Search Results

“Seeking the Water of Baptism”: Fugitive Slaves and Imperial Jurisdiction in the Early Modern Caribbean

Linda M. Rupert

in Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500-1850

This chapter examines the question of imperial jurisdiction over fugitive slaves in the Caribbean during the eighteenth century. In particular, it considers how slavery intersected with the Spanish ... More

This chapter examines the question of imperial jurisdiction over fugitive slaves in the Caribbean during the eighteenth century. In particular, it considers how slavery intersected with the Spanish Crown's efforts to consolidate its jurisdiction and how the creation of legal spheres of enslavement and freedom helped to legitimate imperial sovereignty. After discussing the Spanish Crown's royal decrees related to intercolonial marronage, the chapter cites the importance of enslaved Africans as a commodity in intercolonial commerce and the Crown's attempts to stem the contraband slave trade as well as the perennial labor shortage. It then explores how authorities wrestled with the problems of compensation and restitution wherever fugitives crossed political boundaries. It also highlights several dimensions of legal pluralism that played out in the slave societies in the Caribbean with respect to inter-imperial marronage. Finally, it explains how the interests of fugitive slaves combined with those of the Spanish Crown to influence the empire's legal order.Less

The Genealogy of Power and the Power of Genealogy in Morocco: History, Imaginary and Politics

Zakaria Rhani

in Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past

This chapter examines genealogical documents in a particular modern context — that of Morocco, with particular emphasis on the village of Zawiyat Sidi 'Abdel'aziz ben Yeffu, where a manuscript of ... More

This chapter examines genealogical documents in a particular modern context — that of Morocco, with particular emphasis on the village of Zawiyat Sidi 'Abdel'aziz ben Yeffu, where a manuscript of questionable authenticity known as al-jafriyya has played a key role in authenticating one lineage's genealogical claims. More specifically, it analyses the history, imaginary, and politics underlying the power of genealogy in Morocco in order to illustrate the seminal significance of prophetic descent in Moroccan political and religious practice and belief. It also considers the role of royal decrees, ẓāhirs, which confer and confirm economic and political privileges and are paired with an ‘arresting mythology’ that supports the image projected by members of the lineage.Less

The Predominance of a ‘Strong’ Economy over a ‘Weak’ Social Constitution: The Legacy of the Financial Crisis in Spain

Juan Antonio Maldonado Molina and Juan Romero Coronado

in European Welfare State Constitutions after the Financial Crisis

In Spain, the economic crisis has generated a series of restrictive reforms, slashing the level of pensions, healthcare, long-term care, unemployment, social assistance, and family benefits. The ... More

In Spain, the economic crisis has generated a series of restrictive reforms, slashing the level of pensions, healthcare, long-term care, unemployment, social assistance, and family benefits. The majority of reforms do not stem from the Spanish parliament, but from the government, which has resorted to the systematic use of the royal decree-law as a legislative instrument to implement not only temporary reforms but also eminently permanent structural reforms. Spain’s Constitutional Court has validated the government’s use of the royal decree-law on very permissive grounds. This has led to the fracturing of the separation of powers and the distortion of the natural mechanisms for creating legislation, contending that extraordinary measures must be taken with extreme urgency. Furthermore, the Spanish Constitution was reformed in 2011, introducing the principle of budgetary stability. After this constitutional reform, the Spanish constitutional panorama is one where social and economic provisions coexist, but economic provisions prevail, creating an imbalance between the social and the economic. This predominance of a ‘strong’ economic constitution over a ‘weak’ social constitution was clearly manifested during the crisis, when all reforms in social law were subordinated to the economic rationale of controlling the budget deficit.Less

. Slaveholders and the Slave Code

Gloria García Rodríguez

in Voices of the Enslaved in Nineteenth-Century Cuba: A Documentary History

This chapter presents a statement from Havana's ingenio owners to the king. Although they did not intend to contest the regulations put forth by the royal decree, they wished to bring to the king's ... More

This chapter presents a statement from Havana's ingenio owners to the king. Although they did not intend to contest the regulations put forth by the royal decree, they wished to bring to the king's attention the very grave problems that the implementation of some of the chapters of this same royal decree implied and how others were actually carried out in practice. The ingenio owners predicted that there will be dismal consequences for everyone's economic interests. “We already foresee our haciendas lying in ruin, our families wretched, and unimaginable arrearages for Your Majesty's treasury. Tithe rents destroyed, port commerce annihilated, our fields abandoned, agriculture devastated, the island subject to one calamity after another, and our slaves, in open revolt, without [. . .] leaves us with the disastrous spectacle of the bloodshed that will be necessary to contain them.”Less

. Slavery and Its Legal Regulation The Slave Code

Gloria García Rodríguez

in Voices of the Enslaved in Nineteenth-Century Cuba: A Documentary History

This chapter presents the king's royal decree and instructional circular for the Indies on the education, treatment, and work regimen of slaves. One of the main points in the decree is regarding the ... More

This chapter presents the king's royal decree and instructional circular for the Indies on the education, treatment, and work regimen of slaves. One of the main points in the decree is regarding the proper instruction of slaves. All slaveholders, of whatever class and condition, would be obligated to instruct their slaves in the tenets of the Catholic religion and in its necessary truths in order that they could be baptized within one year of their residence in the king's dominions, ensuring that they were properly instructed in Christian doctrine on all religious holidays, on which they would be neither obliged nor permitted to work for themselves nor for their owners, excepting harvesttime, when it was customary to grant special dispensations to work on holidays.Less

Shifting Loyalties: St. Thomas and the Transit Trade in African Slaves

Daniel L. Schafer

in Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World: Slave Trader, Plantation Owner, Emancipator

This chapter discusses Zephaniah Kingsley’s life as a ship captain engaged in the Atlantic slave trade and inter-island commerce in the Caribbean. After changing national allegiance from the United ... More

This chapter discusses Zephaniah Kingsley’s life as a ship captain engaged in the Atlantic slave trade and inter-island commerce in the Caribbean. After changing national allegiance from the United States of America to Denmark, he made Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, his home port. Charlotte Amalie possessed one of the best natural harbours in the West Indies and was ideally located to facilitate transit of retail merchandise from Europe and human cargoes from Africa to other islands and to mainland ports in the Americas. It was also a free port where merchants of all nations carried on commerce unburdened by import and export fees. The Caribbean islands colonized by Denmark were also “neutral” during the Anglo-French wars, which provided a degree of protection from seizure by privateers. While residing at Charlotte Amalie, Kingsley was employed as a captain and business agent for ships engaged in the Atlantic slave trade and the inter-island transit trade in enslaved Africans. He purchased ships of his own to “smuggle” slaves into the islands off the Georgia and South Carolina coast, and to carry human cargoes to Havana, Cuba, and other Spanish colonies where the slave trade was still legal.Less

Spain: National Correspondents: Dr Juan Ferré and Prof Ángel Mª Ballesteros

in Rescue of Business in Europe: A European Law Institute Instrument

There are a set of rules set forth in the Insolvency Act (‘Ley 22/2003, of 9 July, Concursal’ or ‘LC’) which purpose is to avoid that debtors file for formal insolvency proceedings. These rules aim ... More

There are a set of rules set forth in the Insolvency Act (‘Ley 22/2003, of 9 July, Concursal’ or ‘LC’) which purpose is to avoid that debtors file for formal insolvency proceedings. These rules aim to: (i) establish safe harbours for Refinancing Agreements (‘Acuerdos de refinanciación’); (ii) stay enforcement actions in the pre-insolvency stage; and (iii) allow cramming down secured and unsecured creditors in the pre-insolvency phase. Further there are some tax rules aimed to facilitate out-of-court and in-court workouts. However, there is no state agency, judge, court or tribunal that offers assistance in the negotiation of an out-of-court workout. Less