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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Patron Bartolomé
1751–1800 (part of century)He took part in the Atlantic slave trade together with his brother Benito.
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Patron Benito
1787–1809In 1787 he was commissioned by the sultan to import enslaved Algerians into Morocco. In 1796 he received from the Spanish Crown a licence to import 8,000 enslaved Africans into Peru, Buenos Aires and Chile, in exchange for raw hides and silver. In 1803 he obtained a licence, valid until 1809, to introduce 10,000 enslaved Africans into Cuba.
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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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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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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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In 1673 Grillo asked the Council of the Indies to appoint him agent of the asiento in Peru; he probably never crossed the Atlantic. In the 1660s he had worked in Madrid as an agent of Giovanni Battista Lomellini.
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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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Pluma Pasquale
1829–1840Consul general of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Cuba, he was accused of having validated the papers of several slave ships. In 1836 he was involved in the murky affair of the Cavallo Marino, a Sardinian brigantine already reported by the British at Bahia for having illegally introduced a large consignment of dried meat intended for the enslaved people of the Brazilian plantations. The Cavallo Marino had arrived in Havana on 1 February 1836 and from there had set out again for the African coasts, from which she returned in January of the following year, but under the Portuguese flag. In 1840, after the Grand Duchy had signed the Anglo-French treaties for the suppression of the slave trade in 1837, the British authorities accused him of having falsified the ship's papers of two vessels engaged in the slave trade: the Bella Fiorentina, a Tuscan schooner seized on 20 May 1839 off present-day Liberia, and the Victoria de Libertade, a Portuguese schooner captured on 26 June 1839 off Sierra Leone. To these two ships, owned by two Spaniards, he had issued false papers of other states. He was dismissed in 1840.
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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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Porcio Noce Nicolas
1679–1687Born in Crema, in the Venetian Terraferma, after his father's death he moved to Cádiz with his mother and his brother Pompeo. In Cádiz he married Teresa María Barroso del Pozo de la Oliva, daughter of Juan Barroso del Pozo. In January 1679 Porcio, on behalf of Juan Barroso, undertook to introduce 6,000 of the 10,000 enslaved people granted to the Consulado of Merchants of Seville, which then held the asiento: the two thus obtained 60% of the contract, which expired at the end of 1681. Through their agents in Amsterdam they negotiated with the Dutch West India Company (WIC) the delivery to Curaçao of 9,800 enslaved Africans by the end of 1681, on average 4,900 a year. In 1682 Porcio and Barroso obtained a new contract that made them sole holders of the asiento: for five years they were to introduce into Spanish America up to 10,000 toneladas (the fiscal unit of the asiento, corresponding to the 'pieza de Indias'), with the possibility of obtaining supplies directly in Jamaica and Curaçao, like Grillo and Lomellini, in exchange for silver or colonial products. Conflicts with the Dutch, and above all with the Coymans brothers, put an end to the asiento before 1687.
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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.
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Ratto Manuel
1685–1689A Genoese merchant, partner of Balthasar Coymans in Cádiz in the firm «Coymans en Ratto», recorded in the archive index as «Conio e Ratto». Between 1685 and 1689 he directly managed the financial operations, remittances and shipping freights on behalf of the asiento company, holder of the monopoly of the slave trade in the Spanish colonies.
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Recagno Domenico
1601–1700 (century)A Genoese merchant settled in Cádiz, he took part with Francesco Ferrari of Amsterdam, Bartolomeo Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini in a company for the transport of enslaved people to American ports. He is a different person from Bernardo Recagno, active in the same Cádiz merchant colony.
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Rezzonico Aurelio
1666A merchant originally from Como and partner in Venice of Pietro Cernezzi, in 1666 he contributed to the loan of 9,180 ducats sent to Amsterdam to pay for a cargo of enslaved people for the asiento. The operation passed through the house of Giovanni Battista Benzi and Giovanni Gabriele Voet and combined Venetian capital with payments to the suppliers of the Dutch market.
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Ricasoli Luigi
1526In December 1526 Luigi Ricasoli and Giovanni Orsucci form Lucca, after declaring that they had resided in Spain for more than fifteen years, obtained from the sovereign the right to send goods accompanied by enslaved people to the West Indies.
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Riparola Franceso
1492–1515Known as Francisco de Riberol, he financed he Spanish conquest of La Palma and Tenerife, led by Alonso Fernández de Lugo, alongside other Genoese merchants, including Matteo Vigna and Francesco Palmario. He settled in La Palma, where he traded enslaved Guanche people and owned plantations on which they worked.
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Riparola Giacomo
1462–1507Besides trading in enslaved people, he held the monopoly of the trade in orchil (orchilla), a dye, and took part in the wine trade with the West Indies.
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Rizo Bartolo
1804–1819By 1819, his assets included two ranchos worth 8,097 pesos, four enslaved individuals, two pairs of oxen, five draught horses, a cart, and 1,000 pesos in cash. He provided credit to other Ligurians who wanted to buy land.
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Rodriguez Juan
1520–1529A ship's captain of Genoese origin living in Seville, he was one of the most important agents of Grimaldi and Centurione in Santo Domingo. Although above all a seaman, he enjoyed their full confidence, and he also began to trade on his own account and to make profits. He made loans and went so far as to purchase vessels such as the Santa Maria and the Trinidad. He probably died in 1529.