Literary Forms, Imperial Projections, and the Limits of Possibility in Copper Colonies

This chapter builds from the previous chapter and concludes the section on copper. It focuses on proposals for asientos de minas (contracts for mines) and asientos de negros(contracts for enslaved Africans) produced in a hemispheric and transatlantic dialogue between and among officials, writers, projectors, and miners in Sevilla, Madrid, La Habana, and Cocorote, Venezuela. By showing where and how Iberian authors borrowed from each other, this chapter charts how colonial writers modified evidence to project particular visions of African slavery, artisanship, and family life, and to sell imperial interlocutors on new forms of American wealth.