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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Cavaleri Pietro Mattia
1668–1674Agent of the Grillo and Lomellini asiento in the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. He had previously operated in Madrid as a private lender and as a merchant through a company based in Genoa, together with his partner Bartolomeo Capa. He began working for Grillo in 1664, if not earlier, supervising the delivery of almost 125,000 pesos from Cartagena to Italy, part of a loan that Grillo had granted to the Crown.
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Centurione (Centurion) Gaspar
1514–1526Together with Francisco Grimaldi (or Grimaldo), he bought a licence to send a small group of enslaved people to Hispaniola. He also undertook to ship the enslaved people for the Genoese company (Forne, Vivaldo and Vazquez) that had purchased Gouvenot's licence.
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Centurione (Centurion) Melchor
1518–1526Brother of Gaspar, he was the agent of Forne, Vivaldo and Vazquez in Santo Domingo, where he exchanged enslaved people for sugar.
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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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Centurione Ottavio
1617A Genoese financier active in Madrid, in 1617 he received from the Crown 3,750,000 maravedís secured on the renta de los esclavos negros, the fiscal revenue generated by the slave trade, and later resold the credit in lots.
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Cibo Carlo
1820–1860A Genoese, grocer in Regla, near Havana. His shop was a point of reference for the slave traders arriving on the island. He hosted in Cuba the slave trader of Franco-Italian origin Theodore Canot. He was also co-owner of the ship Areostatico, employed in the illegal slave trade, which in 1826 transported 108 enslaved people to Havana.
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Colombo Domingo
1765–1772He was captain and owner of the ship El Loreto, with which he took part in the Compañía Gaditana de Negros and made several voyages to Puerto Rico and Cuba.
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Compiano Francesco Maria
1663–1674An agent of Grillo and Lomellini, he distributed enslaved Africans to Spanish ports such as Veracruz, Portobelo, Caracas, Cartagena de Indias and Cumaná. Before joining the asiento he had organised illegal expeditions to sell enslaved people between Cádiz, the Canaries, Curaçao and Portobelo. In 1665, during the contracts between Grillo and Lomellini and the Company of Royal Adventurers, the English company that held the monopoly of trade with Africa, including the slave trade, he also travelled to Jamaica and Barbados.
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Cota Horacio
1633–1639Appointed by Nicola Salvago as agent in Buenos Aires, with the task of supervising the sale of enslaved people.
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D'Andrea Stefano
1668–1672He replaced Francesco Feroni as Grillo's agent in Amsterdam, where he bought enslaved people for the asiento and purchased other goods to be sent to America.
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da Noli Antonio
1460–1469 (decade)A Genoese navigator in the service of the Portuguese Crown, in the 1460s he was commissioned by Afonso V to colonise the Cape Verde Islands. The commission included authorisation to carry on the slave trade in the indigenous populations.
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de Andrade Antonio
1750–1760Born in the village of Ybaga, in the «Rivera de la Chebe», jurisdiction of Genoa, the legitimate son of Juan Bautista de Andrade and Catalina Chuena (AAL, Testamento, 163:5). In his will he declared that he owned an enslaved man named Ventura, to whom he granted freedom, without any encumbrance, from the day of his own death, in reward for his good services and loyalty.
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De la Terola y Jordan Agustín
1753–1763Also known as Agustín de la Terola or Agustín Jordan, he was born in Finale, in the Republic of Genoa, the legitimate son of Joseph de la Terola y Jordan and Ana Maria Gordona y Graterola. Between 1755 and 1763 he is documented in three transactions involving enslaved people.
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de Mari François
1702A Genoese nobleman active between Madrid and Paris, in 1702 he was registered as the holder, on behalf of Francesco Grillo, of a share of 150,000 livres in the Compagnie de Guinée et de l'Asiento. The subscription was actually carried out in Paris by the banker Jean Laurent Verzure, who represented him.
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De Mari Stefano
c. 1560A Genoese banker resident in Naples, around 1560 he purchased through his brother Nicolò two galleys for 35,000 ducats, intended to be provided under asiento to the Spanish monarchy. The contract included fifty enslaved men per galley and an annual allowance of 6,000 gold ducats for each, secured on the fiscal payments of the Kingdom of Naples.
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De Negron Carlos
1536–1540Son of a Genoese who had arrived in Seville at the beginning of the sixteenth century and been naturalised. A graduate in law, he was also active in the slave trade: he owned two galleons that sailed between Africa and Veracruz. He married a prominent member of the Sevillian nobility. He was later appointed legal adviser to the tribunal of the Inquisition, then fiscal of the Council of the Indies and finally of the Council of Castile. His seven children became important officials or landowners.
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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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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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Falconi Bernardo
1641–1646A Genoese sailor, he agreed to transport the Capuchin friars to the Congo in exchange for permission to capture and enslave Africans in order to sell them in the Americas.
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Ferrari Cayetan
1822Although he was already deceased, he appears in the proceedings of the Juzgado de Secuestros in Lima. His assets, which were valued at 8,000 pesos, included money, jewellery, enslaved people, and the furnishings of his fonda on Calle de Mercaderes.
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Owner of an inn in central Lima, he left an estate comprising 8,000 pesos in cash, jewellery, enslaved people, and the inn's utensils and furnishings.
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Fornari (Forne) Domingo
1518–1526With his brother Tomas, Augustin de Vivaldo and Fernan Vazquez he bought the licence that the King of Spain had granted to Gouvenot to bring 4,000 enslaved people to the Americas in eight years. It is not known how many people they sold, but they resold the licences at very high prices, making a profit of 300,000 ducats. The same company, with Genoese and Spanish capital, owned the ingenio of Sanctis Spiritu, just outside Santo Domingo.
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Fornari (Forne) Tomas
1518–1526With his brother Domingo, Augustin de Vivaldo and Fernan Vazquez he bought the licence that the King of Spain had granted to Gouvenot to bring 4,000 enslaved people to the Americas in eight years. It is not known how many people they sold, but they resold the licences at very high prices, making a profit of 300,000 ducats. The same company, with Genoese and Spanish capital, owned the ingenio of Sanctis Spiritu, just outside Santo Domingo.
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Gaggero Pedro
1729–1741A Genoese active in the Spanish territories of America, he privately purchased enslaved people («compra particular de Negros») from Nicolás Alfonso Serrano in the years when the asiento de negros was managed by the English company.