“THEY CAME AS FUGITIVES TO THIS CITY”: ESCAPES OF ENSLAVED PEOPLE INTO MEXICO CITY. AN APPROACH BASED ON JUDICIAL RECORDS (1770-1810)
“VINIERON HUIDOS Á ESTA CIUDAD”: FUGAS DE ESCLAVIZADOS A CIUDAD DE MÉXICO. UNA APROXIMACIÓN DESDE LOS EXPEDIENTES JUDICIALES (1770-1810)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-73562026000100504
Carolina González Undurraga
and Rafael Castañeda García
Key words: International migration, unaccompanied adolescents, border dynamics, migration trajectories, autonomy processes.
Abstract
Based on a corpus of 136 judicial case files concerning enslaved men processed in Mexico City courts between 1770 and 1810, preserved in the AGN Mexico (General Archive of the Nation, Mexico, this study identifies 32 cases that explicitly record “escape” in the archive’s documentary database. Meanwhile, other case files conceal escapes within legal claims related to petitions for manumission, mistreatment, or bills of sale. This article critically examines these records and explores two cases in depth that describe “escapes” to Mexico City, in order to demonstrate a form of marronage articulated through the justice system and urban labor in colonial America. In so doing, the study departs from the more widely known cases of collective marronage that enabled the formation of “free” communities located beyond the reach of colonial judicial and governmental authorities. Through an analysis of the judicial records, the article describes diverse escape practices, the motivations of the fugitives, and the functioning of the legal system, before focusing on the ways in which the city operated as a refuge. In this regard, the study aligns with research on the so-called “urban Black Atlantic”, of which Mexico City formed a part.
