Read more
Through a microscopical lens, the book delves into the lives of some of the migrants linked to the Agata, either as members of the crew -a ship, after all, is a moving workplace-, as passengers, or as people sending letters through the ship.
List of contents
Introduction Microhistory
Migration history
Migration in the early modern Atlantic
Letters as a Source for the History of Migration
The Agata's Letters in Context
Structure and sources
Chapter 1: The Master and his Family Sanlúcar de Barrameda: A City of Migrants
Life Before the Agata
Becoming Shipmaster
Letters from Mexico
News From the Family
Letters to Spain
Chapter 2: The Agata's Journey From Zaandam to Spain
A Dutch Ship in Cádiz
War, Privateering and Trade
The charterers
Preparations for the Journey
From Cádiz to New Spain
The Agata in Veracruz
Missing Havana
The Capture and the Captors
Chapter 3: The Agata's Migrants Mobile Workers
A Multinational Crew
Life on the Agata
Regular and Irregular Migration in the Spanish Atlantic
Blending in: Citizenship and Belonging in New Spain
A Free Black in Mexico
Return Passengers: from Batavia to Veracruz
Chapter 4: The Agata's Letters Letters to Migrants Sent From Sanlúcar
From Josepha Croquer in Sanlúcar de Barrameda to Her Nephew Antonio
From Juan Franchois in Seville to Juan de Espinosa y Eliguisamon
Letters From Migrants in Mexico to Sanlúcar
From Joseph de Vargas to a Woman Named Catalina
From Joseph de Ribas to His Wife Rosa Francisca de Ribas y Aguilar
From Bartholome Rodríguez de Reina to His Relative Roman de Bargas
Two Letters of Recommendation
Chapter 5: A Father and a Son A Commercial Agent and His Son
Letters and Themes
From Juan to Ángela Vallejo
From Juan to Bernardo Fallon
The Valderrama Family
From Juan to Luis
From Juan to Pantaleona
From Joaquín to Pantaleona
From Joaquín to Antonio and Luis
Conclusion Bibliography
About the author
Alejandro Salamanca Rodríguez is a PhD researcher at the European University Institute of Florence and an associate researcher at the Prize Papers Project. His work focuses on migration and social history in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.
Summary
Through a microscopical lens, the book delves into the lives of some of the migrants linked to the Agata, either as members of the crew —a ship, after all, is a moving workplace—, as passengers, or as people sending letters through the ship.
