Debts and Dowries: The Challenges Facing Mallorcan Conversas in the Aftermath of 1391
Saturday, January 3, 2015: 8:50 AM
Liberty Suite 5 (Sheraton New York)
The conversion, death and migration of the Jews of Mallorca during and following the cataclysmic violence of 1391 had specific repercussions for the community that remained on the island. The financial burdens imposed on the converso community by the Crown and creditors of the former Jewish community (aljama) affected women directly, and their dowries were subject to heavy taxation. When their kinfolk fled the island, their dowries were also threatened by heavy fines. During the violence itself, many ketubot, or marriage documents stipulating their dowries, were entirely destroyed, which critically threatened the woman’s welfare, particularly if her husband had been killed. Ultimately the Crown did make overtures to protect such women, allowing them to reconstruct their dowries on the basis of testimonies, and to exempt their dowries from being subject to fines for fugitives. In some cases, women petitioned the Crown in defense of their husbands, or even daughters, who travelled to North Africa, avowing their sincere Christianity.
Given the converso community’s debt to the Crown and creditors, there was a flurry of activity – once the dust had settled – to collect and reallocate the extensive debts owed to the island’s Jews, many of whom were now converts. Thus we find conversas requesting, though local royal officials, the repayment of loans owed either directly to them or to their deceased husbands. The extensive migration and deaths in and after 1391 also left property ownership in question, and many wives and daughters became embroiled in legal inheritance disputes. This paper focuses specifically on those women who survived and stayed, behind and the strategies they used to cope with the post-1391 challenges.