Since the beginning of the colonial period, the politic of Spanish's crown transferred the privilege of miserable, as a way of government and administration of justice, to the Indian villages in the American viceroyalties, but in theory this privilege was not applicable for the slaves. Most of the literature explains ...
(Show more)Since the beginning of the colonial period, the politic of Spanish's crown transferred the privilege of miserable, as a way of government and administration of justice, to the Indian villages in the American viceroyalties, but in theory this privilege was not applicable for the slaves. Most of the literature explains the social resistance of the Indian villages without realise that miserability was the tool of the social resistance, because they were considered miserable and it entailed a series of advantages.
The slaves used the same tool, because there was a less visible political crown of protection since the beginning of the colonial period to them. However, most of the literature explains the slaves' protection focusing only in the end of the eighteenth century, connected to the enlightened despotism.
This hypothesis can be tested with the confluence of these social groups in Veracruz. We will examine the Indian village letters in the defence of their lands and the consequences in the local life. As well as, we will examine the slaves' letters when they escaped toward the Royal Audience of Mexico, where they could beg for their freedom or ask for a change of master, because they had been punished, although it was not always the truth.
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