Manuscript No. 051 - First Blacks in The Americas

Date: 1557, January 24. Santo Domingo City.

Theme: A female Black slave testified as witness against a Spanish or criollo settler accused of rape against a Mestizo

young girl in Santo Domingo City

Source: Archivo General de Indias, Justicia 103B, F. 3874R. – 3875R.,CUNY DSI Dominican Colonial Documents Collection

[fo. 3874r.]

In the very noble and very loyal city of /

Santo Domingo of the port of /

the Española island of the Indies /

of the Ocean Sea, Sunday,

twenty four days of the month /

of January, year of the birth /

or our savior Jesus Christ of one thousand and five hundred /

and fifty seven, before the very /

noble señor Bernaldino de Fuentes, and /

in the presence of myself, Hernando de Brenes /

notary public, appeared present /

Francisca de Peña, widow, wife of Cristóbal /

Sánchez, deceased, as the person /

that is in charge of and has power over /

Leonorica, daughter of García, mestizo, /

who said to be of six years of age and said that /

while she was away from her house today during /

the siesta, [she] left in her house the said girl /

and Pedro Gutierrez, frenero, entered /

the said house of hers and gave the said girl two /

cuartos, and took her up to the cámara of his /

house and took the said girl and forcefully /

slept with her and corrupted her and /

made her bleed a lot from her vagina /

and [she] showed blood of the girl’s vagina, /

complained about him formally, /

and petitioned the said señor alcalde /

in the best way available under the law /

to punish and condemn him with the /

greatest punishment he could find by /

law, and formally swore the complaint. /

[Rubric]

And later, for the inquiry of it /

he received swearing by word /

formally under law from Antonio de [Grado?], /

[fo. 3874v.]

alguazil mayor, who said that he has seen/

shortly ago, in presence of the said señor alcalde, /

the said [girl],who had all her shirt full of blood, /

and the said girl said that Pedro Gutierrez, /

frenero, had lain down with her /

and had made her bleed, and that this /

he has seen and that it is true and he signed it /

with his name. /

Also later an oath was received /

in the form of law from Bartolomé /

García, taylor, who said that this /

witness has seen today shortly ago /

now by night a girl that Peña’s [widow] /

has, which must be six years of /

age who has the shirt full with /

blood, and the said girl said /

that Pedro Gutierrez had lain down /

with her and had made her bleed /

from her vagina, and that this he knows and /

is the truth, and he signed it with his name /

Bartolomé García. /

And for the inquiry of the above /

said, the said señor alcalde received /

oath in legal form /

from Marica, female black of the illustrious señor /

licenciado Maldonado, president /

by his majesty, who is /

in the house of the said Pedro Gutiérrez, and /

having sworn, said that today the said /

day, after finishing eating [lunch] , /

being this witness at the door /

of Peña’s house with a boy of /

an Indian woman of the said wife of Peña /

and the said Peña’s wife not being at her house, /

[fo. 3875r.]

and that, while this witness was at the door, /

she saw an Indian woman walking down /

that is in the house of the said Francisca /

de Peña who was bringing by /

the hand the said Leonorica and told /

to this witness: Monica, what do you think? /

What a wickedness has Pedro Gutiérrez, /

your master, done! And she lifted her blouse, /

and this witness saw how the /

said Leonorica had it full of blood. /

And when this was /

happening Pedro Gutierrez /

was at the door of the said Francisca /

and the said Pedro Gutiérrez told /

the said Indian Catalina: “Do not say /

anything to your [señora: mistress?] and I will /

give you two reales,” and the said Indian said: /

Why do I have to shut my mouth, /

since I do not want your two reales,” and /

that this witness does not know why /

the said Pedro Gutiérrez said this /

to the said female Indian [woman]. /

Asked whether this [female] witness /

saw that the said Pedro Gutierrez/

called the said Leonorica to /

take her up to the attic of the house, she said /

that she did not see it, and that this she knows /

and is the truth, and she did not sign. /

And for the inquiry of the above /

said, the said señor alcalde received /

oath in legal form /

from Catalina, female Indian who is /

Date: 1557, January 24. Santo Domingo City.

Theme: A female Black slave testified as witness against a Spanish or criollo settler accused of rape against a Mestizo young girl in Santo Domingo City

Source: Archivo General de Indias, Justicia 103B, 3874R. – 3875R., CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Dominican Colonial Documents Collection

Within the overall social order of mid sixteenth- century La Española, based on colonialism and slavery (or colonial slavery), official moral and legal codes seem to have intersected with the social, legal, and racial status of persons in complex ways, and that led to some instances in which people of different social or racial status would be given similar standing when it came to the testimonies of plaintiffs and defendants and their respective witnesses.

Or so seem to indicate the documents of a judicial criminal inquiry conducted in Santo Domingo City in 1557 against a man named Pedro Gutiérrez who was accused of a brutal rape against a six-years old girl named Leonorica (or little Leonor). The incident occurred in the city in the early afternoon while the stepmother or female adult in charge of the girl’s custody left their house, a moment that the perpetrator, a male neighbor residing next door, reportedly took advantage of to take the girl to his house and abuse her. The damage to the girl was so evident that the crime was reported to the authorities by the girl’s custodian that same afternoon, and by the end of the day judicial officials were already taking depositions from witnesses.

One of the witnesses interviewed by the authorities that afternoon was Marica (or little Maria), a Black female slave of the judge president of the audiencia of Santo Domingo who was apparently, for some reason unknown to us, serving at the house of Gutierrez, the defendant. Marica testified about having been shown the young girl that afternoon with blood on her garment by an Indian woman named Catalina, who served at the girl’s house, and told by the same Indian that Gutierrez had abused the girl. Marica also testified that she had heard Gutierrez promising to give Catalina a payment of two reales in exchange for silence about what had happened. Catalina adamantly and defiantly rejected the offer.

The incident shows that there were some occasional limits, within the colonial moral order, to what a Spanish settler or La Española creole man could do to Black or Indian women of enslaved or servant status to exert pressures on them, for example, to hide what they knew about an incident like the one described, especially women over whom he did not have legal property rights within the slavery system.

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