The Other Slavery (72 page)

25. The Spanish crown still sanctioned the enslavement of Carib Indians because they were reputedly cannibals. At the same time the cacao boom continued in Venezuela and gold production rose in Nueva Granada. See TePaske,
A New World of Gold and Silver
, 39. Thus the demand for labor was great at a time when the Indian population was declining. I propose a very speculative range of 15,000 to 25,000.

26. In Peru and Bolivia the mita continued but with ever-dwindling conscripts. I propose a range of 120,000 to 190,000, subject to revision. In Chile Indian slavery was no longer legal after the 1680s but other forms of coerced labor persisted. I propose a very speculative range of 15,000 to 50,000. The Spanish crown also cracked down on slaving activities in Paraguay and Tucumán with mixed results. A range of 10,000 to 20,000 is merely an informed guess based on very fragmentary information.

27. A range of 50,000 to 130,000 is speculative but not unreasonable. Only in the seven-year period between 1738 and 1745 in Pará, the Junta das Missões approved petitions for 10,250 Indian slaves. See Barbara A. Sommer, “Colony of the Sertão: Amazonian Expeditions and the Indian Slave Trade,”
The Americas
61:3 (January 2005), 413. I want to thank Barbara for drawing my attention to this information. According to Jonathan D. Hill, Portuguese slave trading and warfare against indigenous groups reached its zenith in the 1740s–1750s when approximately 20,000 indigenous slaves were taken only from the upper Rio Negro region. See Jonathan D. Hill, “Indigenous Peoples and the Rise of Independent Nation-States in Lowland South America,” 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), 709. See also David G. Sweet, “A Rich Realm of Nature Destroyed: The Middle Amazon Valley, 1640-1750” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1974).

28. Indian slavery declined through much of the eastern seaboard and was largely replaced by African slavery or by free labor. Yet, west of the Mississippi it continued. Utes, Navajos, and Comanches continued to sell captives in New Mexico. A brisk trade for Coahuiltecan Indians developed along the Rio Grande Valley. Missionaries in the Pimería Alta acquired Indians offered by other Indians. The occupation of Alta California created new markets for Indians. At the same time Hispanic New Mexicans and Texans held individuals on account of debts thus adopting the system that was prevalent farther south. A very speculative range of 15,000 to 30,000 is subject to debate.

29. The Mexican military launched “deportation” campaigns against the Seri Indians in the 1750s and Apaches beginning in the 1770s. The colonization of Nuevo Santander by José de Escandon led to enslavement and servitude. See Patricia Osante, ed.,
Testimonio acerca de la causa formada en la colonial del Nuevo Santander al coronel Don José de Escandón
(Mexico City: UNAM, 2000). More broadly, debt peonage increased at this time. In Central America the repartimientos continued. The range of 30,000 to 60,000 is speculative particularly because of the difficulties of estimating the number of debt peons and servants.

30. Carib Indians can still be legally enslaved even in this very late period. See “cédula real para que no se considere esclavo a ningún indio que no sea Caribe,” Madrid, February 7, 1756, Archivo General de la Nación, Reales Cédulas Originales, vol. 76, file 13. The gold boom in Colombia and Venezuela peaked at this time. Although prospectors and miners relied increasingly on African slaves, coercive practices imposed on Indians persisted. The Indian population began recovering at this time. I propose a very speculative range of 10,000 to 20,000, subject to revision.

31. In Peru and Bolivia the mita continued with fewer conscripts. A range of 90,000 to 120,000 is speculative. In Chile encomiendas persisted until 1791. In Paraguay encomiendas continued in this period. Forms of servitude persisted throughout the region. A very speculative range of 10,000 to 25,000 is subject to revision.

32. Hal Langfur reminds us that the
bandeira
did not end in the seventeenth century. Langfur, “The Return of the
Bandeira,
” 429–461. Moreover, formal abolition of Indian slavery led to forms of servitude and peonage that characterized many other parts of Latin America. The range of 40,000 to 100,000 is quite speculative.

33. Comanches, Apaches, Navajos, and Utes continued to trade captives in New Mexico. In California the destruction of the mission system and the emergence of a ranchero class led to the peonization of the former mission Indians and the proliferation of raids to capture Indian servants. Utah became a crossroads for the caravans going from New Mexico to California and back. Utes captured Paiute Indians and sold them to the passing merchants. They also began selling captives to the Mormon pioneers (see
chapter 11
). A very speculative range would be 10,000 to 20,000.

34. Deportation campaigns against Apaches and other Indians ceased at this time. On
the other hand, there is a great deal of evidence of debt peonage in the south, the center, and the north of Mexico. See González Navarro, “El trabajo forzoso en México,” 588–615. In the north and in the south various state legislatures regulated various aspects of servitude. Similar conditions existed in Central America. For the case of Guatemala, see Severo Martínez Peláez,
La patria del criollo: Ensayo de interpretación de la realidad colonial guatemalteca
(Guatemala: EDUCA, 1979). A very speculative range of 30,000 to 80,000 may serve as a point of departure.

35. There is scant information about this period. Indian population all along the circum-Caribbean region experienced a marked rebound. Debt peonage and other coercive methods of labor extraction persisted, although it is very hard to determine how common these practices were. The wars of independence in Colombia and Venezuela led to military conscription but the scale remains unclear. I propose a highly speculative range of 15,000 to 45,000 as a starting point.

36. In Peru and Bolivia the mita ended. However the wars of independence that ranged all over the region, including Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, resulted in forced conscription of indigenous peoples. Debt peonage and other forms of labor coercion persisted. I propose a very speculative range of 40,000 to 90,000.

37. Forms of servitude and peonage continued in this period. This range is decidedly speculative.

38. Indian slavery increased when millions of American settlers moved to the West. Indian servitude laws were implemented in California, Utah, and New Mexico (see chapters
10
,
11
, and
12
). A range of 40,000 to 90,000 is speculative but a starting point.

39. In Mexico debt peonage and other forms of labor coercion continued in the 1850s and 1860s and increased markedly during the Porfirian period as export booms of henequen, coffee, sugar, mining, and other commodities required more labor. Central America experienced a similar transformation with coffee, bananas, and other products. For a broad overview, see Steven C. Topik and Allen Wells, eds.,
The Second Conquest of Latin America: Coffee, Henequen, and Oil during the Export Boom, 1850–1930
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998). For Guatemala see David McCreery, “Debt Servitude in Rural Guatemala, 1876–1936,”
Hispanic American Historical Review
63:4 (1983), 735–759; and McCreery, “‘An Odious Feudalism’:
Mandamiento
Labor and Commercial Agriculture in Guatemala, 1858–1920,”
Latin American Perspectives
13:1 (1986), 99–117. As noted, American journalist John Kenneth Turner estimated that Mexico had 750,000 slaves by 1908. A range of 70,000 to 150,000 is speculative.

40. Export booms in the circum-Caribbean region also resulted in more servants and peons at a time when African slavery was abolished. A range of 20,000 to 70,000 is very speculative.

41. Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay also experienced a “second conquest” as described by Topik and Wells and against the background of the abolition of African slavery. Booms in guano, copper, rubber, and various other products increased demand for coerced and slave labor. For just a glimpse of the surprising transformations that occurred at this time see Melillo, “The First Green
Revolution,” 1028–1060; and Nara Milanich, “Women, Children, and Domestic Labor in Nineteenth-Century Chile,”
Hispanic American Historical Review
91:1 (February 2011), 29–62. A range 100,000 to 180,000 is highly speculative.

42. Like other Latin American nations, Brazil experienced export-led booms at this time. The rubber boom, for instance, had a tremendous impact on Brazil’s indigenous population in the Amazon basin. The range of 70,o00 to 150,000 is highly speculative.

43. Extensive lists of slaving expeditions and licenses appear in Mira Caballos,
El indio antillano,
391–399.

44. Price information comes from ibid., 288–289.

45. The data on silver and gold production come from TePaske,
A New World of Gold and Silver,
113; and Craig and Rimstidt, “Gold Production History of the United States,” 407–464. For the conversions, I assume that 1 troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams.

46. William B. Griffen has compiled a table of the Indians from New Mexico baptized in Parral. These figures tell us little about the absolute number of New Mexican slaves because many were sold in places other than Parral or were never baptized in the first place. But the numbers do indicate that the flow of slaves increased in the 1650s, continued to grow in the 1660s, and reached a record high in the 1670s. Griffen,
Culture Change and Shifting Populations in Central Northern Mexico
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1969), 102. The years shown in the chart are as they appear in the original. Many slaves went unreported. Rick Hendricks and Gerald Mandell observe that in 1646, only two Apaches were baptized, even though between seventeen and twenty-four Apaches arrived in Parral in the spring of that year. Hendricks and Mandell, “The Apache Slave Trade in Parral,” 73.

47. This graph is derived from the information in appendix 1.

48. This chart is based entirely on data from Brugge,
Navajos in the Catholic Church Records of New Mexico,
22–23.

Index

A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
F
|
G
|
H
|
I
|
J
|
K
|
L
|
M
|
N
|
O
|
P
|
Q
|
R
|
S
|
T
|
U
|
V
|
W
|
X
|
Y
|
Z

A

abolition and abolitionists,
320–21
.
See also
antislavery crusade; Mariana (queen of Spain); New Laws of 1542; Philip IV (king of Spain)

America,
8
,
147–48
,
296
,
301
,
306
,
408
n 1

Central America,
74

Chile abolition decree,
142–44

lobbying against,
67–68
,
70
,
347
n 32

Mexico,
72–74
,
218–19

Acoma Indians,
116
,
118
,
360
n 24

Acordada prison.
See
disease and health: smallpox

Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (1850).
See
California: Indian Act of 1850

Admiral of the Ocean Sea.
See
Columbus, Christopher

Africa and Africans,
4–6
,
8

autobiographical accounts,
49

Cape Verde Islands,
78–79
,
350
n 6

“coffles” (caravans of shackled slaves),
85

on east coast of North America,
218

Elmina slave depot,
23–24

Guinea,
23
,
77–78
,
80

male or female slave preference,
50
,
343
n 9

in silver mines of Mexico,
110–11

Albuquerque Journal
,
314

Alvarado, Pedro de,
70

antislavery crusade,
128–30
,
365
n 1,
369
n 21.
See also
audiencias
(high courts)

Chile, Indian treatment,
136
,
142

documentation of release in Trinidad,
138–39

exceptions of Muslims and cannibals,
137

Mexico, emancipation declaration,
136

orders to free all Indians,
136–37

Antonio Uribe, José,
213

Apaches

Apachería,
184

Comanches, war with,
180–82

enslavement and transport to silver mines,
212

role in Pueblo Revolt,
158
,
160

as slavers,
7
,
179
,
180
,
219
,
222
,
225
,
228–29
,
236–37

war as justification for taking into servitude,
120–21
,
363
n 33

warrior: Fuerte (Strong) or Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves),
233
,
235–36
,
395
n 28