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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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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Merlo Antonio
1717–1718 -
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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Michelozzi Filippo
1750Agent of the Monte di Pietà of Florence in Spain, in 1750 he handled on behalf of the institution the collection of the arrears of the giurì di Spagna, connected with the trade in enslaved Black people, following the legal and accounting procedures at the Spanish court; he then left to Pietro Maria Fava the inventory of the records and receipts.
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Migliorucci Pietro Giuseppe
1720–1728Also known as Peter Joseph Migliorucci, a Tuscan merchant and banker active in London in the first decades of the eighteenth century. After the collapse of the banker Sir Justus Beck he was appointed assignee in bankruptcy and trustee of his estate, together with Gerrard Van Neck and Claude Jamineau. Among the assets seized was a portfolio registered in Beck's name but belonging to the merchant Jacob George Le Grand: 4,050 pounds sterling of government annuities converted into shares of the South Sea Company, holder of the asiento. In 1728 he was named as a defendant in a suit before the Court of Chancery, which accused him of having «combined and confederated» with the company's management to withhold shares and dividends.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Treasurer to Her Royal Highness, in Madrid he looked after the financial interests of María Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, Princess of Asturias. On 9 July 1784 he collected on her behalf the dividend on 3 and one-third shares of the Real Compañía de La Habana, deeply involved in the Cuban slave economy: 83 and one-third pesos, equal to 1,268 reales de vellón. The securities came from the estate of Elisabeth Farnese.
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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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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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Parenti Niccolò
1591A Florentine merchant, in 1591 he organised a voyage from Livorno to Africa to purchase enslaved Black people and transport them to America. The expedition was joined by the eighteen-year-old Francesco Carletti, who embarked in his service on a galleon belonging to the Genoese shipowner Pietro Paolo Vassallo.