La Libertad y su Criada, la Esclavitud. Algunas Cartas de Compraventa y Libertad de Esclavos en el Madrid del Antiguo Régimen

Abstract

A great part of the legal studies on the slavery concentrates in the analysis of the norm that indicates the legal limits of this statute, that assimilates slaves to the condition of “thing”. The present work indicates the necessity to bring a new dimension to this institution, beyond the “reification”, that completes and enriches it, amplifying the discourse that relates to it and considering it like a social relationship. Legal documents as transaction and freedom letters are also analysed in a way that forms reveals the own elements of the social context; in this case, those that construct the own identity of the slave. And thus, from these legal documents and not at all in an innocent way, are built not only the legal limits of the slavery statute, but the elements of the social identity of the slave or the just released person, that will condition his future legal and social relations.