SLAVERY IN AMERICA: BEGINNING, PLACES AND DESTINATIONS, ABOLITION - HISTORY - 2025

The slavery in America affected both the Indians and Africans in their continent captured and transferred to the various colonies that had the European countries. At first, those affected were the indigenous people, despite the laws issued by the Spanish crown to prevent it.

These laws failed to eliminate slavery, which continued to occur illegally or on the encomiendas. For various reasons, in the 16th century, settlers began importing slaves from Africa. The Spanish and Portuguese, first, and then the English, the Dutch and the French, were the most active in this human trafficking.

Source: Jean-Baptiste Debret

Indigenous slaves were destined for work in the mines and on agricultural estates throughout most of the continent. For their part, the Africans were mostly taken to the Caribbean, Brazil and what is now the United States.

The abolition of slavery occurred mainly during the 19th century. In Latin America the laws that prohibited it were enacted, on many occasions, just after the independence of the countries. For its part, in the United States the attempt to eliminate slavery ended up provoking a civil war.

Start

Although the figure of slavery already existed in America before the arrival of the conquerors, it is considered that their number increased exponentially after the discovery.

The Spanish soon began to use the captured Indians for hard work. Later, they began to use Africans brought from their continent.

The Spanish were quickly joined by the Portuguese, English or French. In general, all the colonizing powers participated in this human trafficking. Interestingly, the Spanish Crown enacted laws against enslaving the natives, but on many occasions they were broken on the ground.

The calculation of Africans used as slaves in America is complicated. Some sources affirm that, between 1501 and 1641, were about 620,000 those transferred from Africa.

Natives

The Spanish had to militarily subdue the indigenous peoples in order to dominate their lands. Each battle left a significant number of prisoners who, in most cases, became the first slaves.

In fact, it is known that the first commercial activity of Christopher Columbus after the discovery was to send 550 slaves to Europe to be auctioned.

The Taino Indians of Hispaniola were the first to suffer that fate, although normally the Spaniards acted less directly. Thus, many times they preferred that the Indians pay taxes in gold or sent them to work in the encomiendas.

Keep in mind that the Spanish queen, Isabel de Castilla, had already promulgated a law in 1477 prohibiting slavery. Later, this position was again made clear in different regulations.

Thus, when the first ships reached the new continent, in 1492, and before the beginning of the slave practice, the queen consulted with theologians and jurists what to do.

The result was the prohibition of such a practice with the exception that it served to condemn cannibalistic tribes, belligerents, etc. This left a loophole that many settlers took advantage of.

Hidden slavery

As noted above, Spain was the first power to ban slavery, albeit only for indigenous people. These were protected by the laws issued in 1542, which eliminated the exceptions for the rebels.

However, this did not mean that the settlers in Latin America stopped using indigenous slaves. Despite the prohibition, encomienda owners continued to use native labor for free.

Some, such as Fray Bartolomé de las Casas or Fray Antonio de Montesinos, denounced these practices and managed to be heard by the Spanish King Carlos V.

Malocas

The New Laws, promulgated by Carlos V in 1542, strictly prohibited the slavery of the natives. This did not prevent, in some areas, the Spanish from carrying out armed expeditions to capture natives for the purpose of enslaving them. These new slaves were called malocas.

The Spanish king also tried to solve the abuses that occurred in the encomiendas. For that, he prohibited any re-creation, but hereditary ones were not suppressed.

Africans

The Spanish and Portuguese took advantage of their maritime control to establish African slave routes to America. The first routes led from Arguin or the islands of Cape Verde to Santo Tomé and San Jorge de la Muna.

The king of Portugal took advantage of the so-called House of Slaves and, for their part, the Spanish sold licenses to allow black slaves to be brought in. In the 16th century alone, more than 120,000 of those licenses were granted.

In America there had been several epidemics that had reduced the number of indigenous people. Meanwhile, the demand for labor did not stop growing. The solution was to increase the number of African slaves.

Fray Bartolomé de las Casas himself, defender of the indigenous people, proposed their replacement by the Africans. Later he changed his mind and proceeded to write in favor of the liberation of all types of slaves regardless of their origin.

Seating

At the beginning of the 16th century, the African slave trade began in the direction of America. The key year in this regard was 1518, when the Crown of Castile granted the first license. Through this, permission was given to sell 4,000 slaves in the Indies for eight years. Thus the so-called "black seats" were inaugurated.

From that moment on, the slave trade became an important source of income for Europe. In addition, apart from this official trade, there also began to be smuggled slaves carried out by pirates and merchants.

In the middle of the second decade of the 16th century, the Portuguese king, Juan III, signed an agreement with the king of Spain, Carlos I. With this signature, Spain authorized the Portuguese to send slaves from Santo Tomás. Traffic increased even more with the conjunctural union between the two European countries in 1580, under the reign of Philip II.

The crown organized the trade through seats. These consisted of the authorization to a private person (or a private entity) to carry out the slave trade. Through an auction, anyone could qualify for a seat, paying the Crown an agreed amount.

U.S

While all of the above occurred in Latin America, in the United States the development of slavery was somewhat different. Its beginnings occurred during the British colonial era, being recognized by the Thirteen Colonies when independence arrived in 1776.

It was from that date that the number of slaves grew, especially Africans. However, the situation was very different depending on the area of ​​the newly created country.

Thus, the northern states began to enact abolitionist laws, but the southern states, with a very agrarian economy, maintained the slave system.

In addition, the Southerners tried to extend their system to the new western territories. In this way, in a few years, the United States found itself strongly divided in this regard: a slave-owning South and a North contrary to this practice.

It is estimated that the number of African slaves could have reached about 4 million before it was completely banned.

Places and destinations of slaves

According to historians, the Franciscan friars and the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo were the first to request slaves to work on the plantations. After this, slavery spread through Mexico, Peru and the Río de la Plata.

The natives were destined to work in the mines, always with a great demand for labor. Likewise, they had to take care of a good part of the agricultural work.

In this regard, the establishment of encomiendas stands out, which, under theoretically non-slave standards, forced them to work without payment and, in practice, linked these workers with the owners.

Indigenous women and children

A Mexican professor at the University of California, Andrés Reséndez, conducted an investigation a few years ago on the slavery of indigenous people that found surprising findings. Thus, investigating ancient documents, he found that there were more slaves among women and children than among men.

In the case of women, the explanation was that most of the settlers were men. For this reason, many indigenous people were captured, who were sexually exploited. In addition, they were used for housework, as domestic slaves.

As for the children, it seems that the intention was to raise them in such a way that they adapted to the status of servants. They were more moldable than adults and therefore easier to manipulate.

African slaves

The shortage of indigenous labor and the attempts to abolish slavery by the Crown of Castill, caused the colonists to seek new alternatives. The solution was the introduction of African slaves to the new continent.

At first, the Spanish took these slaves to the Caribbean territories. Instead, they were unable to use them in the silver mines in the mountains, as the Africans did not adapt to those high locations.

Over time, that slave labor force was used in large cotton, tobacco, or sugar cane plantations. Likewise, the wealthiest used them in domestic service.

Brazil and United States

Along with the Spanish, the other colonial power that began to use African slaves was Portugal. After conquering Brazil, the Portuguese needed labor to work in the mines and in the fields. To solve them, they began trafficking in human beings from their colonies in Africa.

Along with them, the Dutch also entered that business. It was they who brought the first slaves to the southern fringes of the present United States in 1619. Later, the English followed the same practice.

Silver river

You only have to look at the current demographic composition of Latin American countries to see the places where more African slaves arrived. However, there is a case that does not fit this composition: the Río de la Plata.

Historians claim that, by 1778, there were around 7,000 Africans in Buenos Aires, 29% of the total population. This proportion rose somewhat in 1806, when they reached 30% of all inhabitants.

The figures began to decline little by little during the first half of the 19th century, although without major changes. However, a new census conducted in 1887 showed that the African population had declined to only 1.8% of the population.

The theories about this decrease are various, without any having been confirmed. The most common claims a lot died during the war against Brazil and Paraguay. Another blame for the epidemics, such as the yellow fever of 1871, which affected the most disadvantaged sectors the most.

Abolition

The abolition of slavery in America occurred during the nineteenth century, often linked to the different processes of independence.

Mexico

One of the first to propose abolishing slavery was Miguel Hidalgo, hero of Mexican independence. Shortly after, in the first months of the war against the viceroyalty of New Spain, the independentistas came to promulgate a law that prohibited any type of slavery.

Once the war was over, with the birth of independent Mexico, Guadalupe Victoria and Vicente Guerrero ratified the abolition through two decrees issued in 1824 and 1829 respectively.

Chile, Río de la Plata and Uruguay

The law decreeing the "freedom of bellies" was approved in Chile in September 1811. Through it, the children of slaves were born as free men. In 1823, the country's Constitution established the definitive abolition of this practice.

For its part, the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, took the first step towards abolition in 1813, by approving the "law of bellies." The next step was made to wait until 1853, when the prohibition of slavery was reflected in the Constitution.

Something similar happened in Uruguay. First, in 1830, he established "freedom of the bellies" and, later, in 1842, the total abolition of slavery.

New Granada and Central America

The current Colombia and Panama were then united under the name of Nueva Granada. The Colombian Caribbean had been one of the places with the most African slaves, so it is not surprising that, as early as 1810, an initiative tried to abolish slavery in Cartagena de Indias.

The next step was the responsibility of Simón Bolívar, who, in 1816, freed all the slaves who enlisted in his ranks. In 1821, a "free bellies" law was enacted and in 1823, New Granada prohibited the slave trade. Total abolition came in 1851.

Meanwhile, the United Provinces of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala) approved the law against slavery in 1824.

Paraguay

Anti-slavery legislation in Paraguay went through different stages. The country, even before abolition, had become a refuge for slaves fleeing Brazil, but in 1828 the situation changed completely.

That year, the so-called State Slavery was created, a body in charge of buying and selling slaves throughout the country.

It was not until the death of the dictator Rodríguez de Francia that a "Freedom of the bellies" law was enacted for some slaves and only after they turned 25 years old. In fact, during the War of the Triple Alliance, Paraguay enlisted 6,000 black slaves.

It was not until 1869 that slavery was completely abolished. By that date, there were only about 450 slaves left in the country. The rest had died during the war and for other reasons.

Peru and Ecuador

Peru abolished slavery in 1854 using a novel method. Thus, the state bought all the slaves and set them free. For its part, in Ecuador slavery was abolished in 1851.

Brazil

Of all the Latin American countries, Brazil had been the one that had used the most African slaves. For this reason, abolition came later than in other countries on the continent.

On September 28, 1871, the "law of the womb" was promulgated. It is, unlike that issued in other places, allowed the owners of the children of slaves to maintain their guardianship until they were 21 years old.

Nine years later, in 1880, a group of intellectuals, journalists and lawyers created the so-called Brazilian Society against Slavery, with the intention of pressuring the emperor to abolish it. Its first success came five years later, when slaves over 65 were freed.

Finally, on May 13, 1888, the Golden Law was issued, abolishing the practice of slavery.

U.S

The independence of the United States led to part of its territory, the northern states, beginning to enact abolitionist laws. However, those in the south maintained the system, very beneficial for their mostly agricultural economy.

The slave trade from Africa was banned in 1808, but internal trafficking was not. This allowed the slave population to grow in the southern states.

The situation, with the country divided by this issue, exploded in the second half of the 19th century. The South proclaimed its right to maintain slavery and the North, after Lincoln's victory in the 1860 elections, demanded its abolition.

The rupture between both parts of the country ended up causing the Civil War, with the southern states seeking independence from the north. The victory of the unionist side ended slavery. This was reflected in the Constitution when it incorporated the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, repealing that practice.

References

1. Garcia, Jacobo. Indigenous slavery untold. Obtained from elpais.com
2. History and Biographies. History of slaves in colonial America. Obtained from historiaybiografias.com
3. History Channel. Native peoples: the first slaves of Latin America. Retrieved from mx.tuhistory.com
4. Lynch, Hollis. Slavery In The United States. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Not Even Past. Slavery and Race in Colonial Latin America. Retrieved from notevenpast.org
6. Gale, Thomas. Runaway Slaves In Latin America And The Caribbean. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
7. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Slavery in the Americas. Retrieved from slaveryandremembrance.org
8. International Slavery Museum. Abolition of slavery in the Americas. Retrieved from liverpoolmuseums.org.uk