Las Siete Partidas 63including separating families, excessive physical punish-
ment, starving slaves, or exploiting them sexually. Masters
who did not abide by these laws could be taken to court,
and, if proven guilty, their slaves would be sold to another
master or, in certain cases, manumitted. Slaves who dis-
played exceptional service to a master or the state were
eligible for manumission. Slaves were legally permitted to
ply a trade and to own property; they had the legal right to
earn, borrow, and lend money and to purchase their free-
dom or that of another. Slaves were permitted to bring legal
suits, testify in court, and organize religious brotherhoods.
Th e laws of the Siete Partidas addressing the rights of
masters and slaves in medieval Spain refl ected a system of
slavery that was largely domestic, urban, and temporary
and aff ected an enslaved population of various nationalities.
Sub-Saharan and North African soldiers and slaves accom-
panied the occupying Muslim armies, and those captured
in battle were considered Spanish property, while other Af-
ricans arrived in Spain via slave markets or as free persons.
Sardinians, Greeks, Russians, Spaniards, Canary Island-
ers, Turks, Egyptians, and Moors were among the various
peoples who served as slaves in medieval and early mod-
ern Spain. While the laws of the Siete Partidas were closely
aligned with the Catholic Church and favored Christians,
slaves in medieval Spain might be Christian as well as Jew-
ish or Muslim. Th e slave laws of the Siete Partidas did not
refer to nationality or race. Because the Partidas refl ected
the Spanish cultural and religious belief that enslavement
was an unfortunate and accidental status rather than a nat-
ural state, the burden of proof of a person’s enslaved sta-
tus fell on the owner; without positive evidence, an alleged
slave would be freed.
Aft er 1500, the Siete Partidas spread to Spain’s overseas
possessions, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Peru,
the Philippines, Florida, and Louisiana. While Spain devel-
oped colonial policy in subsequent centuries to regulate the
transatlantic slave trade and the growth of plantation slav-
ery, both of which were on a scale unparalleled in the an-
cient and medieval worlds, Spanish legislators continued to
rely on several elements of the Siete Partidas. Th e infl uence
of the Partidas made for greater legal rights, protections,
and channels to freedom for slaves in the Spanish Americas
relative to British North America. How much these rights
were observed in practice is a matter of scholarly debate.
Nonetheless, numerous slaves in Spanish-infl uenced re-
gions such as Cuba and Louisiana petitioned courts toLas Siete Partidas
Las Siete Partidas, the Seven-Part Code, was a set of laws
codifi ed in medieval Spain, some of which were crucial to
the legal foundation of modern slavery in the New World.
Th e code, possibly the most consequential and compre-
hensive set of laws of the medieval period, was compiled in
Castile between 1251 and 1265 under Alfonso X the Wise.
Th e laws went into eff ect around 1348 and became the
foundation for all Spanish jurisprudence. Beginning with
Spanish expansion in the 16th century, the code spread to
Spain’s New World possessions in the Americas, Asia, and
Africa, giving the code the widest territorial infl uence of
any single legal code.
In Iberia the institution of slavery relied on the legal
precepts of the ancient Visigoths and Romans as well as
the Byzantine Justinian Code that combined Roman and
Church law in the early medieval period. Traditionally slav-
ery was justifi ed by the rules of war; slaves were furnished
by the vanquished and prisoners of battle. In the early me-
dieval period, as a result of the Islamic conquest of southern
Spain (711–1492) and the Crusades spanning the 11th to
the 13th centuries, religion became a signifi cant compo-
nent of the justifi cation of war and enslavement. Th e Siete
Partidas built on these legal and ethical traditions.
Th e Castilian code permitted individuals as well as mu-
nicipal and religious organizations to own slaves and codi-
fi ed the criteria that had justifi ed enslavement. Prisoners of
just wars, particularly non-Christians, as well as condemned
persons, children of enslaved mothers, and those who vol-
untarily sold themselves into slavery for debt relief or other
economic reasons were regarded as legitimate slaves. Th e
Siete Partidas appended the traditional conditions with two
additional categories of persons eligible for slavery: children
of priests were required to serve as slaves in their father’s
churches and Christians who provided war material to
Moors could be legally enslaved. Muslims, Jews, and others
considered infi dels could not legally own Christian slaves.
Th e Siete Partidas protected certain rights for enslaved
individuals and provided a number of legal channels for
manumission. Christian slaves were entitled to marry one
another with the masters’ permission, and masters were le-
gally bound to grant permission unless they could prove
that the union posed a serious danger to their interests.
Masters were prohibited from exhibiting cruel treatment,