Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823

Objective/Context: Revisiting disease as a category of analysis characterized by its plasticity, while at the same time highlighting how it can help understand particularities of black slavery in late-colonial Chile. In particular, it seeks to appreciate how some ailments, or certain contexts in whi...

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Main Author: Tamara Alicia Araya Fuentes
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Published: Universidad de los Andes 2020-04-01
Series:Historia Crítica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/histcrit76.2020.01
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spelling doaj-7515caccd10e4fe9b0371cda0f58665b2020-11-25T02:01:33ZspaUniversidad de los Andes Historia Crítica0121-16171900-61522020-04-017632510.7440/histcrit76.2020.01Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823Tamara Alicia Araya Fuentes0Fiocruz - Casa de Oswaldo CruzObjective/Context: Revisiting disease as a category of analysis characterized by its plasticity, while at the same time highlighting how it can help understand particularities of black slavery in late-colonial Chile. In particular, it seeks to appreciate how some ailments, or certain contexts in which they were revealed, expose conflicts between slaves and their owners, or between different masters, as well as certain limits of slavery, such as the difficulty in performing domestic chores. Originality: It highlights the analytical possibilities of disease as a category for understanding slavery resulting from the transatlantic trade in Chile, and underlines that it played a role in challenges to slavery, in some cases brought forward by enslaved people themselves. Methodology: This article is in dialogue with historiographies that place disease as a category, along with those that work on the history of Afro-descendant slavery. Various aspects of slavery are seen through the lens of thirty legal proceedings in which slaves appear with illnesses, injuries and ailments in the courts of justice of Santiago, at the time part of the General Captaincy of Chile, between 1740 and 1823. Conclusions: I argue that disease has a double plasticity, or two ways in which this particularity is revealed: one is the result of its elusive character, and the other is the product of how it was used in a particular judicial context by enslaved people, slave owners, and participants in related litigation. Furthermore, the plasticity of disease as a category exposes aspects of slavery as a system that implies the coercion of the enslaved body.https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/histcrit76.2020.01black slaverydiseasesantiago de chilelate-colonial
collection DOAJ
language Spanish
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Tamara Alicia Araya Fuentes
spellingShingle Tamara Alicia Araya Fuentes
Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823
Historia Crítica
black slavery
disease
santiago de chile
late-colonial
author_facet Tamara Alicia Araya Fuentes
author_sort Tamara Alicia Araya Fuentes
title Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823
title_short Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823
title_full Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823
title_fullStr Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823
title_full_unstemmed Un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en Santiago de Chile, 1740-1823
title_sort un concurso de síntomas o la enfermedad como categoría plástica: la esclavitud negra en santiago de chile, 1740-1823
publisher Universidad de los Andes
series Historia Crítica
issn 0121-1617
1900-6152
publishDate 2020-04-01
description Objective/Context: Revisiting disease as a category of analysis characterized by its plasticity, while at the same time highlighting how it can help understand particularities of black slavery in late-colonial Chile. In particular, it seeks to appreciate how some ailments, or certain contexts in which they were revealed, expose conflicts between slaves and their owners, or between different masters, as well as certain limits of slavery, such as the difficulty in performing domestic chores. Originality: It highlights the analytical possibilities of disease as a category for understanding slavery resulting from the transatlantic trade in Chile, and underlines that it played a role in challenges to slavery, in some cases brought forward by enslaved people themselves. Methodology: This article is in dialogue with historiographies that place disease as a category, along with those that work on the history of Afro-descendant slavery. Various aspects of slavery are seen through the lens of thirty legal proceedings in which slaves appear with illnesses, injuries and ailments in the courts of justice of Santiago, at the time part of the General Captaincy of Chile, between 1740 and 1823. Conclusions: I argue that disease has a double plasticity, or two ways in which this particularity is revealed: one is the result of its elusive character, and the other is the product of how it was used in a particular judicial context by enslaved people, slave owners, and participants in related litigation. Furthermore, the plasticity of disease as a category exposes aspects of slavery as a system that implies the coercion of the enslaved body.
topic black slavery
disease
santiago de chile
late-colonial
url https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/histcrit76.2020.01
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