SLAVERY IN THE SPANISH COLONIES

When Christopher Columbus, an Italianborn navigator sailing for the Spanish

Crown, accidentally arrived to America in 1492, a new era started for America and Europe.
Columbus did not know the magnitude of his discovery and how this would impact on both
continents. His main intention was to find a new route to get to India, instead he set foot in a
new land which was previously unknown in Europe. This brought a few centuries of wealth,
power, abundant resources and economic profit, which lead to fortune and success for
Europeans. On the other hand, Native Americans did not know about the injustice, abuse and
violence that was ahead of them. They observed how their civilizations and everything they
have created got demolished, destroyed and their people enslaved or murdered.
Spain was a major victor in the colonization of the Americas. After defeating the
Aztecs and Incas, they practically had no one to interfere with their settlement plans. They
were free to impose their rules, religion, economic system, and society organization. Their
territory was the largest and it extended from the south part of North America, including all
Central America, South America (except Brazil) and certain islands of the Caribbean. Spain
wanted to enlarge and enrich their nation so they needed the recently discovered lands of the
Americas, which was filled with resources and prosperity.
Spanish ambition of wealth forced them to adopt and develop work systems which
included slavery and forceful labor. Their main economic activities included mining,
agriculture, farming, plantations and textile manufacturing. Mining was the most important
activity because it was highly taxed so it provided the most welfare for the crown.
Plantations represented another substantial income for European colonies, especially
products like sugar cane, coffee and cotton. In order to explode the mines and harvest
plantations, Spaniards needed strong workforce so they decided to use the local people,
Indians, as free labor. Amerindians were enslaved, abused and forced to work for none or
almost zero benefits.
Despite the Spanish Crown intended to protect locals from abuse, at the same time
they wanted them to accept and agree with the Spanish law, adopt Catholicism as their

official religion, and adapt to a work regime designed to bring profit and wealth to Spain.
Two of the principal arguments used to justify the enslavement of Amerindians were the
concepts of just war (the notion that anyone who refused to accept Christianity, or
rebelled against Spanish rule, could be enslaved), and rescate or ransom (the idea that
Amerindians held captive by other groups could be purchased in order to Christianize them,
and to rescue them from captors who were allegedly cannibals) (Wheat, 2014). As the quote
said, there was no intention of freeing slaves because they were the workforce they needed
for accumulating means.
In order to understand how slavery functioned in the Spanish colonies, we need to
focus on the main economic activities and how workers were treated. First, the mitas
became a popular labor among the colonies. It was an inherited practice from the Incas and
consisted in a mandatory public service for the society. Mitas were effectively a form of
tribute to the Inca government in the form of effort; they were solely used for the
construction of public works, such as bridges or roads. All males, starting at the age of fifteen
until the age of fifty, were required to do public services and collaborate with the Empire.
Spain adopted this system and imposed it on their colonies, using Indians as workers. Under
the Spanish control, communities were required to provide at least one seventh of their male
labor force for public works, mines and agriculture. It was an oppressing system towards the
Amerindians and it became an intolerable problem for the communities. Mitayos were
assigned to different economic ventures, such as mining or haciendas. These tasks required
so much effort, plus the living conditions and prolonged working hours that most men died
while being on duty. They received almost zero payment and no benefits; while the market
value of labor was around 2 pesos a day, the payment mitayos received was 0.20 cents a
day plus meals.
Second, the encomienda system was also a slavery-type of work Iberians imposed
in colonial America. In here, conquistadors, colonial officials or settlers were given a
significant portion of land to administrate and gain profit from it. They used local people as
workers and they were supposed to pay tribute, in the form of precious metals (like gold or
silver), harvests and agricultural products or any other goods produced in the land. In return,

the encomendero would provide security for his servants and he was responsible of
educating and converting them to Catholicism. However, the arrangement never worked that
way, Indians were usually abused and landowners made them work for exorbitant amounts of
hours or ask them to pay more tributes than what they were supposed to. It wasnt long
before the encomenderos had practically enslaved their subjects. Even though the crown of
Spain knew about these exploitations and tried to stop it, the colonial nobility opposed to it
and argued that Indians needed to work because they were lazy.
Another major economic activity, with a slavery-production system, was the
hacienda. Socially, the hacienda was a symbol of the aristocratic status of the owner or
hacendado. During the colonial period, the European monarchies often rewarded nobles
with extensive territories. The forced recruitment of Amerindian laborers, allowed by
colonial law, made these land grants particularly lucrative for their owners. In here, servants
will grow agricultural products such as wheat, potatoes, grains, or any other cereals, and
raise cattle and sheep. However, production did not necessarily have to be linked to
agriculture. Haciendas could be related to activities such as mining, lumbering, or even
textile making. Workers were called huasipungeros and they were given a small parcel of
land so they could live there and also work and produce. Similar to the encomienda, laborers
had to pay tribute to the landowner. The wage Indians received was also below the market
value, it was between 0.20 and 0.40 cents per day plus basic services such as water, wood or
security. Even though indigenous people were not treated as bad as in other activities, such as
the mita, injustices were still part of the system. The benefits were almost none and abuses
were very common.
Like it was previously mentioned, these injustices and discriminations towards the
indigenous people clearly reflected Spaniards intentions of accumulating wealth and fortune
without caring about their workers. The living conditions, excessive working hours and
constant mistreatment, combining with the diseases Europeans brought, weakened the locals
and soon enough the enslaved population started to decrease dramatically. In 1500, it is
estimated the Amerindian inhabitants in the Americas was 50 million. By 1600, this number

was reduced to around 8 million. The rapid decline of the Native American population
required a consistent supply of reliable workers.
As the working force kept sinking, Europeans thought how to acquire new labor for
the colonies in America. It was clear that the local Indians had to be replaced. Enslaved
Africans were brought in to do the hard labor of the new Spanish colonies. At first they were
brought from other colonies owned by Spain, but later slaves were brought directly from
West Africa. The Spanish used African slaves as workers to continue working on agriculture
and their settlements. They also placed them in the defense zones of the colonies, their
strength was important and were always careful about attacks. Portuguese wanted their
workers to exploit the land and mainly focus on sugar and plantations. Later on, the number
African slaves rose quickly as the new colonies developed and the population grew. More
land was cleared for sugar plantations, new areas were found where precious metals could be
extracted or mined.
It is estimated that about 11, 000,000 enslaved Africans arrived alive in the
Americas over the whole period of the transatlantic slave trade (from the 15th century to
1807). Of those 11, 000,000, it is estimated that 4,000,000 were sold to Brazil, and 2,500,000
to the Spanish colonies. (PortCities Bristol, 2013). As the quote stands, millions of black
immigrants were forced to come and work, showing the horrors America lived during those
centuries.
In conclusion, the colonial period was a time full of injustices and inequalities. Spain
wanted to expand their empire by exploiting the new land and in order to do so they
imposed unfair economic systems that only benefitted a certain group of people. They
destroyed every civilization and enslaved as many Native Americans or Africans as they
could. Their ambition for wealth blinded them to see how humans have to stand for the same
rights and how slavery affected millions of individuals during that time.

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