La defensa de la familia esclavizada a través de la legislación eclesiástica. Lima colonial, México y Río de Janeiro colonial

Abstract

In the present work we will analyze the canonical legislation that was born in the Spanish and the Portuguese America during the colonial period. In the first colonial site, this legislation started a few decades after the settlement of the Spanish domain, having a notorious influence from the Council of Trent and the different american sites where the church created and promulgated synodal and provincial constitutions. In this way, the new human relations were legislated, providing the slaves with spiritual rights and using the excommunication as an element of punishment against the infractor masters. In other words, since the first century of colonial domain the church lawfully protected the slaves. This right was recurrently used by the slaves since the early colonial period, something that is stated in the different judicial processes of Lima and New Spain. There is no doubt that the city got a fundamental role in the learning of the enslaving canon law, as it allowed the slaves not only to interact with the law sources, but also to use writing in order to seek improvements in their condition. In the case of the Portuguese America, the canon law arrived late and, as well as the case of Cuba, another plantation economy, the church did not fight against the stately property. On the contrary, the spiritual rights were taken by the masters and eventually became stately concessions. Yet, the approach to baptism, marriage or other uses of the eclesiastic instances were usually performed by the slaves of the Portuguese America