Personal Servitude in Colonial Latin America, 1492 to 1560

FAIN: FB-52884-07

Nancy Elena van Deusen
Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA 98225-5996)

The monograph project, “Of Human Bondage: Personal Servitude in Colonial Latin America, 1492-1560,” examines personal servitude in the Caribbean islands, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Peru. The intimate, yet unequal, bonds that developed during the period from 1492 to 1530 between natives and Spaniards influenced gendered notions of bondage held by seasoned conquerors and the servants they brought to Peru in 1532. It will contribute to the humanities by revealing how pre- and post-conquest Spanish, Caribbean, Central American, and Andean forms of servitude produced new ones in Lima, 1535-1550, and in Arequipa, 1539-1560. It will also show how violence, subjugation, and “family” intimacies formed the holy triad of colonialism.