Felipillo

Felipillo (fl. sixteenth century) was a runaway slave leader in mid-sixteenth-century Panama. Although he was not the first African in Panama to flee from a Spanish owner, he was one of the first to be recorded by name in colonial documentation. Unfortunately, most of the details of his life prior to fleeing captivity are unknown, including his place of birth, date of enslavement, and arrival in Panama. 

By the late 1540s, Felipillo had become the slave of Hernando de Carmona and was working on Carmona’s estate located in the Pearl Islands off Panama’s Pacific Coast. In 1549 Felipillo led other pearl divers in an uprising against their Spanish masters. This uprising is significant in that it brought together both indigenous workers and African slaves. After rebelling, Felipillo and his compatriots fled from the Pearl Islands to the mainland near the Gulf of San Miguel. At this location, Felipillo and his followers joined other runaway Africans and local indigenous groups. They built a palenque (fortified community of runaway slaves) that included simple huts as well as agricultural plots. This community remained active for several years and attracted more runaways from the Pearl Islands and Panama City. 

In 1551 Francisco Carreño, a resident of Panama City, undertook the task of locating and capturing Felipillo and his followers. While traveling through the Pearl Islands, Carreño was able to capture a canoe carrying several of Felipillo’s African followers and an indigenous guide. Carreño used the indigenous guide to locate Felipillo’s palenque in the Gulf of San Miguel. With a mixed group of Spaniards, his own African slaves, and indigenous servants, Carreño captured Felipillo and burned down their community. Following the raid, Carreño returned to Panama City with thirty slaves. Most were sold back into slavery, but one slave was tried for the rebellion, sentenced to death, and quartered as a statement to future runaways. Unfortunately, while Carreño’s account of the raid details the destruction of the palenque, it does not specifically note that he captured Felipillo, nor does it state that the slave executed was Felipillo. Although Felipillo may have survived Carreño’s raid, no other colonial documents provide solid evidence of his whereabouts after his palenque was destroyed. 

Felipillo’s palenque was important for two reasons. First, it represented one of the first large-scale communities of runaway African slaves on the isthmus. In the decades that followed, similar communities would form in the center of the isthmus near the Rio Chepo, as well as along the Caribbean coastline near the future site of Portobelo. Second, Felipillo’s ability to unite African and indigenous persons within his community represents a unique cultural conjunction of disenfranchised groups in early Spanish America. African–indigenous connections would help support other palenques in Panama and around the circum-Caribbean. Although Spanish authorities pitted Africans against Native Americans, Felipillo’s community suggests this policy could fail to achieve its goal. Felipillo’s successful rebellion and palenque attest to the important ties that could bring together African slaves and indigenous persons.

Read the full, original biography by Robert C. Schwaller in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography