The Encomienda And African Slaves

For over 2,000 years, slavery has been conducted in various parts of the world. From year 1500 to year 1900, Europeans stole individuals from West Africa, West Central Africa, and Southeast Africa and shipped them to the different parts of the Atlantic. This process dehumanized them of their identity. Europeans stole husbands, wives, merchants, blacksmiths, farmers, and even children. They removed them from their homelands and gave them new names: slaves. European slaveholders never thought to take ownership of their actions by killing humans with brutality and degradation. Slave trade was considered popular in England and soon after more countries began the process of taking slaves to newly claimed territories. These countries include

The lives of Native Americans were impacted by the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1492, changing their lives forever. Spain would now rule a vast empire for the next 350 years structured on factors such as labor and exploitation of the Indian population. The conquistadors had aspirations of bringing about Catholicism to non-Christian areas, while extracting riches in the process. With many Spaniards going over seas to find riches, diseases followed them causing problems for New World natives due to their lack of immunities. With the trouble caused upon natives, individuals like Bartolomé de Las Casas attempted to bring awareness and a halt against the oppression of the Indians.

The African Slave Trade was a massive system of Europeans taking African Americans and selling them into slavery. The African Slave Trade began in the 15th century. This slave trade put Africa in a weird relationship with Europe that cause the depopulation of Africa, but it increased the wealth of Europe.

Any student of history has come to recognize the fact that history is written by the victor and in lieu of this, research becomes essential to uncover where the truth lies. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, so ironically named, is a personal account for historical events leading up to the conquest of New Spain, formerly known as the City of Mexico. The author, Bernal Diaz, was a soldier of the conquering army who composed the document well after the events took place sometime between 1552 and 1557. Though the document did provide insight in regards to the victor’s perspective, it also served as a tool to rewrite the account of the conquered people.

When black slavery first started in the United States, all the slaves were being imported from Africa. Slowly overtime slaves were being born in the United States instead of solely being brought from Africa. The birth rate of the slaves was not high enough to depend on the reproduction of slaves in the south though. This resulted in a combination of both American-born slaves and African-born slaves on plantations. Eventually, there was a division between the two groups of slaves in the Southern part of the United States.

“Slavery,” this word evokes images of West Africans picking cotton in the Southern United States or a kneeling man in chains asking, ”Am I not a man and brother.” These conventional ideas of slavery dominate both the public perception of enslavement and scholarship. However, a new voice entered the examination of slavery: Andrés Reséndez. In The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, Reséndez challenges the conventional definition of slavery. Reséndez presents a systemic study of Indian slavery through the impact of enslavement on the decimation of Native American tribes, the complex relationships racial between Native American tribes as well as the Spanish, and the continued implications of Indian enslavement

While addressing his men, Hernan Cortez made grand promises of honor, greatness, and riches to those who did not abandon him on his mission to conquer the natives. He vowed that the war would “bring [them] fame” and “make [them]… the richest of all men who have crossed the seas” (Document 3). In this speech alone, the main, overarching reasons behind the Spanish conquest of the New World are unveiled. Cortez’s promises of gold, glory, and God spread through the masses, creating the major objectives for the conquistadors. These three motives influenced the Spaniards’ attitudes and shaped them into ones of bigotry and disrespect, that were later morphed into the protection of the native Indians.

For slaves the transition to the New World was at times isolating and difficult. There were rotten, terrifying, and sometimes inhumane experiences that the slaves’ experienced as they transitioned to the New World. Slaves dealt with loneliness when their families were separated because they were sold or because of situations where the owners were controlling their lives.

The Puebloans that remained after Spanish colonization of their homeland, New Mexico, in 1598 submitted to the Encomienda system without being aware of how much it would demand. The Spanish obscurely informed the Puebloans that they would protect them from bordering tribes such as the Apache and Navajo in exchange for labor and supplies. That seemed possible for the Puebloans, but the Spanish should not have been so misleading. What the Puebloans soon find out is that the not so friendly Spanish want unconditional servitude and to hand over supplies when requested.

Chapter 3 was talking about black people in the colonial North Americas. This chapter was very interesting but there were three main parts in the chapter that really caught my attention and that was the slave life in early America, the Origins of African American culture, and black women in colonial America. Each part that I’m about to break down sheds light on what happened during that time.

Enslavement of African Americans was a common and legal practice in the United States from the 18th to the 19th century. Slavery of African Americans began in the American colonies when the British colonies in America bought slaves from Africa. It was a practice that was used as well as legal in all 13 colonies. It lasted in many states up until the end of the American Civil War. Slavery lasted longer in some states then it did in others. In the north slavery was abolished earlier then it was in the south. Reason being is in the south, there was more plantations and farms that needed tending to. Many young slaves were exposed to harsh conditions, having to pick cotton on farms or work in the plantations for their owners who treated them poorly.

Bartolome de Las Casas can be described as a friend and civil rights activist of the Native American people during the early 1500s. After Hernan Cortes conquered the new world; he exploited the generosity and riches of the Native America Population. This exploitation allowed Spain to gain major financial gain at the cost of Native America sufferings. This suffering would be due to a cruel system known as the encomienda’s system. In addition, many Native Americas died due to the atrocities of this systems.

How did American slavery compare and contrast with slavery in Latin America? Was slavery in these two places mainly similar? Were there differences worth noting? Were demographics a large part of the differences? Which place was the most oppressive? Which was more benign in slave conditions? Although, I feel slavery, in any form, is reprehensible, I would like to discuss major differences between these two places pertaining to the work performed, the treatment of slaves, and the rights afforded to each.

As the Native American population had been decimated by genocide and war, England looked to African slaves to provide them with the necessary labor to harvest tobacco. Although African slaves had the same status as that of an indentured servant, African slaves began to become more and more restricted, losing all human and civil rights. These restrictions were placed on African slaves to protect the rights of the indentured Englishmen, and developed a social/political system based of segregation and discrimination, ultimately leading to the modern ideology of the world, racism. Native Americans were not spared from the stupidity of racial superiority, and like Africans, were forced into slavery. Native American slavery though predominately in the Spanish colonies was used in North America. Though unlike the Mesoamerican slaves, the North American slaves were also the slavers. The colonists of North America lured Native Americans to capture other Native Americans in exchange for trade goods and alliances, forcing Native Americans to choose between being the slaver or the slaved, much like some African tribes. In South America, the Spaniards enticed nearly 100,000 under false promises of riches, and instead enslaved them, forcing them to harvest guano (bird excrements), an export from Peru that had a value of fifteen billion dollars. As slavery spread throughout the New World, much of the African, Chinese, and indigenous culture began to mix together, resulting in a unique

Slavery had also been present in New York from the earliest days of Dutch settlement. As their role expanded so did slavery in the city, 30 percent of its laborers were slaves. Most came from different cultures, spoke different languages, and practiced many regions. Slavery allowed different individuals who would never otherwise have encountered, their bond was not kinship, language, or even race, but the impressment of slavery. They eventually came together an created a cohesive culture and community that took many years, and it processed at different rates of speed in different regions.