The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America

Calhoun, like many westbound American settlers, was unaccustomed to Indigenous slavery. Growing up in the American South, he divided his time between managing a successful shipping company in Georgia and pursuing state politics. Reséndez describes Calhoun “as a Georgian [who] had lived his life surrounded by black slaves” (245). He was appointed the first Indian agent for New Mexico in 1849. Within his first six months in New Mexico, he became deeply acquainted with the other slavery, having participated in a peace treaty mission between the New Mexican governor and a group of Navajos. Calhoun’s letters record important details about the debt peonage system in the American Southwest. They also demonstrate that he, like many Americans, accepted this system.

Carvajal was born to a Jewish family in 1537, spending much of his early years avoiding the Inquisition, which was attempting to expel all Jewish people from Spain. He began working for his uncle Duarte de León, a prominent merchant, in Portugal. Duarte de León served as a slave broker for the Portuguese crown. He had trading rights in the Cape Verde Islands and sent Carvajal to them to facilitate the capture of African slaves. Many of the African slaves were sold to Spanish America. At the time, Spain did not have any slave ports of its own in west Africa. As a trading agent, Carvajal sold African slaves to captains headed to the Americas. In the late 1560s, Carvajal traveled to Mexico in the hopes of building his own slaving venture and network. In Mexico, Carvajal “established himself as an able frontier captain, rounding up English pirates, subduing rebellious Indians, and blazing new trails” (92). His successes led to his governorship appointment by Spain’s king. Over the course of his career in Mexico, he made powerful enemies. He was thrown in jail for providing Jewish people, many of whom were family members, safe passage from Spain to Mexico. Reséndez notes that “he would not see the light of day again” (99).

Columbus was an Italian explorer who made several trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Born to a family of weavers and merchants, Columbus “spent his whole life in the company of people who turned a profit by buying and selling” (18). The agreement he signed between King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in April 1492 supports his strong negotiation skills and desire for profits. He included two commercial clauses. The first requested “one-tenth of ‘all the merchandise, whether pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and any other marketable goods of any kind, name, or manner than can be bought or bartered’” (18). The second clause functioned like a modern-day stock option. These two clauses meant that Columbus controlled close to one-quarter of the overall trade between Spain and the Americas. As such, he was intent on ensuring that his voyages across the Atlantic were profitable. For this reason, he initially exported Indigenous peoples as slaves from Española to Spain. Due to the Spanish monarchs’ decree that prevented the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, Columbus needed to change his economic plan. Due to the presence of gold on the island, he (and other Spanish colonists) forced the Indigenous people to work the mines. Columbus drove the initial enslavement of Indigenous peoples on the North American continent to satisfy his own desires for wealth and fame.

Ferdinand II of Aragon, also known as Ferdinand the Catholic, was king of Spain during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Alongside his wife, Queen Isabella, King Ferdinand financed Christopher Columbus’s voyages that led to Columbus finding the Americas. Both him and his wife were early champions of the rights of Indigenous peoples. However, their attempts to protect the Indigenous people from slavery through proclamations had the opposite effect.

In Chapter 2, Reséndez recounts the stories of several Indigenous individuals who sued their masters under the New Laws. Gaspar is one such individual. A Spanish merchant tricked Gaspar when he was 13 to travel from Española to Spain. For 21 years, he served in various Spanish households until he ran away. His master spotted him and reported him to the police. Rather than returning Gaspar to his master, the police took him to the local jail and launched an investigation. Gaspar’s story highlights how captivity, even under masters who feel they are well-intentioned, produces “degradation, exploitation, and bitter resentment” (53). It also shows that there were legal options available for Indigenous peoples.

Isabella I of Castile was the queen of Spain during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Alongside her husband, King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella financed Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the North American continent. She was an early protector of Indigenous peoples’ rights. She “famously exploded: ‘Who is this Columbus who dares to give out my vassals as slaves?’” (28) when she found out that Columbus kept sending Indigenous peoples as slaves to Spain. Despite her good intentions, many of her proclamations intended to protect Indigenous peoples resulted in their continued enslavement.

Las Casas, a friar, first arrived on the North American continent in 1502. He was one of the 2,500 colonists who arrived with Nicolás de Ovando to Española. He received an encomienda in the goldfields of Cibao where he observed the cataclysmic decline of the Indigenous communities, writing that three million Indigenous peoples died in just a few years. He was a passionate defender of Indigenous rights who wrote a number of reports detailing the brutal treatment of Indigenous peoples at the hands of the Spanish colonizers. He used these accounts to persuade the Spanish monarchs, along with other activists, to create and enforce laws to abolish Indigenous slavery.

López, a legal scholar by training, was one of the royal officials charged by King Charles I to enforce the New Laws of 1542. He was one of the activists who pushed for this legislation to protect Indigenous peoples from enslavement. His task was enormous. In his first year alone as the enforcer, he filed 16 lawsuits. Reséndez notes that “López, in his own quiet way, became the best hope for the enslaved Indians of Spain” (49).

Mariana, the wife of Philip IV, was queen of Spain during the 17th century. Like her husband, she was determined to free the Indigenous slaves throughout the Spanish Empire. They both led the Spanish campaign, or Spanish antislavery crusade. Queen Mariana waged a war against Indigenous bondage that spanned an enormous geographic area, including Central and South America and the Philippines.

Ovando was a Spanish military leader who was extremely loyal to the Spanish monarchs. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent Ovando to the Caribbean as its first governor to restore stability after a rebellion by Spanish soldiers. Columbus’s attempt to monopolize the wealth of Española ignited the rebellion. Ovando was not a “heartless slaver” (34). He believed that the Indigenous peoples needed “to be treated firmly but not necessarily as enemies or animals” (34). His most important initiative was the encomienda system. While his original intent was to protect the Indigenous communities from brutal treatment and enslavement, this system had the opposite effect, decimating the population of Española. To fix this crisis, Ovando proposed bringing Indigenous people from the surrounding islands to work in the gold mines, resulting in a new chapter in the enslavement of Indigenous peoples in the Americas.

Miles Phillips was an English pirate and slaver. He was part of a failed expedition looking for buyers of African slaves in Mexico’s primary port of Veracruz, which the Spaniards controlled. After a battle between the English and the Spanish where the English lost most of their ships, Phillips and other Englishman were put ashore with the promise that their captain or someone else would be back for them the following year. Phillips and the other pirates encountered mosquitoes and a group of “Chichimecas,” which was the generic term applied to the Indigenous communities in northern Mexico who practiced hunting and gathering. Carvajal captured some of the Englishmen, including Phillips. After their capture, Carvajal subjected Phillips and the others to the slavers’ methods. The Englishmen traveled to Mexico City in a coffle, were sold in the slave markets, worked either as servants for the Spanish elite or in the mines, and witnessed the living conditions of Indigenous and African slaves. As such, Phillips’s preserved testimony provides one of the most complete pictures of the Pánuco slave trade.