Finer things: African-descended women, sumptuary laws, and governance in early Spanish America

Abstract

Finer things in colonial Spanish America, such as pearl earrings, silver embroidery, and silk stockings, fascinated those who sought to enhance their wardrobes, dazzle passersby, and incite envy in others with foreign and locally sourced luxury. This article focuses on the advent of sumptuary laws in the sixteenth century and examines the peculiar targeting of African-descended women who represented a miniscule percentage of the Spanish American population at the time. I argue that while prosecution largely failed, the legal culture that developed around the concern about African-descended women and finery reveals both Crown and religious concerns about the future of the colonies, their desire for superficial order, and fears of imperial ruin in the early decades of Spanish America.