[enslaved] Antonia La Parda of Argentina

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Antonia, an enslaved woman in Santiago del Estero, a province in northeastern Argentina, was accused and convicted—along with her sister and their mother, Simona, for practicing witchcraft.

Antonia’s other sister Maria managed to evade legal prosecution. Antonia and her family were enslaved by Don Antonio de Luna y Cárdenas. Antonia, who was freed after her enslaver’s death occurred at some point before March 1725, was charged with six accounts of homicide as a result of enchantment and witchcraft. Shortly after the judicial proceedings began, Antonia’s sister was burned to death for these alleged crimes, while their mother Simona managed to escape. Despite being given a death sentence on account of six murder charges, evidence suggests that Antonia managed to avoid penal punishment. Nevertheless, Antonia’s life after the judicial proceedings remains mostly unknown.

The judge in the case, López Caballero, was adamant that Antonia’s family practiced witchcraft. Caballero was aware that Antonia’s sister had been executed for witchcraft and attributed their mother Simona’s escape to the use of the supernatural forces. Over the course of the proceeding a story emerged which revealed that Antonia was physically abused by Prior Fray Pablo, who accused her of having interfered in a dispute among three men, named Melchor, Pintor, and Theodisio. Shortly after the dispute the three men died, and their deaths fueled accusations of witchcraft against Antonia.

Antonia’s abuse at the hands of Pablo and the mention of “friendship” in the historical record suggests that the dispute between the three men was provoked by them each having their own romantic connection to Antonia. Melchor helped Antonia’s mother escape by giving Simona the keys to the prison where she was also serving a sentence for murder by witchcraft. It is therefore often alleged that Antonia’s enchantment of Melchor compelled him to help her mother escape. Antonia was rather infamous for the perceived superfluity of her romantic relationships. The judicial record also mentions another relationship Antonia is supposed to have had with a man named Francisco de Herrera, which, according to his mother, Rosa Concha, was indeed brought about by enchantment. Rosa Concha died while the accusations against Antonia were still in process. Rosa’s death made the allegations of witchcraft even more credible in the eyes of the authorities.

The majority of the testimonies cited in the trial record were given by women with emotional ties to the deceased men as members of the court argued for or against the charges of enchantment and witchcraft. For instance, Ignacia, the wife of Melchor, was asked to testify about the state of her husband’s medical condition before his death as the court implied that Antonia’s witchcraft was responsible for his chronic pain and for his decision to help Antonia’s mother escape. To gesture toward Antonia’s innocence, her official advocate requested that Ignacia be asked whether her husband suffered the pain that accompanied him to his death before he provided Simona with the keys. Essentially denying the claims of witchcraft, Ignacia answered that her husband’s death was caused by a “purge” prescribed by a Dr. Balthasar as she declared that Melchor himself attributed his condition to the medical treatment he received and not to witchcraft.

The witch hunt against Antonia and her family unfolded in a context of important political and social changes in the government of Tucumán, of which the jurisdiction of Santiago del Estero was part. For twenty-four years (1701–1724), Esteban Urizar y Arespacochaga served as governor of Tucumán. Upon his death, his position was turned over to the Marqués de Haro, whose leadership of less than two years (1724–1725) would be marked by disorder and corruption. The populace, habituated to the rigidity, austerity, and severity of the previous governor, objected strongly to the Marques de Haro, the Marquesa, and the expenses they accrued. The judicial proceedings against Antonia and her family principal took place in the middle of these changes and were among a series of trials against persons considered to be promiscuous, adulterous, or immoral. The criminalizing of women in Antonia’s family, in which all of them were persecuted, judged, and condemned, was also the consequence of a provincial and highly suspicious society that violently punished women who did not abide by the moral canons imposed by the church and the state.

The criminal proceeding (based on the Inquisition, but practiced and executed by civil and military authorities) was closed in 1725, with Antonia’s condemnation to death by public burning. However, the judicial records indicate that Antonia managed to flee to the Convent of Santo Domingo, beginning a period of seclusion that would ultimately save her from execution. It is not known when she died.

These biographies were written and researched by Jada Similton for her 2022-23 appointment as research assistant for Enslaved.org. Jada is a Solidarity Fellow and PhD student studying Black and Indigenous American Literature at Michigan State University. Reach her at Similto1@msu.edu.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Achával, Nestor. Historia de Santiago del Estero. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Plus Ultra, 1993.

Alén Lascano, Luis C. Historia de Santiago del Estero. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Plus Ultra, 1992.

Expediente Judicial (SJ-205-07). “Antonia La Parda, sobre homicidios por hechicerías.” Archivo Histórico de Santiago del Estero, Argentina.

COMPILATION IMAGE:

“Figure 91" in Pierre Jacques Benoit, Voyage à Surinam; description des possessions néerlandaises dans la Guyane (Bruxelles: Société des Beaux-Arts de Wasme et Laurent, 1839).

“Soldiers on the March, Senegal, 1850s", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed October 25, 2023, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1605”

"Sugar Works and Plantation, Pernambuco, Brazil, ca. 1640", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed October 25, 2023, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1177