Translation No. 017
- manuscript
- transcription
- translation
- commentary
- manuscript & transcription
Date: 1519, September 15
Theme: Amputation of the tips of some toes to three enslaved Blacks in Santo Domingo City, as punishment for a homicide they had been convicted of
Source: Archivo General de Indias, Justicia 43, Número 1, fos. 71r. – 71v., and 77v. – 78r., CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Dominican Colonial Documents Collection
[fo. 71r.]
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hawks /
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hawks
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71 / Report given to Figueroa / In the city of Santo Domingo, on fifteen days of the month of September / follows:
as to the hawks /
Firstly, [the witness] must be asked if he or she knows that about more or less / Also, whether they know, etc., that the said licenciado had the said / Also whether they know that, at the time he received from the said Fernando Ceron / |
[71v.]
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following his orders, they had killed a man beating him with a stick. The licenciado, / Also, whether they know, etcetera, that the said licenciado, after thus / […] |
[fo. 77v.] […] 8th witness
4th
slaves that had their feet cut/
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[…] And after what was said in the said city of Santo Domingo / To the fourth question he said that while these slaves were in prison, before they received justice, the said Ceron spoke with this witness because he was a surgeon in charge of curing some of the Black prisoners that were wounded when they were caught for some felonies they had committed, and he told him that these Black men were going to be taken out to be punished so he had to be ready with whatever was necessary to cure them, and that this witness in order to assure himself what had to be done said he wanted to speak first with the said licenciado Zuazo, and this witness and the said Ceron went to the house of said licenciado and this witness asked him where to make the cut in the feet of the slaves, and that the said licenciado Zuazo responded that this witness since he was a surgeon should indicate where to make the cut, and that this witness then went to the prison and when he arrived they had already been taken out to the streets, and that this witness, while there were being brought, prepared all that was necessary to cure them and then the said Black men arrived at the pillory, and this witness left the prison and went there, and that one of the said Black men had his big toe, which is the main toe, already tied [?] which was tied at its first joint, and that they cut the said Black man the tip of the big toe, and other toes of the same |
[fo. 78r.] |
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foot at the tip of the same toes, and that all the other Blacks were cut the toes in the same manner as the first one. And he said he does not remember whether as many toes to one as to the others, because to all of them only the tip of the toes were cut, and that the said Black did not suffer so much injury in the feet if they had been cut as they cut them in Castille or in other places. Also that he overheard that the said slaves had been sent to Cuba by the said Cerón because he does not know it nor he knows anything else about this question. Also that at the time this witness asked to the said licenciado where the said Blacks should have their feet cut, he told him: sir, because Cerón says that nothing else but the toes should be cut, and that the said licenciado replied to this witness: you must mark wherever you prefer, and that this he knows. Antón Angulo / […] |