From the Jesuits to the administration of temporalities. The patrimony of the Society of Jesus and slave labour in the Río de la Plata (late 18th century)

Authors

  • María Valeria Ciliberto Investigadora Adjunta, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Profesora Adjunta, Área Americana, Departamento de Historia, Centro de Estudio Históricos (CEHis), Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata

Abstract

The efficient and integrated use of slave workforce that the Society of Jesus was able to implement in the regions of the old province of Paraguay, has been repeatedly pointed out in different research work as a key factor in the economic development of the congregation. However, studies focused on the subsequent management of these Temporalities reveal a certain failure to sustain and control this structure of slave work so as to guarantee profitable results, despite some continuity in its productive organization. From a comparative perspective, this paper considers these studies so as to reconstruct demographic characteristics and the different forms of productive employment of those slaves confiscated from the Jesuits in the city of Buenos Aires, together with the particularities of their sale during the early stages of the administration of the Junta de Temporalidades.

Keywords:

Jesuits Temporalities, Slaves, Sales, Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires