The Other Slavery (71 page)

7. The figures for early Brazil remain quite speculative. The Portuguese (and fleetingly the French) initially bartered for brazilwood with the Natives of coastal Brazil but ultimately enslaved them. This was especially the case after the development of sugar plantations starting in the 1540s. See Stuart B. Schwartz,
Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550–1835
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 37–38; John Hemming,
Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians, 1500–1760
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), chap. 2; Monteiro,
Negros da terra;
John M. Monteiro, “The Crises and Transformations of Invaded Societies: Coastal Brazil in the Sixteenth Century,” in Frank Salomon and Stuart B. Schwartz eds.,
The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas
, vol. 3, part 1 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 973–1023; Stuart B. Schwartz, “Indian Labor and New World Plantations: European Demands and Indian Responses in Northeastern Brazil,”
The American Historical Review
83:1 (February 1978), 44–79; and Alida C. Metcalf, “The Entradas of Bahia of the Sixteenth Century,”
The Americas
61:3 (2005), 373–428.

8. During this period Spaniards started making incursions into Texas, New Mexico, and the coast of California. However, the number of Indian slaves taken in these areas was still relatively small. Florida was almost certainly a more important slaving ground at this time. See the “expediente promovido por el general Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, sobre los grandes daños y muertes que hacían ciertos indios de la costa de la Florida, y que en su virtud se declarasen por esclavos, pues así podría continuarse la conquista y población de aquellas provincias,” Madrid, 1574, AGI, Patronato, 257, N. 1, R. 20. A provisional range of 5,000 to 15,000 seems appropriate.

9. Mexico was mired in the Chichimec Wars until the end of the sixteenth century. At the same time the fantastic silver discoveries of this period created great demand for Indian labor. I do not include the encomienda Indians of central Mexico who were generally able to pay in goods rather than service. This, however, was not the case for the encomienda Indians of northern Mexico who were enslaved for all practical purposes. See del Hoyo,
Esclavitud y Encomiendas de indios en el nuevo reino de León.
Although speculative, I also include Indians in repartimientos, debt peonage, and other coercive arrangements but not the slaves coming from the Philippines and the Indian subcontinent. I propose a very provisional range of 80,000 to 140,000. To this we must add the Indian slaves of Central America. In spite of the Cerrato reforms, Spaniards reverted to holding Indians in bondage after Cerrato’s death, partly motivated by a boom in cacao. A range of 30,000 to 50,000 is speculative but possible.

10. Although the Indian population of the Caribbean experienced a near collapse, Spaniards continued to organize slaving raids. See “Real Provisión por la cual se da licencia a los vecinos de la isla Española para que los indios caribes que vinieren a infestar a los vecinos de ella y a los ellos comarcanos, puedan armar contra ellos y hacerles guerra . . . y se permite que a los indios caribes que se cautivaren en la dicha guerra y fueren presentados ante la audiencia y a ella le constare que se cautivaron en ella y siendo adjudicados por ella los puedan tener por esclavos,” Valladolid, June 22, 1558, AGI, Santo Domingo, 899, L. 1, F. 111. A range of 5,000 to 15,000 is possible for this period. Slaving continued in coastal Venezuela and Colombia in spite of royal prohibitions. Jiménez G.,
La esclavitud indígena en Venezuela
, chap. 8. Moreover, the encomienda in Colombia and Venezuela was based on personal services. See Juan A. and Judith E. Villamarin,
Indian Labor in Mainland Colonial Spanish America
(Newark: University of Delaware, 1975), 114. I propose a range of 25,000 to 60,000, subject to revision.

11. For Peru and Bolivia in this period it is necessary to consider that over 200 Indian villages located in a contiguous region around the mines of Potosí and Huancavelica were required to provide one-seventh of their adult male population as a rotating draft or mita beginning in 1573. This system continued for 250 years. Scholars have long debated the degree of coercion involved in the mita system. See Peter Bakewell,
Miners of the Red Mountain: Indian Labor in Potosí, 1545–1650
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984); Cole,
The Potosí Mita 1573–1700;
and Tandeter,
Coercion and Market
. Moreover, the number of conscripted workers fluctuated: in 1573 it was 9,500; in 1575 it was 11,500; and so on. Yananconaje continued to exist. A rough estimate of the forced laborers in Peru and Bolivia during this period would hover between 100,000 and 150,000. Chile also experienced a mining boom at this time and consequently the enslavement of Indians as well as other forms of labor coercion increased. According to one contemporary report, in 1594 the number of “indios de servicio” in Chile had “dwindled
”
to 37,000. A total enslaved population of between 50,000 and 90,000 is plausible. For the report see Jara,
Guerra y sociedad en Chile
, 31. For Ecuador and the Río de la Plata region, the numbers are more speculative but there is still abundant evidence of enslavement. For example, see the “real cédula al presidente y oidores de la Audiencia de Quito para que hagan cumplir lo
que está mandado de que los indios puedan libremente vivir y trabajar sin que se les obligue ni esclavice,” Madrid, November 11, 1566, AGI, Quito, 211, L. 1, F. 122v; and the “real cédula al marqués de Cañete . . . acerca de la relación hecha por el cacique principal de los pueblos de Soconcho y Manogasta, de la provincia de Tucumán, respecto de que de los indios de aquellos pueblos se sirven los gobernadores de aquella provincia como de esclavos y los sacan de su natural para trabajar en charcas y otras labores . . .” Madrid, March 16, 1594, in
Libro registros-cedularios del Tucumán y Paraguay, 1573–1716
(Buenos Aires: Instituto de Investigaciones de Historia del Derecho, 2000), 36. Ecuador also experienced a gold boom at this time. Although speculative, I propose a range of 15,000 to 30,000.

12. The Tenure of Governor Mem de Sá marked a turning point in the enslavement of the Natives of coastal Brazil. According to the Jesuit missionary Anchieta, over 50,000 captives were taken within a few months in the early 1560s. He also reported that slaving raids in 1577 yielded 20,000 Indian slaves. Sugar production expanded rapidly at this time and the Indian slaves were replaced by African slaves over a lengthy period. A range of 120,000 to 200,000 is speculative but not inconceivable.

13. In this period Spaniards colonized New Mexico and incorporated it to the silver mining economy. Indian slavery in Florida continued, although here Spanish colonists relied more readily on African slaves imported from the Caribbean. French exploration and colonization ventures along the Saint Lawrence River as well as English settlements in the mid-Atlantic coast resulted in the capture of Natives, although these were still few in number. I propose a preliminary range of 15,000 to 45,000 including Indian slaves, servants, criminals serving out sentences of forced labor, and encomienda Indians who were forced to render personal services.

14. The Chichimec Wars came to an end but the silver mining economy expanded during this period. Significant uprisings by Xiximes, Tepehuanes, and other indigenous groups in northern Mexico resulted in Spanish military campaigns and slave-taking. Plenty of evidence of Indian enslavement exists for Nuevo León, Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Sonora. I propose a very speculative range of 20,000 to 60,000. In Central America debt peonage proliferated as the encomienda system came to an end. The cacao boom continued for two or three decades. See Murdo J. MacLeod,
Spanish Central America: A Socioeconomic History 1520–1720
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973). A range of 15,000 to 30,000 is speculative.

15. The main area of enslavement in this period was centered on the northeastern portion of South America as far as the Guianas. Here Spain, England, and Holland competed against each other, forged indigenous allies, and created networks of enslavement. The Carib Indians emerged as important suppliers of slaves at this time. One later Spanish source estimated that the Carib Indians made around 300 prisoners a year. Quoted in Whitehead,
Lords of the Tiger Spirit,
186–187. A range of 15,000 to 30,000 is possible. In addition, Colombia and Venezuela continued to have encomiendas based primarily on personal services, although in Colombia it was gradually converted into an institution based on the collection of tribute. The Indian population thus subjected may have ranged from 15,000 to 25,000.

16. The mita continued in Peru although in decreasing numbers. A range of 150,000
to 250,000 is therefore plausible. In Chile Indian slavery flourished in the wake of a major Indian insurrection. In 1608 Philip III stripped the Mapuche Indians of the customary royal protection against enslavement thus making Chile one of the very few zones of the empire where slave-taking was entirely legal. Although speculative, I propose I range of 30,000 to 70,000. In this period Spaniards also intensified their raids into the Calchaquí Valleys and more generally Tucumán and Paraguay. See Doucet, “Sobre cautivos de guerra y esclavos indios en el Tucumán,” 59–152; Giudicelli, “‘Identidades’ rebeldes: Soberanía colonial y poder de clasificación,” 137–172; Garavaglia, “Invaded Societies: La Plata Basin, 1535–1650,” and Saeger, “The Chaco and Paraguay, 1573–1822,” both in Frank Salomon and Stuart B. Schwartz, eds.,
The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas
vol. 3, part 2 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 1–58 and 257–286, respectively. A range of 10,000 to 30,000 is subject to discussion.

17. The
bandeirantes
took upwards of 60,000 captives in the middle decades of the seventeenth century from Jesuit missions in Paraguay. For a reasonable discussion of these numbers see Monteiro,
Negros da terra,
73–74 .
Bandeirantes
also took an unknowable number of captives from Indians at large. A range of 80,000 to 150,000 is quite speculative.

18. In this period Indian slavery was widespread in the Carolinas and Florida. Alan Gallay proposes a range between 25,000 and 40,000 from the 1670s through 1700. Gallay,
The Indian Slave Trade,
298–299. In New England King Philip’s War (1675–1678) resulted in hundreds of enslaved Indians many of whom were shipped to the Caribbean. French colonists and their Native allies developed an extensive network of enslavement in New France that reached into the Great Lakes region and resulted in the capture of hundreds or even thousands of victims. The Spanish province of New Mexico was rocked by the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which was largely a response to widespread enslavement (
chapter 6
). A range of 40,000 to 90,000 for this period is subject to debate.

19. This was a tumultuous period of some stagnation in the silver mines, a massive Indian rebellion in northern Mexico, and an empire-wide Spanish campaign to free all Indian slaves (see
chapter 5
). In addition, Honduras experienced a mining boom but against the background of a dwindling Native population. The decline of encomiendas meant a greater reliance on repartimientos and also a transition toward debt servitude and other forms of labor extraction. See Newson,
Indian Survival in Colonial Nicaragua
, 150–167. A range of 45,000 to 90,000 is possible but subject to discussion.

20. Slaving in coastal Colombia and Venezuela continued as well as imperial competition in the Guianas. At this time Venezuela became the primary supplier of cocoa to Europe and also developed some gold mining. Although plantation and mine owners relied primarily on African slaves, they also had coerced Native laborers as encomiendas and repartimientos. The range of 20,000 to 35,000 is highly speculative.

21. In Peru and Bolivia the mita continued but in decreasing numbers. A range of 90,000 to 180,000 is subject to debate. In Chile Indian slavery remained legal and flourished. Governor Juan Enríquez affirmed categorically in 1676 that “in Chile there are many more Indian slaves than Spaniards” at a time when the Spanish population in Chile
had reached 100,000. Governor Juan Enríquez to King Carlos II, Santiago, October 8, 1676, in AGI Chile, 57. Slaves were so plentiful that merchants also shipped them to Peru. See contemporary description by Miguel de Miranda Escobar, cited in Jara,
Guerra y sociedad en Chile,
149. A range of 80,000 to 140,000 is subject to discussion. Across the Andes, in Paraguay and Tucumán slavery also proliferated. A very speculative range would be between 15,000 and 35,000.

22. Raiding by
bandeirantes
continued as they explored the interior of Brazil. A range of 60,000 to 100,000 is possible.

23. Indian slavery continued to be widespread in the Carolinas and Florida. Inferring from Gallay’s study, in the first two decades of the eighteenth century perhaps 5,000 to 12,000 Natives were taken. Indian slaves also continued in New France, New England, and the mid-Atlantic colonies. New York under Dutch and English control has left a copious paper trail about Indian slaves. Farther south Comanches sold Plains Indians both in Louisiana and New Mexico. These captives (and others sold by Utes, Navajos, and Apaches) became known as genízaros in New Mexico and were so plentiful that they formed their own communities. It is hard to make an accurate assessment, but a range of 20,000 to 40,000 may serve as a starting point.

24. In Mexico encomiendas declined or disappeared in this period and mine owners relied more on repartimiento Indians and salaried workers. At the same time silver production more than doubled during this fifty-year period. I rely on the silver production figures provided by TePaske,
A New World of Gold and Silver,
23. In Central America encomiendas remained in use much longer than in other Spanish colonies and were only abolished in 1718. The repartimientos continued. I propose a range of 20,000 to 50,000 subject to debate.