[Gocamino] Slavery in the Americas

[Blaroli at aol.com]

The archives of the Indias, kept in the Archives building near the Cathedral 
in Seville contains thousands of documents, dated, and  subscribed, covering a 
great number of years many of them refer to Queen Isabel's  specific 
proscription of slavery in "her colonies". The documents are endlessly fascinating in 
the way in which the colonizers tried to get around the proscription, 
particularly when the natives of the Caribbean islands died away and there was no one 
to do the manual work.
Because of the widespread belief that slavery was rampant in all of Hispanic 
America an extensive anthropological study was made in the 1970s to trace the 
presence of imported African slaves into the Spanish American countries 
through such things as impact on language, religion, food and music. 
None were found in Mexico, for instance, and historical property law  
documents of that country show that no human beings were sold as chattel there.     
It appears that their situation was similar to that of serfs in feudal England 
in that they were subject to servitude and bereft of freedom to do, or move, 
as they wished, but they were not sold.
Much later,  after the death of the Queen and the confinement because of 
insanity of her daughter and heir Juana,  the reins of government fell into the 
hands of Juana's 
son who was also the emperor of Austria and other countries. Apparently some 
Spanish colonizers took advantage of the vagaries of the powers in Spain to 
engage in the slave trade in some  of the Spanish colonies, but certainly not to 
the extent of other    American countries such as Brasil and the U.S..
By the way, there is marvelous movie about Queen Isabel's daughter that has 
been released in video and DVD in the United States. The movie won all sorts of 
prizes in Europe and it is called "Juana la Loca" (Juana the Mad) in Spain.  
In the United States it is available in video rental stores as "Mad Love".  It 
is impressibly well made and includes what one may call a cameo appearance by 
the Queen. .
The year 2004 marked the 500th anniversary of Queen Isabel's death, and 
consequently a plethora of books and publications were issued about her. Among the 
many books is one containing a reproduction of her edicts, letters and orders 
which include her emphatic prohibition that the native Americans be treated as 
slaves.  She repeatedly told her administrators in the Spanish colonies,  
including Columbus, that their duty was to bring such "souls"  to the Christian 
faith..  The book is not yet available in English but, hopefully, it will soon 
be. 
Regards,
Rosina