Juan Andrés Gálvez
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Juan Andrés Gálvez | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Gálvez, painted in 1815 | |
| Born | Juan Andrés Gálvez de Leguizamo y Agramonte November 14, 1783 |
| Died | March 5, 1844 (aged 60) |
| Nationality | Auratian |
| Occupation | Business magnate |
| Known for | Freeing as many as 3,500 enslaved Bahians in Maracao Founder of Gálvez Mining and Logging Corporation |
Juan Andrés Gálvez de Leguizamo y Agramonte, commonly referred to as just Juan Andrés Gálvez (14 November 1783 – 5 March 1844; aged 60) was an Auratian-born industrial business magnate and nobleman who is most well-known for liberating as many as 3,500 slaves in Maracao, purchasing them and sending them on ships to Belmonte as free men between 1816 and 1821. Regarded as a national hero in Maracao, Gálvez's actions gave increased publicity to the abolitionist movement in Euclea, and saw it grow especially in Auratia and Iustia. In the modern-day, Gálvez gives his name to many cities in Maracao and has many monuments and statues across the island.
Born in 1783 to a minor noble family in Puerto del Rey, Gálvez founded his company, Gálvez Mining and Logging Corporation, in 1809, when he was 26. The company would go on to be a large force in the mining market in Auratia, making Gálvez incredibly wealthy in the process. He left Auratia and resettled in the Iustian colony of Maracao in 1814. Purchasing a large estate in the west side of Porto Leste, Gálvez began by employing imported slaves on his property, however paid them decent wages and treated them as normal employees. Doing this until 1816, Gálvez began to buy ships to send slaves to independent Belmonte, who had abolished slavery completely a few years prior. For five years, Gálvez purchased and released slaves, totalling around 3,500 by the time Marirana captured the island in 1821.