Afrodescendants Room 2

Slavery

Various slaves were inhumanly branded with fire. In this document of the 18^th century, it is stated that Micaela was branded: “…black woman branded with fire in the left shoulder blade with the mark…”

After the conquest of the native peoples, Indigenous people and Africans were enslaved. Nevertheless, starting 1543 and mostly because of the pressure exerted by the Dominicans, especially by Bartolomé de las Casas, the enslavement of indigenous peoples was prohibited unless it was through a “just war.” This meant any Indigenous person who would not submit to the Crown, the King of Spain and the Catholic Church. So, the Africans and their descendants were the ones that suffered most under this type of subjugation.

Slavery had various characteristics across the long colonial period and the different territories that formed the New Spain. The experiences lived by a slave in a sugar hacienda or mill were unlike the ones lived by a cowboy from the coasts of Guerrero and Oaxaca, or a wet nurse in a private home. Slaved people were subordinated to the decisions of others, they had to obey their orders. However, they occasionally asserted their rights, examples of this are marriages and the “legal” fight for freedom.

Some slaves were marked with a branding iron (calimbo) as a sign of property from the people who sold them. This inhumane practice was heavily criticized and prohibited in the 18^th century. African slavery was a legal system established by most of the European nations. It lasted almost four centuries and uprooted 11 to 13 million persons from their original communities and transplanted them to America and the Caribbean.

Slaves and freemen of African origins were sailors; if not, they worked in various shipping activities. This votive offering from the 18^th century thanks Our Lady of Solitude for having survived a shipwreck.

Demographic of the New Spain society

Numbers of the African population during the Vice-Royalty

Year	Total	Europeans	Africans	Indigenous	Mestizo populations
1570	338 0012	6 644	20 569	3 366 860	15 939
1646	1 712 615	13 780	35 089	1 269 607	394 139
1742	2 477 277	9 814	20 131	1 540 256	907 076
1793	3 799 561	7 904	6100	23 19741	1 465 816
1810	6 122 354	15 000	10 000	36 76281	2 421 073

Source: Data taken from Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran, (1946),La población negra en México, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1972.

Demographic data revealed, mainly thanks to Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, prove the importance of the populations of African origins in Mexico and their formal or informal union with other groups, particularly the indigenous population.

Africans and Afrodescendants, known in the Vice-Royalty Period as negros, mulatos, pardos or zambos, represented a significant number of the population in the society at that time. Despite the steep demographic decline of their people, the Indigenous population was always the majority. They were followed by the mestizos, the outcome of the exchange and cohabitation between Indigenous people, Africans and Afrodescenants; the Spanish came last place in this period. According to the numbers of Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, a pioneer in the research regarding populations of African origin in Mexico, around the 17^th century the Indigenous people represented 74.6% of the population in the New Spain, Africans and their descendants 2%, Spaniards and Europeans 0.8% and mixed groups the 22.6%. One must remember that mixed marriages were not prohibited in the New Spain and that many children were born from informal relationships; social prejudices notwithstanding,

Work in haciendas, manufacturing plants, ranches and commerce

Many African men, then known as mulatos, pardos or morenos worked as mule drivers, a very important activity of the time, since it was them who were in charge of transporting goods to farms, ranches, estates, haciendas and cities. This etching from the 19^th century shows how important those activities still were at the middle of the 19^th century.

Many economic activities were carried out by enslaved and free men of African origin. They were essential for the building of piers and other constructions at ports. They worked in mines, agricultural and livestock haciendas, manufacturing plants and commerce. Since they were under someone else’s control, they suffered abuse and harassment as well as inhumane working conditions at garment factories, mines, sugar plantations and sugar mills. Various Afrodescendants managed to obtain better living conditions. They worked in commerce and, mostly, as mule drivers. This activity was very important at the time in order to carry goods from different regions using packs of mules as transportation.

Guilds, manufacturing plants and house labor

Numerous Africans and Afrodescendants, enslaved or free men, worked at New Spain guilds undertaking diverse activities such as apprentices, foremen or master painters, tailors, blacksmiths, saddlers, among many more.

Digitals resources: Left image · Right image

House activities like washing, cooking, hauling water and taking care of children and the elderly were considered important; thus, they were recorded in images like in the tiles of a house at the historic center of Mexico City in the 18^th century.

Markets, plazas and street markets were places of cohabitation and exchange between the different social groups as it is presented in this fragment of a folding screen from the 17^th century.

Several slaves worked in manufacturing plants, garment factories with extremely poor working conditions. Others, slave and free alike, joined various guilds and some reached the level of foreman or master. Work activities at private homes, hacienda houses, churches or hospitals were carried out by women of African origins. Cooks, laundresses, midwives or nursemaids (also known as wet nurses or chichigua), were required to breastfeed and raise the children of Spaniards, criollos and mestizos. They were also in charge of taking care of the sick and the elderly, that is why they were frequently held in high regard by their owners. Occasionally, they were granted their freedom and goods as reward for their work. Other women worked as traders, tavern owners, midwives, healers and community kitchens owners. In many occasions, the African and Afrodescendant women were accused of sorcery or blasphemy to the Spanish Inquisition, the accusations talked of the use of talismans, magic or herbs, and of rejecting the Saints or the Virgin.