Slavery and Social Geographies in Early Republican Callao, Peru

The history of slavery in Peru has tended to focus on Lima and coastal plantations. This paper asks how moving toward and centering the port of Callao might change or help us rethink slavery in Peru and the Pacific. Many enslaved people were brough through the port of Callao before being taken to other parts of the country, and some remained in Callao, meaning that the port and the city were both their introduction to the country and acted as a central node in internal movement. Using criminal cases and notarial records, this paper examines the circulation and movement of enslaved people within and through Callao, the gendered dynamics of slavery, and connections to abolition in Chile in the early Republican period. Using a spatial approach, the paper scales from the individual to the Pacific, to work through the labor as fundamental to shaping social and legal geographies.