1530
Enslaved people at Acla escape toward the abandoned settlement of Darién
Acla and Santa María la Antigua del Darién, Spanish Tierra Firme
Historical scholarship describes a 1530 uprising among enslaved people at Acla and their refuge in the abandoned settlement of Santa María la Antigua del Darién. The episode belongs to the early history of communities formed by people escaping slavery on the isthmus.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
This account follows Jean-Pierre Tardieu’s reconstruction through María del Carmen Mena García and a cited 1531 colonial inquiry; the manuscript was not independently inspected. The reported plan to kill enslavers is not treated here as proof of killings. Neither an exact day nor the claim that this was the region’s first refuge is established.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Jean-Pierre Tardieu, Cimarrones de Panamá (Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2009), pp. 53–54, note 3: Acla; Mena García p. 403 and AGI Justicia 363, pieza 1
- Tardieu, Cimarrones de Panamá: publisher record and DOI (bibliographic locator; full text may require access) ↗
- Lorena Camacho Muete, La presencia de población negra en Santa María de la Antigua del Darién (Sankofa, 2008), p. 95: Acla in 1530 through Mena García (free article) ↗