African Baptisms in Havana, Cuba, 1590-1600

This dataset contains information on over one thousand Africans and people of African origin as depicted in Havana’s earliest extant baptismal register, a bound volume titled Libro de Barajas: Bautismos (Miscellaneous Book: Baptisms). Presently held in the Sagrada Catedral de San Cristóbal de La Habana in Havana, Cuba – and viewable online in digital format via the Slave Societies Digital Archive – the Libro de Barajas contains 1,223 baptismal entries that were recorded in Havana's main church (iglesia mayor) between January 1590 and January 1600 and which, unlike sacramental records for later periods, were not segregated by race. Each baptismal entry includes the name of the person or persons being baptized, the date of baptism, the name of the priest or sacristan administering the baptism, the names of the baptized person's parents if known, and the names of their godparents. If a godparent, parent, or person being baptized were enslaved, the names of their owners are documented as well. Many entries also include details such as racial descriptions, places of birth, occupations, and family ties. Africans and people of African origin, who together comprised over sixty percent of all individuals baptized in Havana during the 1590s, were typically described by the racial descriptors \"negra\" or \"negro\" (black), \"morena\" or \"moreno\" (brown), or \"mulata\" or \"mulato.\" Nearly 5,00 baptized individuals were ascribed African “naciones” (lands) or “castas” (castes) such as \"Biafara\" or \"Angola,\" and godparents were ascribed similar ethnonyms or toponyms in nearly one-third of the baptisms. Children born to women of African origin comprised nearly one fourth of all individuals baptized.