“Valiéndome del derecho natural” – La lucha de mujeres esclavas por su libertad en la Nueva Galicia, s. XVIII

Abstract

The objective of this essay is to analyze the struggle of slave women for their freedom in New Galicia in the 18th century, and in the practice of law, that is, based on specific cases both at the Alcaldías and at the Royal Audience level, to show on the one hand the legal capacity and the arguments made by these “miserable” women, but also to know the response of the instances involved in the administration of justice and with it the role of the Poor or Miserable Procurators. Given that manumission has been one of the central issues in the access to freedom especially for slaves, and therefore a key issue in the comparison between the Americas, this paper focuses on demonstrating the importance of the study of specific cases in the matter of procedural law, in order to know the operation of the administration of justice in particular among the "miserable", as well as to show the arguments made from the natural right to demand freedom.

Keywords

• manumission
• slave rights
• social history of law
• procurators of the poor or miserable
• Nueva Galicia