Commentary No. 037
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Date: 1558, October 8. Santo Domingo, La Española.
Theme: In 1558 Santo Domingo, the local prison kept slave and non-slave, Black and non-Black, men and women detainees within the same building complex
Source: Archivo General de Indias, Justicia 102B, fo.1549v.-1552r. CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Dominican Colonial Documents Collection
There was at least one jail in Santo Domingo during the mid-sixteenth century. In 1558, when the official in charge of the prison was replaced, he produced a report specifying the prisoners and equipment whose control and maintenance he was entrusting and transferring to his successor.
According to the report, detainees of different sexes, ages, social status, walks of life and legal standing, were kept within the same prison complex, though we do not know yet how much physical proximity there was exactly between each of them and the rest. Men, women, slaves and non-slaves, whites, Blacks, mulattos and mestizos are found among the prisoners. Some moved around without any kind of impediment while others had shackles. The prisoners came from remote villages of the colony or from Santo Domingo. The crimes highlighted in the report include theft and homicide; some seem to be in prison as sequestered property of their indebted owners.