‘Pacified Indians’ and the legal fight against enslavement at the crossroad between free and unfree labour conditions (Charcas, 16^th-18^thcenturies)

Abstract

The captivity, trafficking and labour exploitation of indigenous people from the southern Lowlands of the Andes, in the Real Audiencia de Charcas, and the fate of their descendants in the colonial period, are studied here through individual histories as well as the legislation and its application. When observing diverse experiences of captives, the author considers that these cannot be understood through the slavery-freedom dichotomy or through the use of the language of ethnification, but rather it is necessary to reflect on other more complex phenomena such as non-free work, related to the legal status of the person in the colonial order. This reflection addresses the vulnerability of captives and their descendants to the paterfamilias, but also reveals the ability they showed to enforce their rights before the courts. This historiographical look invites us to observe the complexity of social and labour relations, reminding us that people, in their daily practices, transform the meaning of the denominations imposed by political power.