On October 6, 1677, Juan López, a widower from Mexico City, went before a local notary to free five of his slaves. Juan testified that he was having an amorous relationship with Isabel de la Cruz, his black slave, which had produced four children, all under the age of five. “Considering that it is unjust and unconscionable that my children are slaves,” Juan explained, “they, and their mother Isabel, are hereby freed from this day forward.”1
Stories such as this have certainly captured the attention and imagination of scholars who try to understand patterns of manumission throughout the Americas. Many scholars have looked to sexual relations between male masters and female slaves, and the paternity of children resulting from those unions, to explain why most slaves were freed. Such explanations arise within a conception of Latin American slavery as distinct from its harsh northern neighbor, due to high rates...
