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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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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Malaboto Juan Pablo
1639Captain and trusted man of the Genoese Nicola Salvago, he organised voyages and deliveries of cargoes of enslaved people, probably coming from the Luso-African factorías.
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Marin Juan Bautista
1540–1550An agent of the Marin-Lomellini company, he resided in Veracruz, where he exchanged enslaved people for sugar. In the years 1545-1547 the company's factors sent five shipments of sugar to Spain, with a profit of 7,986,789 maravedís.
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Marin Tomas
1540–1550In 1540 he formed with Leonardo Lomellini a company for the exchange of enslaved people and sugar between Seville and Mexico. Two years later Charles V granted them a licence to introduce 900 enslaved people into the colonies in exchange for a loan of 6,300 ducats. Many of these people were transported to Veracruz on the Trinidad, the vessel of Nicolas Cattaneo; most were sold to Hernán Cortés for the sugar mills he had built at Tuxtla, near Veracruz, and at Tlaltenango, near Cuernavaca.
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Maza Juan Maria
1775In Lima he owned a chocolate shop and three enslaved people.
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Maza Mateo
1767–1784His presence in the Río de la Plata dates back at least to 1767, when he figured among the owners of the licensed pulperías of Buenos Aires. In 1783 he sued Felipe Zeballos over the ownership of an enslaved woman. The powers of attorney he signed in 1784 attest to his commercial interests in Chile, to which he sent several lots of yerba mate and other unspecified goods.
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He owned a chocolate shop in which three enslaved people worked.
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Montar Francisco
1804–1827He farmed rented land and owned three enslaved people in the Buenos Aires area.
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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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Moro Angel
1827He owned one enslaved person alongside his partner, Ángel María Pensay. They both worked in partnership with Francisco Granea.
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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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Naon Luis
1843He declared that he owned four enslaved people, 700 silver pesos, and two quintas in San José de Flores, near Buenos Aires. As well as being involved in direct production, he had interests in retail trade; a census from the early nineteenth century lists him as a pulpero. Over time, he maintained and expanded both activities. Upon his death in 1843, his estate was valued at 698,216.5 pesos and included a pulpería, several warehouses, five quintas and other properties.
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Olivari José
1807–1827A pasta maker, married to a woman from Montevideo, he had four children and owned four enslaved people.
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In August 1494 he transported 65 enslaved people from Tenerife from La Gomera to Valencia on behalf of Alfonso Sanchis, treasurer of the king.
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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 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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Pensay Angel Maria
1827He owned an enslaved person alongside his partner, Ángel Moro. They both worked in partnership with Francisco Granea.
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Picaluga Claudio
1824–1826Born in Genoa and naturalised Dutch in Curaçao, ship's captain and shipowner. He was the owner, together with Giovanni Zangroni and Francischo (Francesco) Chichiola, of the ship Amable Claudina and its cargo. Having sailed from Bordeaux bound for La Guaira, the ship was intercepted by the Royal Navy and the case was judged by the Mixed Commission of Sierra Leone.
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Pinelli Francesco
1480–1493A Genoese merchant, he lived in Valencia from 1470 to 1491. His family had moved to the Iberian Peninsula as early as 1435, chiefly as exporters of wool to Genoa. In 1480, together with the Spanish merchant Diego de Soria, he won the contract as collector and depositary of the papal tithe for the Castilian conquest of the Canaries. There followed a small but steady flow of Pinelli's employees in Seville who sold enslaved people from the Canaries. Between 1489 and 1491 the two, together with Sánchez, lent the sovereign 25 million maravedís for the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada. They also acted as intermediaries in the sale of enslaved people from Málaga and the Canaries. In 1493 Pinelli and other Genoese resident in Andalusia granted Columbus a large loan, in exchange for the subcontract to supply all the goods needed for the second voyage.
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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.