Silvia Espelt Bombin (SML): The emergence of a free coloured elite?
Individual and collective identity in Panama City, 1750-1765
Location: Research Beehive 2.20, Old Library Building
Time/Date: 26th April 2012, 16:00 - 17:00
During the eighteenth century, Panama City was the theatre of a series of trade conflicts which involved coloureds and whites. Between 1750 and 1765, the conflicts intensified between a subset of free coloured people and the (white) merchants (mercaderes) of the city. This conflict favoured the formation of a so-called coloured guild, which defended its economic interests and challenged local and viceregal legislation that prevented them from trading. Through the analysis of some of these conflicts, this paper will look at individual free coloureds’ lives and techniques for upward socio-economic mobility and their individual identity, will discuss whether these trade conflicts show the existence of a free coloured elite in Panama City, and whether the subset of free coloureds had a collective identity or the guild was simply the best way to defend their economic interests.
Published: 13th January 2012