The Problem of Witchcraft, Slavery and Jesuits in Seventeenth-century New Granada

Redden, Andrew

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2013.16

Abstract

This article analyses a series of seventeenth-century inquisitorial witchcraft trials involving enslaved and free Africans that took place in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. It discusses the methodological problems inherent in the study of texts that appear to demonstrate the imposition of a stereotypical formula onto the reality of the defendants. It will also examine two further possible lines of enquiry: the role, in particular, of Jesuit intermediaries and interpreters in the trial process; and what, if anything, we might infer from the trials about African socio-religious practices in Early Modern New Granada. Despite the obscuring role of European witchcraft stereotypes, the Cartagena trial testimonies still hint at a slave society that could and did come together in a ritual communion aimed at investing individuals and groups with power in a society where Africans were deliberately denied it.

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