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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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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La Chiapella Geronimo
1769–1810Born in 1742, La Chiapella first engaged in the trade in goods and enslaved people between the French and Spanish islands of the Caribbean, including Saint-Domingue, Martinique and Cuba, before settling in New Orleans. His first documented sale in the city dates from 18 September 1769, when Manuel Roch bought from him for 200 dollars a three-year-old Creole boy named Joseph. Between 1783 and 1793 he appeared in numerous transactions and sold hundreds of enslaved people. In 1788 alone he appeared in 68 transactions, more than any other merchant in the city; among the twenty-five merchant-traders of New Orleans who dealt in enslaved people, he was the fifth most active. From 1790 he invested the wealth he had accumulated in real estate: he purchased several plantations in the vicinity of New Orleans, in Florida and in Mississippi, and became the owner of hundreds of enslaved people.
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Lapi Francesco
1536He was a partner in the Florentine Strozzi company and represented it in Seville. In 1536, he received authorisation from the sovereign to send goods, accompanied by enslaved people, to the West Indies.
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Lomellini Urbano
1472–1518He was the grandson of Bartolomeo Lomellini, who settled in Lisbon in 1424, and the son of Cosmo, who was born in the Portuguese capital and became a prominent merchant. Instead, Urbano settled in Madeira with his brother Giovanni Battista and became a sugarcane producer there. He owned two plantations in the Porto da Cruz area, where he employed enslaved people, including Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula and Guanches from the Canary Islands. Meanwhile, his brother Giovanni Battista traded Madeiran sugar in Lisbon, Genoa, Milan, Naples and other Italian cities, as well as Bruges.
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Luqui Bartolo
1816–1836A Genoese resident in district 14 of Buenos Aires, between 1816 and 1836 he lived with his wife, five children and three enslaved people.
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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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Mazzei Filippo
1773–1788A Tuscan who had grown rich in London in the trade in wine, oil, pasta, silks and cheeses, in 1773 he arrived in Virginia with a dozen Tuscan farmers and the following year founded an agricultural company whose shareholders included George Washington, George Mason and Thomas Jefferson. In presenting the company to the shareholders, he explicitly declared his intention to purchase enslaved labour. In his memoirs, completed in 1813, he admitted only to having “hired 2 good Moors” for some time on his arrival in Virginia. In a letter to the King of Poland of 1788 he recalled having sold all the enslaved people he owned when he left Virginia, and having invested most of the proceeds in government bonds.
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Mazzinghi Niccolò
1467Owner of two enslaved African people, a woman and a girl, who arrived in Livorno from Lisbon in 1467 through Giovanni Guidetti.
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Miani Giovanni
1859–1860An explorer active in sub-Saharan Africa, during his journey towards the sources of the Nile in 1859-1860 he purchased two people of the Akka population. The documentation is held at the Museo civico di Storia naturale in Venice; a bust of Miani is at the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo.
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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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Morandi Caetano
1808–1822Registered as Italian, on 7 March 1822 he departed from Rio de Janeiro for Rio Grande with two enslaved people.
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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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Mucini Stefano
1464He bought an enslaved African woman from Giovanni Guidetti, who had brought her to Livorno from Lisbon.
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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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Pallavacino (Palavecino) Pedro
1770–1799His will includes an estate of 44,109.7 pesos: four houses in the city centre, a bakery with three grain mills, six enslaved people and 17,000 pesos in cash.
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Palmaro Francesco
1484–1507Resident in Valencia from 1484, he bought 87 enslaved Guanche people from Tenerife and resold them on the peninsula. He also bought from Alonso de Lugo, who had conquered the island, the ingenio (sugar plantation) of Agaete.
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Patron Lorenzo
1749–1790He owned three large properties and twelve enslaved people.
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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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Pellegrino Antonio
until 1613A native of Trapani, son of Giacomo and Angela Pellegrino, he lived comfortably in Potosí until his death in 1613. A breeder and trader of carneros de la tierra, he owned 3,300 head, a house with valuable goods, a leased farm, pack animals, work tools and two enslaved Black people, recorded in the testamentary inventory.
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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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Pestalozza Dominique
1839–1854An Italian immigrant in New Orleans, in June 1839 he sold to Elizabeth Rapp, a free woman of colour, a house at no. 35 Enghien Street (later Franklin Avenue) and three enslaved people (notarial acts of Charles Boudousquié, 3:123, 10 June 1839, and 3:124, 12 June 1839, NONA); two of them still appear in the 1854 inventory of Elizabeth Rapp's property. The house became the shared residence of the two, documented in the City Directories of 1842 and 1851. Pestalozza died in 1854.
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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.