Slave Over Master in Colonial Colombia and Ecuador

Abstract

The social milieu in which slavery took place in Latin America, especially colonial Colombia and Ecuador, was markedly different than in Brazil, the Caribbean, or the thirteen colonies. Paternalistic attitudes of church and government, protective legislation, a slow, even stagnant, pace of economic development and other factors created a situation which a knowledgeable and enterprising slave could often turn to his advantage and even manipulate.From the beginning the Catholic Church took the position that slavery was a contractual arrangement whereby the slave placed his time and the result of his labor at the disposal of his master, but that he remained a human being with certain innate rights: the right to life, limb, body and reputation. A master could not keep his slaves from marrying, for example, for to do so deprived him of the rights of the body. For a violation of any of these rights the master must make restitution to the slave, as if he were a free man. Moreover, in Catholic theology the soul of the black man was equally as important as the soul of any human being.