident first in Callao and then in Arica, he procured enslaved people for the merchant Jacom Fragoso, originally from Recco and active between Lima, Arequipa and Puno, who sold them alongside other goods.
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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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Capanegra Agustin
1816–1827Like other Genoese, he farmed rented land. He owned a house in a quinta in the Buenos Aires area and no fewer than fourteen enslaved people.
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Carmelino Angel
1800–1830In the Lima census of 1813 three enslaved people are recorded in his household. In his will of 1816, however, he declared that he owned five: José, Juan, Dolores, Marco and Félix.
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Carmelino Angelo
from 1813An Italian immigrant attested in Lima from at least 1813, the year of his marriage, he became the owner of an inn and owned five enslaved people.
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Carnilia Francisco
1773Originally from Genoa and resident in Buenos Aires, the legitimate son of don Juan Bautista Carnilia and doña María Antonia Porta. In his will of 1773 he directed that on his death Pedro, an African man he held in slavery, be freed, acknowledging his good services and loyalty.
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Carrega Esteban
1520–1540In 1526 he brought a cargo of 100 enslaved people from the African coasts to Santo Domingo. He then made further voyages between Seville, the African coasts and Hispaniola under Castro's licence.
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Castelletto Agostino
1656In June 1655 one of his ships, the Nostra Signora della Guadalupe, commanded by Giovanni Battista Piuma, was seized after arriving at Luanda: Portugal had rebelled against Spain and the Genoese, allies of Spain, were treated there as enemies. In December 1655 Castelletto asked the Overseas Council in Lisbon for free access to the port of Luanda; in a consulta of 9 January 1656 the Council approved the transit of the Genoese ships belonging to him and to Francesco Maria Rosso.
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Castellon Jacome
1510–1535Son of a Genoese merchant resident in Toledo, he settled in 1510 in Santo Domingo, where he was the agent of the Genoese merchants of Seville for the trade in enslaved people and sugar. He also invested in land, in stock-raising and in the city's property market, and purchased an ingenio (sugar-cane plantation) on the island. In 1522 he was sent by the Spanish authorities to put down an indigenous rebellion at Cumaná, and subsequently obtained the title of superintendent of the fortress. This post allowed him to engage in the trade in enslaved indigenous people on the Venezuelan coast, employed above all in pearl fishing. He remained at Cumaná for seven years, until 1528, then returned to Santo Domingo, where he was the agent of Pedro Benito de Basiñana and of Geronimo Grimaldi, who were involved in the slave trade with the island. In 1534-1535 he was considered one of the most important entrepreneurs of the New World.
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Castellon Tomas
1509–1527Brother of Jacome Castellon, after serving as agent of the Genoese community of Seville in Hispaniola he acquired a property in Puerto Rico, where he established the first sugar-cane plantation.
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Cattaneo Alessandro
1506–1550Son of Cesare Cattaneo, in 1506 he rented a house in Seville; around 1508 he was trading with Santo Domingo and in the 1510s with the Cape Verde archipelago. In 1512 he formed with Giuliano Calvi and Stefano Centurione a company that entrusted him with textiles, wine and ship's biscuit worth 1,000 gold ducats, to be taken to the island of Santiago, in Cape Verde, in exchange for enslaved people. In 1513 he sold some enslaved people brought from the African coast to another Genoese merchant of Seville, Giovan Francesco Grimaldi, who transported them to the New World. In 1550 he signed an asiento with the Crown, managed in Seville by two of his brothers, Nicolas and Visconte, who owned the ship Trinidad. Another relative, Jeronimo, handled the trade between Seville and Mexico and in turn had an agent, Juan, in Mexico City.