A couple of decades ago, the common assumptions were that early modern Iberian slavery, outside Andalusia and parts of Portugal, was of small importance in the economy and that most slaves were domestics who did little more than wash clothes, cook meals, and demonstrate the wealth of their owners. In the last ten years, scholars have considerably altered that picture, often through the detailed examination of parish registers and notarial documents and through adopting the methodology and interpretations of scholars of slavery in the Americas. These studies are more extensive in Spain, especially where slavery was most prevalent: Andalusia, Extremadura, the southeastern coastal regions, and the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Alessandro Stella summarizes this material and adds new archival sources, mainly from Cádiz, that show the slaves as actors in the life stories that gives the book its title. This approach is not entirely novel in Spanish history. As one...
