[Gocamino] Slavery in the Americas

[Eldor Pederson]

Those who believe there was no slavery in Mexico or elsewhere in the Spanish colonies of Latin America probably also believe there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in pre-war Iraq! Both beliefs depend on ignoring vast bodies of evidence to the contrary.

Extensive, carefully researched, well-documented, peer reviewed and widely disseminated literature by respected scholars in anthropology and history demonstrates beyond any possibility of doubt the existence of African slavery in Mexico and elsewhere in the Spanish colonies of Latin America. Isabella may have forbidden it, but she died only a few years after the Americas were claimed for Spain and Portugal, and her successors had no such scruples. As for the claim that Africans were treated as serfs rather than slaves, it is linguistic niggling of the same sort presently being used to show that what currently exists in Mauritania and Sudan is "serfdom" rather than "slavery" or that the mass murders in Rwanda and Darfur are regrettable but do not qualify as genocide. The practical distinction between a serf in feudal Russia and a slave in Alabama was all but nil, for neither had any individual rights and lived lives all but totally dictated by masters. Whether or not the master could legally sell the person as chattel is of historical interest but of little practical import to the individual who was in slavery or serfdom. Indeed, although the individual "serf" in theory could not be sold, in fact such transfers were common throughout the history of serfdom in Europe. Moreover, did the Africans come to Mexico willingly? Or were they forced to come and sold in an auction on arrival at Veracruz or some other port (if they managed to survive the voyage)? Did they remain on the sugar and other plantations in the malarial and yellow fever infested coastal areas because they wanted to? Did they work for their own good and the good of their families in hopes of a better life at some future date? From a legalistic point of view, the difference between slavery and serfdom is perhaps of consequence, but from the practical viewpoint of masters and slaves or "serfs", and from the long-term effects on social evolution the differences between serfdom and slavery are small indeed. In the end, however, making the distinction in the case of Latin America is not worth the effort, for the Africans who were forced to come to the Spanish colonies were slaves in ways virtually identical to those Africans brought to be sold to British and French colonial masters in Jamaica, South Carolina or Martinique or Portuguese masters in Brasil.

As for the comments that some anthropological study showed no influence on Mexico from African serfs or slaves, no effect on food, language, etc., that is in the same realm of pseudo-social science as holocaust denial or the "happy slave" theories of some racists in the Southern United States. Any good Mexican regional cookbook quickly illustrates the influences on food in coastal areas like Tampico or Guerrero where African slaves were numerous.

While Isabella's edicts prohibiting the enslavement of indigenes in the Spanish colonies were commendable, anyone with even a very sketchy knowledge of colonial era Mexican history knows how worthless they were. Almost from the day after the Conquest was completed, indigenes were forced to work in the most horrific conditions in mines and agricultural areas. This continued in Mexico until there were virtually no indigenes left to make into "serfs," the indigenous population of Mexico a hundred or so years after the Conquest having been reduced to about 10 per cent of its pre Conquest numbers! Tales of indigenes forced to work as "serfs" in the mines of Zacatecas make for quite chilling reading. And conditions for indigenes in Mexico were actually quite good in comparison to some of the other colonies, for there were a few Spaniards, for example Bartolome de las Casas, who worked at great personal risk to ameliorate conditions for indigenous people of Mexico. The "serfs" forced to work in the mines of Potosi in what is now Bolivia had no such champions.

Finally, there are some excellent works on the life and times of Isabella currently available in the United States. One that I recently read and recommend is:
 Liss, Peggy. 2004. Isabel the Queen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2nd edition, revised).

E. O. Pederson