Witch BurningThroughout world history, one can easily find times when Black people were exploited and exploited, regardless of the setting or time period. Whether it be the Atlantic slave trade, post-slavery convict leasing, the execution of the Black Panther Party, or even more topical, acts of police brutality. There is a specific period that doesn't get much recognition that I would like to focus on. The witchcraft trials of the early 1600s in present-day Cartagena, Colombia, and the way Afro-Latinos and slaves were accused of witchcraft, contributed to a much higher and more horrific agenda. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To begin my analyses, I chose a document titled "Accusations of the Procurator of the Holy Office: 11 July 1624" which was produced on 11 July 1624. The document contains accusations from a public prosecutor from a court hearing and responses to charges. The person pursued by the Holy Inquisition of Cartagena is Paula de Eguiluz, a black woman enslaved in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where she was accused of witchcraft. Those looking for this document can find it in Afro-Latino Voices, a book compiled along with documents containing unheard or untold stories of Afro-Latinos and their perspectives on life in Latin America as Black people. During this period, around 1620, many black women, both free and enslaved, were accused of witchcraft and “evil magic.” However, many have not considered African origins and how traditions might be passed down, which they might perceive as witchcraft. The source is a formal document containing the twelve accusations made by witnesses that led to her being accused of practicing witchcraft. She was taken to “secret prisons” to await sentencing. Afro-Latino Voices states that she was a woman who received more freedom than other slaves where she was dressed well and often visited her friends who supposedly taught her spells to seduce and lure potential lovers. Slavery was controversial at the time and was widespread, where black people were perceived as anything but human, in this case as witches. Before focusing on Eguiluz and his case, it is important to understand what colonial Latin America looked like in the early 1600s. According to the website of the Embassy of Colombia in Washington DC, during this period the Spanish began to settle, establishing a large number of cities and Christianity as the main religion. Linda A. Newson states in her book, From Capture to Sale: The Spanish Slave Trade to Spanish South America in the Early Seventeenth Century, that, as the largest slave port in Spanish America, an estimate of approximately 10,000 - 20,000 slaves they resided in Cartagena (Newson, 139). Other forms of trade were also important, with strange trades like turtles and manatees, then more everyday things like plane trees and chickens (170). Newson points out that much time and funds were spent protecting this profitable port from English, French and Dutch pirates. Due to these frequent incursions, there was a huge military presence in Cartagena. Howard Kramer offers many insights into Cartagena and their connections to religion on his website, The Complete Pilgrim, where he lists and documents his travels to several countries with much historical information. , religious sites. While Kramer overlooks Cartagena's significance to the slavery era, he mentions Fort San Felipe De Barajas and Fort San Sebastián De Pastelillo, large colonial fortresses created “to protest the vast wealthplundered from the interior Inca lands of Peru and Ecuador. " He notes that "Cartagena's fortifications are among the greatest architectural legacies left by the Spanish Empire in South America." There is a limited amount of information about Paula de Eguiluz, but a website titled Biography has what appears to be a partial, but discreet amount of information about Eguiluz. The website stated that she was at that time the leader of the largest group of magicians in Cartagena de Indias and that "she was accused by the Inquisition of performing spells, digging up dead from the cemetery and bodies of the dead with other witches who had eaten." Atlas Obscura is a collaborative website that focuses on locating dark and interesting places around the world. While it is a resource for travelers, it is fascinating to look into the eyes of a traveler to see his view of the Palace of the Inquisition In particular, the website mentions the history of the Palace of the Inquisition, where over 800 trials have taken place and “not a single person has ever been declared innocent”. Also interesting is that “a sign on the wall of the museum lists the questions that the defendants asked themselves, including: “What harm did you cause and to whom?”; “What words do you say when you fly?”; and “Why does the devil beat you at night?” Usually, anything to do with slave history is ignored or thrown under the rug, so it's interesting to see a traveler's website acknowledge this. According to an excerpt from Secret History of the Witches by Max Dashu, presented in Suppressed Histories The websites state that “the Inquisition used charges of witchcraft and devil worship to imprison Afro-Caribbeans, including reduced blacks into slavery from the mines of Zaragoza to Antioquía, Colombia. Even before Cartagena's first auto-da-fé, a black man named Juan Lorenzo was tried as a "sorcerer"; he ended his torture by hanging himself in his cell, or so it was claimed. 'Auto da fe' can be defined as the burning of a heretic by the Spanish Inquisition. It is crucial to recognize that this was a way of persecuting Afro-Latinos and Africans, to place the act of witchcraft, which rebels against the established religion of Christianity. The dehumanization of this group of people occurred through these accusations and throughout the executions. Many were condemned to the stake. Dashu states that Paula de Eguiluz was able to avoid this horrible form of punishment due to her “great [skills] in medicine and healing.” Instead he received 200 lashes. Others were not so lucky, where “In 1632, more women were tortured, and twenty-one of them were flogged and exhibited to the public in an auto da fé of 1634.” Dashu talks about a woman named Ana de Avila who managed to avoid flogging, but was tortured to the extreme and fined. Another woman named Ana Beltran was also tortured, but instead to death, where a sentence of acquittal for her was still read during the public ceremony for her original punishment. Much brutality was faced by these people accused of this evil magic and one can see how severe the brutality was. Sara Vicuna Guengerich, who contributes to Afro-Latino Voices with her piece “The Witchcraft Trials of Paula de Eguiluz, a Black Woman, in Cartagena de Indias, 1620-1636” goes into detail about how Eguiluz's case was handled by officials . Guengerich explains that "Eleven witnesses had accused Paula of numerous crimes, including causing the death of a child by sucking her belly button, turning into a goat, appearing and disappearing in different places without a trace, and selling love spells " (175 ). It is obvious that if someone were to accuse one of the "crimes" just stated, many would think that it was?”