Collective and Individual Experiences of Slaves in Leghorn, Pisa and Florence, 1702-1826

This article presents a group portrait of captives and slaves and a picture of some individual slaves’ lives in the Bagno of Leghorn and Pisa and in the House of Catechumens of Florence in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during the period 1702-1826. This research is based on Leghorn government papers, the archive of Florence’s Ginori family and the records of the Magistrato del Bigallo. The study follows two lines of inquiry corresponding to two different scales of analysis. The first draws a group portrait from a list of slaves living at the Bagno of Leghorn and released in 1747. This portrait reveals a uniform and collective life and provides quantitative information on the latter, particularly concerning the question of the time of their captivity or their enslavement. The second line of investigation explores the experiences and individual trajectories of several slaves between Livorno, Pisa and Florence and raises questions about conclusive interpretations concerning the level of homogeneity in their living and working conditions. The presence of slaves and captives in galleys or prisons has been the subject of much research based on the many documents produced in these places, including lists of slaves that allow scholars to build a group portrait. The realization of this type of portrait requires, however, consideration of individual trajectories and differences. This is made possible by sources such as the supplications of slaves living in these places of detention as well as those resident in the House of Catechumens of Florence. The petitions of slaves, in both Pisa and Livorno, reveal the diversity of living conditions in the same place of detention. While historiography has emphasized a standardization of conditions in different environments—such as galleys and prisons—the study sheds light on how differences in physical qualities (health, physical strength, skin colour), geographical origin, professional skills or religion of captives and slaves had an impact on access to freedom, their agency, and their treatment by their owners. In addition, the sources of the Magistrato del Bigallo allow for a very subtle approach, making it possible to show for example the different experiences of a brother and a sister, both slaves and from Sub-Saharan Africa, in the House of Catechumens of Florence. These sources, less explored, bring to light formerly invisible stories of enslaved people from the Mediterranean and outside with singular trajectories that complicate existing interpretations. The two approaches, that of the group portrait and that concentrating on the individual experiences of the captives and slaves, are fundamental to developing a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of slavery in Tuscany.