This study has traced how numerous enslaved and free Black people kept in touch with associates, friends, and kin from afar, through word of mouth and letter writing, and the myriad ways that they shared ideas and knowledge about freedom and slavery. Such conversations shaped ideas and epistemologies about slavery and freedom in the Spanish empire, whether from the perspective of political discourse of how individuals and communities pressed for expansive views of political belonging and Black freedom or through economic prisms of daily practices of freedom, or through legal maneuverings for royal justice through different legal jurisdictions. Conversations and exchanges about freedom between Black people in the Spanish Atlantic and the bourgeoning Black public spheres that they created in particular sites and across the Spanish empire shaped the meanings of slavery and freedom in this period.
Although the existence of such Black public spheres where slavery and freedom were debated and contested are apparent throughout this book, as enslaved people sought credit from lenders to purchase their freedom, or discussed the meanings and laws of slavery to develop a legal strategy for their litigation for freedom, there are scant archival documents that catalog the contents of these ephemeral conversations. The existence of this communication appears haphazardly across carefully crafted witness testimonies in particular legal processes, including among witnesses in litigation for freedom suits, among testimonies presented for petitions for embarkation and passenger licenses, and among testimonies in Inquisition trials. However, one example of the contents of communication between Black kin across the vast Atlantic emerges through the documentation preserved as part of Antón Segarra’s estate. As explored in Chapter 2, at the turn of the seventeenth century, an enslaved Black woman named Felipa de la Cruz penned two letters to her freed husband in New Spain.Footnote 1 In her letters, she reminded her husband of her expectation that he would send funds from Veracruz to Sevilla to pay for her liberation from slavery and that of their children. These letters include extended discussions about Cruz’s commitment to securing liberty for herself and their children, and she reminded her husband not to forget her desire for freedom in her 1608 letter: “You already know my [enslaved] condition and that it does not spare anyone, and so for your life’s sake keep this ahead of anything else and see that your children are captive, and suffering grief and spite. You already know how much we desire freedom.”Footnote 2 This line reveals Cruz’s expectation that her husband would gather funds in Veracruz through his labor as a free man and send them to Sevilla to liberate her and their children from slavery.
Felipa de la Cruz’s letters hold immense historical value. These rare surviving epistles constitute the earliest known private letters written by an enslaved Black woman in the Atlantic world. Reading the private correspondence between Cruz and her absent husband also reveals the day-to-day lives of enslaved people in an urban environment, details of which are beyond the scope of this study. For this reason, both of Felipa de la Cruz’s letters appear here in Spanish and in English translation.Footnote 3 To complement them, I include a map of the places of residence in Sevilla of twelve free Black men and women who resided near Cruz and who petitioned for embarkation or passenger licenses between 1569 and 1621 (the approximate era when Cruz was alive), as well as the places of residence of seven free Black men and women who resided near Cruz, who perished in the Americas between 1589 and 1626, and whose estates were administered by the courts of the assets of the deceased at the House of Trade (Figures C.1.1–C.1.2). The map allows readers to trace the community ties of a select group of Black residents of late sixteenth-century Sevilla, some of whom were Felipa de la Cruz’s neighbors and all of whom were alive during her lifetime, and to explore her letters with reference to the community of people whom she may have known or been acquainted with in Sevilla.
Figure C.1.1 Map of the social ties of a generation of free and liberated Black Sevillians in the late sixteenth century (c. 1569–1626).
Letter I, from Felipa de la Cruz to Antón Segarra, 1604Footnote 4
Spanish Transcription
Chloe L. Ireton and José María Álvarez Hernández.
------
24 junio 1604 – Sevilla a Veracruz
Carta V
Hermano mío y deseado de mi alma:
Su carta recibí con mucho contento en saber tenía bnid [buena] salud y de la buena navegación que tuviste y me holgué mucho y plega a Dios de se la dar dar entera como yo deseo. Yo estoy buena. El pago que me han dado estos señores ha sido como yo merecí que es en lugar de echarme a la cocina porque vendieron a Ana porque se casó.
Vuestra hija María está buena y tenéis un hijo que se llama Andrés porque nació víspera de San Andrés. Vuestro padrino Julián González que no está en casa porque lo despidió don Francisco mi señor que tuvo cierta pesadumbre con él. Tenéis por un padre a Luis de Aguilar que sacó a Andrés de pila.Footnote 5 Todos estos señores están buenos. Bendito Dios. María la negra está casada, y mi señora parió por navidad un niño que se dice don Alonso de Santillán. La señora Velasco y la Señora María de Paz y Beatriz Gómez y su sobrina y Valderrama y toda su gente os besan todos las manos. Andrea os besa las manos y está ya muy grande.
Y por no ser para más, Dios os guarde como puede y dé.
Sevilla a 24 de junio de 1604 años
Vuestra mujer, Felipa de la Cruz.
------
English Translation
Chloe L. Ireton, with many thanks to John Beusterein and Baltasar-Fra Molinero for offering suggestions and critiques.
------
June 24, 1604. Sevilla to Veracruz
Letter V
Brother of mine, and my soul’s desire.
I received your letter with much happiness to learn that you are in good health and that you had a successful crossing [of the Atlantic], and I rejoiced greatly, and I plead to God that he give you [good health], and that he gives it to you entirely, which is what I wish. I am well. These noble people have rewarded me as I deserved, instead of throwing me in the kitchen when they sold Ana because she married.
Your daughter María is well, and you have a son named Andrés because he was born on the eve of San Andrés. Your godfather Julián González is not in the house because my señor Don Francisco dismissed him because they quarreled. You have Luis de Aguilar as a godfather, who lifted Andres out of the baptismal font. All of these noble people are in good health. God Bless. María the Black got married, and my señora gave birth to a child last Christmas, a boy called don Alonso de Santillán.Footnote 6 Señora Velasco and señora María de Paz and Beatriz Gómez and her niece and Valderrama and all of their families kiss your hands. Andrea kisses your hands, and she is already very grown.
And as there is no more to say, may God protect you, as he can and will.
Sevilla on 24th June of 1604 years.
Your wife, Felipa de la Cruz
Letter II, from Felipa de la Cruz to Antón Segarra, 1608Footnote 7
Spanish Transcription
Chloe L. Ireton and José María Álvarez Hernández.
------
15 de marzo de 1608
Otra carta.
A mi marido, Antón Segarra, que nuestro señor guarde en el convento de Santo Domingo en San Juan de Ulúa.
Hermano mío: por la presente os hago saber cómo quedo buena y de salud yo y vuestros hijos y deseosa de saber de la vuestra. Dios os la dé como yo deseo para mí.
Muy quejosa estoy del gran descuido que habéis tenido en escribirme tanto tiempo ha y no sé a qué atribuirme el grande olvido vuestro, pero debe de ser el poco amor que me tenéis a mí y a vuestros hijos;– no es firme como el mío porque cada hora y momento me acuerdo de vos y ninguna vez voy a misa y en casa que no os encomiendo a Dios que os guarde y os traiga ante mis ojos y de nuestros hijos para que se cumpla el gran deseo que tienen de veros.
Vuestra hija María está buena, aunque en días pasados la tuve muy malita y todo es preguntar por vos y que cuándo habéis de venir y tienen mucho cuidado de encomendaros a Dios cada noche cuando se acuesta. Vuestro hijo Andrés Segarra también está bonito: todo es jugar con estas señoras y de esta suerte se entretienen ambos hermanos y todo piando por su padre. Y no me espanto que no tienen otro bien ni otro remedio después de Dios si no es el que vos le habéis de dar.
Don Francisco, mi señor, está bueno, aunque antes de ahora tuvo una grande enfermedad que apenas quedara ciego. Tiene otro hijo más. Mi señora está buena. Solamente entiende en parir y empreñar a apriesa. Don Antonio de Aguilar está aquí en Sevilla en esta casa que se vino a curar de una grande enfermedad. Tiene casada su hija con un caballero de Écija. Doña Beatriz y doña Luisa están muy bonitas. Alonso López no está ya en casa, que todo lo dio Andrés Adame. Beatriz Gómes casó su sobrina con un gorrero y está preñada. María de Paz está buena y su hijo Juan Ramírez. Y os besan las manos. Casilda de Velasco también está buena. Ya habéis sabido cómo murió su hija Francisca de Velasco y cómo casó su nieta con un zapatero de Montilla. María Jiménez casó su hija Elvira con un platero. Y dio en casamiento cuatrocientos ducados de mil que le habían dado por la muerte de Julián González. Todos los demás conocidos os besan las manos con mucho deseo de veros.
Hermano mío de mi alma, acordaos de la suerte que estoy y cómo estoy en casa ajena, aunque estos señores me han criado y me hacen merced en efecto. Ya sabéis la condición de mí y que no la perdona a nadie y ansí por vida vuestra que se os ponga esto por delante y ver que vuestros hijos están cautivos y recibiendo pesadumbre y malas razones. Ya sabéis lo que se desea la libertad. Avísame de vuestra salud.
Muy largo pues. El mensajero es cierto que es el señor Juan García. Y con esto no tengo más que decir, sino que Dios os dé la salud que yo deseo y os traiga a ojos de quien bien os quiere.
Fecho en Sevilla, a 15 marzo de mil y seiscientos y ocho años.
Vuestra mujer, Felipa de la Cruz.
------
English Translation
Chloe L. Ireton, with many thanks to John Beusterein and Baltasar-Fra Molinero for offering suggestions and critiques.
------
March 15, 1608
Another letter
To my husband, Antón Segarra, who may our Lord protect in the convent of Santo Domingo in San Juan de Ulúa.
Brother of mine: with this letter, I relay to you that I am doing well, and in good health, as are your children. I am anxious to know about your health. May God be giving you good health as I wish for myself.
I am very upset for the great neglect that you have shown in not writing to me for so long, and I do not know what I can attribute to your great forgetfulness, except that it must be for to the little love that you have for me and your children; it [your love] is not steadfast like mine because every hour and every moment I remember you and there is never a time that I attend mass or that I am in the house that I do not entrust you to God that he protect you and bring you before my eyes and those of our children so that their great wish to see you can be fulfilled.
Your daughter María is healthy, although in past days the poor creature was very unwell, and all she does is ask after you and when you will return, and they take great care to entrust you to God every night when they go to sleep. Your son Andrés Segarra is also pretty: all he does is play with these ladies, and in this way, fortunately, both siblings entertain themselves, and they are always chirping for their father. And I am not surprised, because they do not have any other source of goodness or relief other than God, if it is not the one you will have to provide them.
Don Francisco, my señor, is well, although before now he had a great illness that almost left him blind. He has had another son. My señora is well. She only cares about giving birth and getting pregnant soon after. Don Antonio de Aguilar is here in Sevilla in this house as he came to get cured from a serious illness. He has married his daughter to a gentleman from Écija. Doña Beatriz and doña Luisa are very pretty. Alonso López is no longer in the house, because Andrés Adame gave [him] everything. Beatriz Gómes married her niece to a capmaker, and she is pregnant. María de Paz is well and so is her son, Juan Ramírez. And they both kiss your hands. Casilda de Velasco is also well. You have already heard that her daughter Francisca de Velasco died, and how she married her granddaughter to a shoemaker from Montilla. María Jiménez married her daughter, Elvira, to a silversmith. As a dowry for the marriage, she gave 400 ducats of the 1,000 that she had been given for the death of Julián González. All our other acquaintances kiss your hands with a great desire to see you.
Dear brother of my soul, remember my predicament and how I am not in my house, even though it is true that these people raised me and treat me well. You already know my [enslaved] condition and that it does not spare anyone, and so for your life’s sake keep this ahead of anything else and see that your children are captive, and suffering grief and spite. You already know how much we desire freedom. Let me know about your health.
This is rather long. The messenger is trustworthy as it is señor Juan García. And with this I do not have any more to say except that God may give you the health that I wish for myself and that he may bring you before the eyes of the one who loves you well.
Dated in Sevilla on March 15, 1608
Your wife, Felipa de la Cruz
