Indian Slavery and the Cerrato Reforms

P ERHAPS NO WHERE ELSE IN THE Indies were the natives subjected to the abominations of slavery to the extent that they were in Central America in the years following the Conquest. From Chiapas to Panama Indians were branded as chattels with little regard for the royal legislation that limited the practice. Despite much vacillation on the part of the Crown, it became generally recognized that two types of Indians could be legally enslaved: 1) esclavos de guerra, or those who persisted in resisting Spanish dominion by resort to arms; and 2) esclavos de rescate, or those who had been slaves in their own native societies. But the ways in which these qualifications could be circumvented were legion, and the enterprising slave trader continued to practice his evil with little interference. To considerable degree the responsibility for this condition lay with the lax officials, who were charged with the wellbeing of the native peoples. Whether from indifference, collusion, fear (or perhaps merely discretion in the face of threatening conquistadores), the early governors and other royal officials were notably remiss in preventing illegal slavery. If slavery was the most heinous abuse, various other burdens were imposed on the Indians, who were used as tamemes or naborias and forced to give personal service in almost every imaginable way. The forced labor extended to both women and children. An especially pernicious aspect of the system resulted from the concurrence of native caciques in enslaving their own people. The social consequences of these violences are apparent: children taken from the breasts of their mothers, young girls violated, husbands torn from their wives and offspring, and the whole lot suffering incredible fatigues and physical maltreatment. Many of them succumbed in their own lands from these atrocities; others, packed into ships of slavers, fell in alien parts. More than six thousand were taken out of Nicaraguan ports alone during the early years, bound for servitude in Panama or Peru.' So dread

Political science · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · Historical Studies in Central America · History

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