Dissimilar Gentiles: Canary Islanders and Black West Africans in the early modern Iberian Atlantic

'Early on in the expansion of the Iberian Kingdoms of Castile and Portugal into the Atlantic Islands and along the West African coast, Iberians made a rough equivalency between Canary Islanders and Black Africans. Iberians regarded their conversion to Catholicism, and the legitimacy of their enslavement under Iberian rules of law in equivocal terms. Yet, by the end of the fifteenth century this equivalency was no longer applicable. The enslavement of the Canary Islanders, regardless of whether they had converted to Catholicism, had been ostensibly banned by the Kingdom of Castile through a series of royal decrees starting in 1477. On the other hand, the Spanish and Portuguese crowns never outlawed the enslavement of Black Africans in this era, and instead began to view enslavement and displacement as most effective means for Catholic conversion. Through a close reading of Papal bulls, royal decrees, and other primary source material, Michael Aidan Pope explores why these divergences occurred, and how they can help us to better understand the different approaches adopted by the two Iberian Kingdoms in the establishment of their respective Atlantic colonies.'

Speaker: Michael Aidan Pope is an Associate Lecturer in the History of Iberia and the Iberian world, c. 1450-1800, at University College London. His research is focused on religious conversion and religious culture in the early modern Atlantic. He is currently investigating histories of heterodox interpretations of Catholicism amongst different New Christian groups.
 
Respondent: Chloe Ireton (UCL)