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The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
A landmark history — the sweeping story of the enslavement of tens of thousands of Indians across America, from the time of the conquistadors up to the early 20th century
Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Andrés Reséndez illuminates in his myth-shattering The Other Slavery, it was practiced for centuries as an open secret. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the “mouth of hell” of eighteenth-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos.
Reséndez builds the incisive case that it was mass slavery, more than epidemics, that decimated Indian populations across North America. New evidence, including testimonies of courageous priests, rapacious merchants, Indian captives, and Anglo colonists, sheds light too on Indian enslavement of other Indians — as what started as a European business passed into the hands of indigenous operators and spread like wildfire across vast tracts of the American Southwest.
The Other Slavery reveals nothing less than a key missing piece of American history. For over two centuries we have fought over, abolished, and tried to come to grips with African-American slavery. It is time for the West to confront an entirely separate, equally devastating enslavement we have long failed truly to see.
Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Andrés Reséndez illuminates in his myth-shattering The Other Slavery, it was practiced for centuries as an open secret. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the “mouth of hell” of eighteenth-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos.
Reséndez builds the incisive case that it was mass slavery, more than epidemics, that decimated Indian populations across North America. New evidence, including testimonies of courageous priests, rapacious merchants, Indian captives, and Anglo colonists, sheds light too on Indian enslavement of other Indians — as what started as a European business passed into the hands of indigenous operators and spread like wildfire across vast tracts of the American Southwest.
The Other Slavery reveals nothing less than a key missing piece of American history. For over two centuries we have fought over, abolished, and tried to come to grips with African-American slavery. It is time for the West to confront an entirely separate, equally devastating enslavement we have long failed truly to see.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2016
About the author
Andrés Reséndez
12 books65 followersI grew up in Mexico City where I worked in various capacities--the best job I ever had was as a historical consultant for telenovelas (soap operas). After getting a PhD in history at the University of Chicago, I taught at Yale, the University of Helsinki, and UC Davis. I have written about the history of border regions (Changing National Identities at the Frontier--Cambridge University Press, 2005), early European exploration (A Land So Strange--Basic Books, 2007), and the enslavement of Native Americans (The Other Slavery--Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016). More recently, I have focused on the "Columbian moment" in the Pacific, beginning with the first expedition that went from America to Asia and back (1564-1565), instantly transforming the Pacific into a vital space of contact and exchange (Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery--Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021). These days I am researching the fallout from that venture. Just as Columbus's voyages triggered a major transfer of plants, animals, and germs across the Atlantic, so did the opening of the Pacific created a biological corridor across the largest ocean on Earth with very significant but little-understood consequences for the world.
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Shelved as '1-tbr-owned-but-not-yet-read'
January 22, 2023Update Has anyone read the The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story? If so, does it include anything about the enslavement of Native Americans? I'm wondering why I've never heard of this from Blacks or Whites?
__________
I had no idea of Native American slavery, "There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the “mouth of hell” of eighteenth-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos." How come no-one talks about this?
__________
I had no idea of Native American slavery, "There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the “mouth of hell” of eighteenth-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos." How come no-one talks about this?
June 3, 2016
4.5 stars rounded up.
Thinking about the subject of slavery in America will, for most people, conjure up horrific images of Africans taken from homeland and families, packed in confined spaces on ships and enduring unimaginable conditions and treatment once they reach their destination. It is a tragic and vile chapter in our history, and a reminder of the horrors that humans can inflict on other humans in the name of economic power and gain. But, as the author of this book reveals, Africans were not the only victims of the slave trade in America -- "the other slavery" involved indigenous people. This "other slavery" didn't replace African slavery; on the contrary, it was, as the author notes, "there all along."
Starting with the Caribbean, the book moves through parts of Central America and on into North America to reveal that while the practice of slavery had already long existed between tribes in these areas prior to European contact, it was the arrival of the Europeans that caused a major transformation in the practice itself. As they spread throughout these areas, "the other slavery" was "never a single institution," but became a "set of kaleidoscopic practices suited to different markets and regions." As the dustjacket blurb notes, "what started as a European business passed into the hands of indigenous operators and spread like wildfire across vast tracts of the American Southwest." This transformation also had a tremendous impact on and helps to better understand the shared history of Mexico and the United States.
This book is not only eye opening, but eye popping as well. It is a difficult book to read at times on an emotional level, but even though as one GR reader put it is "heavy on historical terminology," it is still very accessible readingwise. Just don't expect the history for the masses approach going into it and you won't be disappointed. And of course, I've written a longer post found here if anyone's interested.
Thinking about the subject of slavery in America will, for most people, conjure up horrific images of Africans taken from homeland and families, packed in confined spaces on ships and enduring unimaginable conditions and treatment once they reach their destination. It is a tragic and vile chapter in our history, and a reminder of the horrors that humans can inflict on other humans in the name of economic power and gain. But, as the author of this book reveals, Africans were not the only victims of the slave trade in America -- "the other slavery" involved indigenous people. This "other slavery" didn't replace African slavery; on the contrary, it was, as the author notes, "there all along."
Starting with the Caribbean, the book moves through parts of Central America and on into North America to reveal that while the practice of slavery had already long existed between tribes in these areas prior to European contact, it was the arrival of the Europeans that caused a major transformation in the practice itself. As they spread throughout these areas, "the other slavery" was "never a single institution," but became a "set of kaleidoscopic practices suited to different markets and regions." As the dustjacket blurb notes, "what started as a European business passed into the hands of indigenous operators and spread like wildfire across vast tracts of the American Southwest." This transformation also had a tremendous impact on and helps to better understand the shared history of Mexico and the United States.
This book is not only eye opening, but eye popping as well. It is a difficult book to read at times on an emotional level, but even though as one GR reader put it is "heavy on historical terminology," it is still very accessible readingwise. Just don't expect the history for the masses approach going into it and you won't be disappointed. And of course, I've written a longer post found here if anyone's interested.
May 30, 2021
While I found Resendez's book interesting, his argument that enslavement was a major overlooked cause of the decimation of the New World Indian population fell short for me. I was convinced that in the early Columbian period a large segment of natives were worked to death, but the numbers for later periods seemed relatively small. Yes, enslavement of the Indians definitely happened, and the author is correct that most Americans overlook this fact and think of slavery in the United States as a Negro phenomenon, but I feel The Other Slavery overstates its case.
I was especially unconvinced by his assumption that every Indian child appearing in Mexican (including territories that became part of the U.S. with the Gadsden Purchase in 1853) baptismal records was a slave. Is it so unbelievable that there were good people who actually adopted some of these children, even if they were culturally ignorant by today's "enlightened" standards? He makes the same supposition in regards to Mormon settlers in Utah who took in Indian captives, often when Indian raiders gave them the choice of purchasing the children or watching them have their throats slit. My 4th great-grandfather, Abraham Hunsaker, "adopted" an orphaned Indian child who was later shot by federal soldiers claiming to believe he was "stealing" the cattle he was herding (yes, children in families did work back then), and I've read the journal entry where that beloved child was mourned. Services were held in Brigham City and Lemuel was buried with a headstone in the Hunsaker family plot. He was not a slave, yet Resendez would have included Lemuel Hunsaker in his list of enslaved Utah Indians. How can I trust that he is correct in all of his other inferences?
This book did make me rethink some of my own assumptions about the relationships between whites and natives in the American west, including those of my own ancestors. I have always taken the above story of Indian Lemuel at face value, but can I be sure he was truly an orphan? And did he want to be with the Hunsaker family, even if they did treat him like one of their own? Did he feel robbed of his culture, or was he grateful to be included in the white world? And how included was he really?
Anyway, I'm glad I read the book because it made me think, but I was not convinced by the overriding thesis. 3.5 stars.
UPDATE: May 2021 - I have had 2 comments over the past years since I wrote this that indicate some readers completely misunderstand my review. I am not denying that Indian enslavement happened on a large scale or defending those who mistreated Indians at any time or place. Social justice warriors out there seem to feel the need to educate me without realizing I am also fighting against racial injustice in society. My comments on The Other Slavery are meant to question the author's assertion that every familial adoption in censuses and church records was a cover-up for an exploitive situation, and also his argument that slavery was a major component of the depopulation of the Americas before the time of large-scale white settlement. I am in no way defending the practice of slavery or racial mistreatment or prejudice!
I was especially unconvinced by his assumption that every Indian child appearing in Mexican (including territories that became part of the U.S. with the Gadsden Purchase in 1853) baptismal records was a slave. Is it so unbelievable that there were good people who actually adopted some of these children, even if they were culturally ignorant by today's "enlightened" standards? He makes the same supposition in regards to Mormon settlers in Utah who took in Indian captives, often when Indian raiders gave them the choice of purchasing the children or watching them have their throats slit. My 4th great-grandfather, Abraham Hunsaker, "adopted" an orphaned Indian child who was later shot by federal soldiers claiming to believe he was "stealing" the cattle he was herding (yes, children in families did work back then), and I've read the journal entry where that beloved child was mourned. Services were held in Brigham City and Lemuel was buried with a headstone in the Hunsaker family plot. He was not a slave, yet Resendez would have included Lemuel Hunsaker in his list of enslaved Utah Indians. How can I trust that he is correct in all of his other inferences?
This book did make me rethink some of my own assumptions about the relationships between whites and natives in the American west, including those of my own ancestors. I have always taken the above story of Indian Lemuel at face value, but can I be sure he was truly an orphan? And did he want to be with the Hunsaker family, even if they did treat him like one of their own? Did he feel robbed of his culture, or was he grateful to be included in the white world? And how included was he really?
Anyway, I'm glad I read the book because it made me think, but I was not convinced by the overriding thesis. 3.5 stars.
UPDATE: May 2021 - I have had 2 comments over the past years since I wrote this that indicate some readers completely misunderstand my review. I am not denying that Indian enslavement happened on a large scale or defending those who mistreated Indians at any time or place. Social justice warriors out there seem to feel the need to educate me without realizing I am also fighting against racial injustice in society. My comments on The Other Slavery are meant to question the author's assertion that every familial adoption in censuses and church records was a cover-up for an exploitive situation, and also his argument that slavery was a major component of the depopulation of the Americas before the time of large-scale white settlement. I am in no way defending the practice of slavery or racial mistreatment or prejudice!
January 30, 2018
A very interesting piece of non-fiction tackling the issue that is not so widely discussed. I definitely learnt a lot about slavery other than described in novels.
October 16, 2023
The Other Slavery explores the lesser-known history of Native American enslavement focusing on the Spanish colonization of the Americas and its impact on indigenous populations. Before you settle in and blame those barbarous Spaniards. Americans of Anglo European decent did it too.
And it was awful.
And…
I had LITERALLY no clue about this before I read this book.
You can’t really blame somebody for not knowing what they don’t know. Unless there is WILLFUL ignorance happening. But let’s take a knee on that subject (for the time being).
Given that.
I had no fucking idea that the Native American slave trade existed (at least not to the extent that I currently understand) until reading this book.
And I feel REALLY funny about that.
By funny I actually mean to say DEEPLY ASHAMED.
Like.
I should have (somehow) known.
It’s SO PLAINLY OBVIOUS to me now.
But I didn’t.
I am going to sit with that discomfort.
And try to remain vulnerable and willing.
Yes.
But I also have to call it out.
Why don’t we talk about this?
We talk about African slavery in the Americas.
We talk about Native American genocide.
But we don’t talk about Native American slavery.
At least nowhere near enough.
As a culture. We pretty much fail to discuss or even acknowledge this (horrible awful shameful) fact.
I believe this is in part, because remnants of this practice are still VERY much happening.
As it turns out the Spanish court, including queen Isabella, was very opposed to enslaving anyone. Including Native Americans. And they issued all kinds of injunctions against the practice.
Essentially (as was the case in the American south during reconstruction) chattel slavery simply gave way to debt peonage, and later wage slavery, whereby formerly self reliant Native Americans were disavowed of their independent way of life, and essentially forced to work for unlivable wages. And as such, exploited for their backbreaking manual and care labor, while the beneficiaries got (and still get) RICH!
I live in the California Farm belt.
“Migrant” farmworkers are ABSOLUTELY essential to the farm economy, and more broadly to our extremely privileged way of life. All the while, they are concurrently excluded from the basic social entitlement, safeguards, legal protections etc. that “naturalized citizens” are afforded. I’m sorry, that type of wage work just isn’t that different than debt peonage, or wage slavery.
Anyway.
If I sound like an old white dude who has lived in privileged ignorance of systemic racism for his whole life. Who is just now waking up to all that.
I think that would be a fair assessment.
Because, (as evidenced by this review) that is precisely the case. Given all that, I wouldn’t say that I have been intentionally or willfully ignorant.
But I was (completely) ignorant to the ways indigenous people were subjected to forced labor, exploitation, including mass scale sexual exploitation. Doing literally HORRIBLE shit like working in dangers mines and on plantations.
This book does the important work of educating to this all but completely overlooked aspect of colonial history and its lasting effects on indigenous communities (continuing to this day).
I’m definitely not the same person I was before reading this book. It’s 100% one of those. And it’s painful. And I wish I had read it sooner. And I think everyone should read it.
And…..
5/5 Stars ⭐️
And it was awful.
And…
I had LITERALLY no clue about this before I read this book.
You can’t really blame somebody for not knowing what they don’t know. Unless there is WILLFUL ignorance happening. But let’s take a knee on that subject (for the time being).
Given that.
I had no fucking idea that the Native American slave trade existed (at least not to the extent that I currently understand) until reading this book.
And I feel REALLY funny about that.
By funny I actually mean to say DEEPLY ASHAMED.
Like.
I should have (somehow) known.
It’s SO PLAINLY OBVIOUS to me now.
But I didn’t.
I am going to sit with that discomfort.
And try to remain vulnerable and willing.
Yes.
But I also have to call it out.
Why don’t we talk about this?
We talk about African slavery in the Americas.
We talk about Native American genocide.
But we don’t talk about Native American slavery.
At least nowhere near enough.
As a culture. We pretty much fail to discuss or even acknowledge this (horrible awful shameful) fact.
I believe this is in part, because remnants of this practice are still VERY much happening.
As it turns out the Spanish court, including queen Isabella, was very opposed to enslaving anyone. Including Native Americans. And they issued all kinds of injunctions against the practice.
Essentially (as was the case in the American south during reconstruction) chattel slavery simply gave way to debt peonage, and later wage slavery, whereby formerly self reliant Native Americans were disavowed of their independent way of life, and essentially forced to work for unlivable wages. And as such, exploited for their backbreaking manual and care labor, while the beneficiaries got (and still get) RICH!
I live in the California Farm belt.
“Migrant” farmworkers are ABSOLUTELY essential to the farm economy, and more broadly to our extremely privileged way of life. All the while, they are concurrently excluded from the basic social entitlement, safeguards, legal protections etc. that “naturalized citizens” are afforded. I’m sorry, that type of wage work just isn’t that different than debt peonage, or wage slavery.
Anyway.
If I sound like an old white dude who has lived in privileged ignorance of systemic racism for his whole life. Who is just now waking up to all that.
I think that would be a fair assessment.
Because, (as evidenced by this review) that is precisely the case. Given all that, I wouldn’t say that I have been intentionally or willfully ignorant.
But I was (completely) ignorant to the ways indigenous people were subjected to forced labor, exploitation, including mass scale sexual exploitation. Doing literally HORRIBLE shit like working in dangers mines and on plantations.
This book does the important work of educating to this all but completely overlooked aspect of colonial history and its lasting effects on indigenous communities (continuing to this day).
I’m definitely not the same person I was before reading this book. It’s 100% one of those. And it’s painful. And I wish I had read it sooner. And I think everyone should read it.
And…..
5/5 Stars ⭐️
September 14, 2021
One of the best books that I've read this year as nearly all of this history was new to me.
And as detailed as this book is, it barely scratches the surface of the slavery of indigenous peoples and the role it played in the history of the Americas.
I found myself looking up the history of silver mining and the role that slavery played. Did you know that Native Americans as far north as Utah were enslaved in the silver mines of Mexico? This lasted for centuries.
I didn't know the role that slavery played in early California. We were taught to believe that settlers killed tribes wantonly but it was worse than this.
Or that Brigham Young condoned the slavery of young Pauites, Shoshones and Utes. When the youth reached adulthood they gained their freedom but could not marry other white Mormons and were either left in a form of servitude or had to go live on the reservation.
And the list goes on and on.
This book is an interesting view of - at a minimum - the role that the other slavery played in the history of the Americas.
5 stars. Highly recommended.
And as detailed as this book is, it barely scratches the surface of the slavery of indigenous peoples and the role it played in the history of the Americas.
I found myself looking up the history of silver mining and the role that slavery played. Did you know that Native Americans as far north as Utah were enslaved in the silver mines of Mexico? This lasted for centuries.
I didn't know the role that slavery played in early California. We were taught to believe that settlers killed tribes wantonly but it was worse than this.
Or that Brigham Young condoned the slavery of young Pauites, Shoshones and Utes. When the youth reached adulthood they gained their freedom but could not marry other white Mormons and were either left in a form of servitude or had to go live on the reservation.
And the list goes on and on.
This book is an interesting view of - at a minimum - the role that the other slavery played in the history of the Americas.
5 stars. Highly recommended.
January 1, 2018
Thoroughly researched and extremely informative. Over 100 pages of endnotes with extensive background information, primary source material, and a detailed account of the ‘other’ slavery, which essentially was the precursor to modern human trafficking. Focuses primarily on the Spanish (and later Mexican) aspect of the ‘other’ slavery, as the author is a Mexican historian, with only a portion of the book dealing with American trafficking of Native Peoples or other forms of coerced labor or outright slavery. A very heavy and scholarly book, not for the faint of heart.
January 12, 2020
A stunning and necessary history—especially the end covering Native American enslavement in Utah.
However, I am not sure about the claims about enslavement causing the decimation of the Native populations in the Americas—or rather his rejection of the disease hypothesis. I just don’t think it was necessary—given that he’s not doing the research himself—to make such a strong empirical claim without more data.
However, I am not sure about the claims about enslavement causing the decimation of the Native populations in the Americas—or rather his rejection of the disease hypothesis. I just don’t think it was necessary—given that he’s not doing the research himself—to make such a strong empirical claim without more data.
November 3, 2016
A careful work of scholarship, the author puts to rest any notion that "slavery" in the context of the Indians of the Americas is just "spin." Though different from the enslavement of so many Africans and African-Americans, this very adaptable "other slavery" came first, outlasted the American Civil War, provided the archticture for "Jim Crow" laws, and has echoes in today's human traffiking.
And the book's documentation of New Mexico as a slaving ground for Mexico's silver mines provides a horrible explanation for Onate's presence, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and the hideous antagonism that has lasted so long among all the state's peoples.
And the book's documentation of New Mexico as a slaving ground for Mexico's silver mines provides a horrible explanation for Onate's presence, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and the hideous antagonism that has lasted so long among all the state's peoples.
May 27, 2020
Much of early colonial American history follows a fairly standard narrative—the country was established on land stolen from Native Americans and founded with the forced labor/lives stolen from enslaved Africans/African Americans. In The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, Andrés Reséndez seeks to better understand the root concept of slavery.
Different from the U.S. chattel slavery of African Americans, “the other slavery” is a term that describes the systems of control used to ensnare Native Americans, as well as the range of coercion used to induce forced captivity. Reséndez’s timeline of events shows how early European “discoverers” were actually burgeoning slavers starting with the first arrival—Christopher Columbus. While African slavery consisted largely of adult males, the Native American slave trade consisted predominantly of women and children.
“Native Americans had enslaved each other for millennia, but with the arrival of Europeans, practices of captivity originally embedded in specific cultural contexts became commodified, expanded in unexpected ways, and came to resemble the kinds of human trafficking that are recognizable to us today.” (3)
One of the crude bullet point notes of history that I can recall from my primary school social studies courses, was that Native Americans did not make for “good slaves,” and that is why Europeans partook in the African slave trade. The major underlying reason for this, that me and my young classmates were given, was that much of the eradication of Native Americans was attributed to Old World diseases that these New World populations lacked immunity to. As we can see in the present with COVID-19, it's the communities that lack resources who are most likely to succumb to the disease and perish at alarming numbers.
Reséndez argues that the nexus of forced labor, overwork, famine, and other forms of coercion imposed by Europeans are ultimately what killed more Native Americans, as these factors set the stage for plague to spread rampant like wildfire. As we see today, the more inhumane and impoverished the living conditions of a population, the more likely they are to be infected and die from a new infectious disease. There are certainly correlations between malnourishment and the body succumbing to the worst symptoms of a given infection. The echo of history is as alarming as it is chilling.
Also, interestingly, are how false accusations used to coerce Native Americans into servitude grew to remain unfortunate stereotypes of groups to this day. For instance, while there were SOME groups that would practice cannibalism in the Caribbean, to justify a Christian cause for civilizing enslavement, there were Spanish settlers who would falsely accuse peaceful Native groups as being man-eating, so that they could have cause to enslave them.
Furthermore, the more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that European slave systems were inherently capitalistic enterprises that commodified the bodies of people considered to be from inferior (non-Christian) racial groups. While not “slavery” outright, the Spanish system of enslavement was nonetheless a nefarious enterprise in that, “From a narrow legal perspective, these Indians would not be slaves, but rather convicts serving out their sentences” (90). These technicalities are what ultimately gave birth to the encomienda system, as well as other forms of debt peonage.
As much of this book focuses on Spanish enforced enslavement, it is not until Chapter 10 that the U.S. enters the stage (by the 1800s). While I was more-so familiar with the treatment of Native Americans in New Mexico and California, I was genuinely surprised by how heavily involved Mormons were with Native American enslavement in Utah. Religious leader Brigham Young even considered it to be a part of the human condition.
Even as the United States legally ended African slavery, it is fairly evident that features of “the other slavery” were adapted, either directly or indirectly, and debt peonage would serve as the basis for Jim Crow era forced labor. “African slavery may have been abolished, but the methods of the other slavery were spreading to the South” (303).
Overall, this is a pretty solid source that is well-researched and well-argued. Whether you are interested in the topics of Native American history, genocide, American slave systems, colonization, etc.—this book is definitely a historical narrative worth reading.
Different from the U.S. chattel slavery of African Americans, “the other slavery” is a term that describes the systems of control used to ensnare Native Americans, as well as the range of coercion used to induce forced captivity. Reséndez’s timeline of events shows how early European “discoverers” were actually burgeoning slavers starting with the first arrival—Christopher Columbus. While African slavery consisted largely of adult males, the Native American slave trade consisted predominantly of women and children.
“Native Americans had enslaved each other for millennia, but with the arrival of Europeans, practices of captivity originally embedded in specific cultural contexts became commodified, expanded in unexpected ways, and came to resemble the kinds of human trafficking that are recognizable to us today.” (3)
One of the crude bullet point notes of history that I can recall from my primary school social studies courses, was that Native Americans did not make for “good slaves,” and that is why Europeans partook in the African slave trade. The major underlying reason for this, that me and my young classmates were given, was that much of the eradication of Native Americans was attributed to Old World diseases that these New World populations lacked immunity to. As we can see in the present with COVID-19, it's the communities that lack resources who are most likely to succumb to the disease and perish at alarming numbers.
Reséndez argues that the nexus of forced labor, overwork, famine, and other forms of coercion imposed by Europeans are ultimately what killed more Native Americans, as these factors set the stage for plague to spread rampant like wildfire. As we see today, the more inhumane and impoverished the living conditions of a population, the more likely they are to be infected and die from a new infectious disease. There are certainly correlations between malnourishment and the body succumbing to the worst symptoms of a given infection. The echo of history is as alarming as it is chilling.
Also, interestingly, are how false accusations used to coerce Native Americans into servitude grew to remain unfortunate stereotypes of groups to this day. For instance, while there were SOME groups that would practice cannibalism in the Caribbean, to justify a Christian cause for civilizing enslavement, there were Spanish settlers who would falsely accuse peaceful Native groups as being man-eating, so that they could have cause to enslave them.
Furthermore, the more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that European slave systems were inherently capitalistic enterprises that commodified the bodies of people considered to be from inferior (non-Christian) racial groups. While not “slavery” outright, the Spanish system of enslavement was nonetheless a nefarious enterprise in that, “From a narrow legal perspective, these Indians would not be slaves, but rather convicts serving out their sentences” (90). These technicalities are what ultimately gave birth to the encomienda system, as well as other forms of debt peonage.
As much of this book focuses on Spanish enforced enslavement, it is not until Chapter 10 that the U.S. enters the stage (by the 1800s). While I was more-so familiar with the treatment of Native Americans in New Mexico and California, I was genuinely surprised by how heavily involved Mormons were with Native American enslavement in Utah. Religious leader Brigham Young even considered it to be a part of the human condition.
Even as the United States legally ended African slavery, it is fairly evident that features of “the other slavery” were adapted, either directly or indirectly, and debt peonage would serve as the basis for Jim Crow era forced labor. “African slavery may have been abolished, but the methods of the other slavery were spreading to the South” (303).
Overall, this is a pretty solid source that is well-researched and well-argued. Whether you are interested in the topics of Native American history, genocide, American slave systems, colonization, etc.—this book is definitely a historical narrative worth reading.
May 4, 2019
This is a really interesting history of forced servitude (a euphemism for slavery, of course) of the indigenous peoples in North America after European contact. I found some of the author's arguments to be really compelling. For example, the fact that islands like the Bahamas and my own home area of Pinellas County Florida were entirely depopulated of natives, whereas places like Mexico and South America that arguably had as much contact with the Spanish still have many people of native descent, doesn't really mesh with the traditional "smallpox and other diseases wiped them out" narrative. Other arguments, like stating that the majority of native children being baptized in New Mexico during a certain timeframe were very likely slaves, were more nuanced and I'm not sure what to think. Obviously we think differently today about slavery, not to mention child labor and religious indoctrination, so it's hard to judge these sparse documents from an objective perspective. Regardless, it's a sad and important story about what happened to the indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere after the Europeans came.
October 6, 2023
I grew up as a child of those of the Mexican-Anerican generations and as a child living in the borderlands of the Rio Grande. I lived in Kingsville, Texas for some years where I taught those whose grandparents were the peones of the King Ranch who were of mestizo/Indian stock.
While both Indian slaves and mestizo peones were on my radar since always, I Reséndez makes connections that I was not aware of. Children hear parents and parents' generation talk on topics that seem boring in part because the background is not told because it is understood by those talking and remembering.
This book is worth a revisit to re-input the information periodically--until other books are written and those become worthy of re-reading.
Reséndez's comments the end of the book remind me of another book Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert. These two books remind that the poor will always be with us, that the poor can be unbelievably and unsustainably poor. I want to revisit this book by Résendez to remember that Mexico/American Southwest was not all about frontier glory. It may be time to reread and reassess the Turner Thesis/The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner.
While both Indian slaves and mestizo peones were on my radar since always, I Reséndez makes connections that I was not aware of. Children hear parents and parents' generation talk on topics that seem boring in part because the background is not told because it is understood by those talking and remembering.
This book is worth a revisit to re-input the information periodically--until other books are written and those become worthy of re-reading.
Reséndez's comments the end of the book remind me of another book Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert. These two books remind that the poor will always be with us, that the poor can be unbelievably and unsustainably poor. I want to revisit this book by Résendez to remember that Mexico/American Southwest was not all about frontier glory. It may be time to reread and reassess the Turner Thesis/The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner.
February 6, 2017
Exhaustive look at the enslavement of Native American peoples throughout the 16th-19th centuries, it was a difficult read but all-encompassing and interesting at the same time. I feel like I've learned a lot not only about American history but the concept of slavery and how persistent in different forms that it really is.
December 29, 2016
While an important part of Mexican and United States history, I found the book to be a bit dry at times. There is a lot of recitation of fact and not as much accounts that keep the reader engaged.
April 27, 2019
Resendez’s books is look at the slavery of Indigenous populations in North and South America during the period of colonialization. Most of the book is concerned with such slavery in Mexico and the areas of North America that originally were Spanish before being taken by the US, so the south-Western U.S. He chronicles such slavery both under Spanish and American governance.
The system of slavery that is described is actually more than one system, and what is interesting, at times, is how the Spanish royals responded to the enslavement of Indigenous people to why some people went West, which had little to do with gold and land.
The story starts with the arrival of Columbus. Resendez then moves to Mexico and the United States. Included is a comparison between slavery as practiced by the indigenous population versus as adapted by the colonizers versus that used to enslave Africans. In some places, the Indigenous population had more recourse while in others they were simply a form of (cheap) slave labor. What is also interesting is the connection that is made to the use of debt to construct a legal form of slavery.
The history is made more personal by the use of example of families or individuals as well as a look at how various tribes and nations responded. The existence of slavery in the Americas is linked both to the treatment of the Indigenous population but also to the history of how the West was developed.
The system of slavery that is described is actually more than one system, and what is interesting, at times, is how the Spanish royals responded to the enslavement of Indigenous people to why some people went West, which had little to do with gold and land.
The story starts with the arrival of Columbus. Resendez then moves to Mexico and the United States. Included is a comparison between slavery as practiced by the indigenous population versus as adapted by the colonizers versus that used to enslave Africans. In some places, the Indigenous population had more recourse while in others they were simply a form of (cheap) slave labor. What is also interesting is the connection that is made to the use of debt to construct a legal form of slavery.
The history is made more personal by the use of example of families or individuals as well as a look at how various tribes and nations responded. The existence of slavery in the Americas is linked both to the treatment of the Indigenous population but also to the history of how the West was developed.
March 11, 2016
When you hear or see the word 'slavery', what comes to mind? As Andres Resendez points out, the vast majority of us will envision African slaves, over-crowded and disease-ridden boats, and southern plantations. While that is a tragic, inexcusable part of American history, Africans were not the only people enslaved during the early, tumultuous years of America's beginnings. The Native Americans who'd roamed the country freely, who'd called the land their own for centuries before Europeans appeared, suddenly found themselves ripped away from their homeland and families, bought, sold, and traded. This occurred in staggering numbers, over a period of centuries.
This book is exceptionally well researched, yet it does not read like a dry textbook. Yes, it's a fairly academic read, in that it's rich in detail, but the writing is alive with texture and emotion. Resendez takes us back to an America most of us wouldn't recognize, to a time when owning a person was somehow justified as a Christian act of kindness. People disguised greed and bigotry as a necessary and righteous behavior, enabling themselves to steal Indian children and put them to work in the name of God.
Resendez takes us from the early struggles with Mexico, up through the Civil War. Most of the focus here is on the American Southwest and Mexico, then over to the American West. He highlights the country's dichotomy in fighting a Civil War to free African slaves, while continuing the enslave a disturbing number of Native Americans. In closing, Resendez briefly discusses our world history of slavery, and how it has never gone away but only evolved into something else to fit the circumstances and skirt the law.
This is a powerful, well written, disturbing, must-read book that should be in every school, a part of every history curriculum, and read by every adult. We need to acknowledge our problematic past if we have any hope of preventing a disastrous future.
This book is exceptionally well researched, yet it does not read like a dry textbook. Yes, it's a fairly academic read, in that it's rich in detail, but the writing is alive with texture and emotion. Resendez takes us back to an America most of us wouldn't recognize, to a time when owning a person was somehow justified as a Christian act of kindness. People disguised greed and bigotry as a necessary and righteous behavior, enabling themselves to steal Indian children and put them to work in the name of God.
Resendez takes us from the early struggles with Mexico, up through the Civil War. Most of the focus here is on the American Southwest and Mexico, then over to the American West. He highlights the country's dichotomy in fighting a Civil War to free African slaves, while continuing the enslave a disturbing number of Native Americans. In closing, Resendez briefly discusses our world history of slavery, and how it has never gone away but only evolved into something else to fit the circumstances and skirt the law.
This is a powerful, well written, disturbing, must-read book that should be in every school, a part of every history curriculum, and read by every adult. We need to acknowledge our problematic past if we have any hope of preventing a disastrous future.
June 13, 2017
Probably the best book on the subject out there but one should know a few things about what the author's central thesis is:
1) The definition of slavery is far too narrow. By the author's own admission the period of what we could call chattel slavery - the buying and selling of people, concomitant with the purchasing of their marginal value product, for the term of their life - occurred for a very short period toward the Native American population in the New World (the Spanish crown made it illegal by the mid-16th century). The author's central thesis is that many other forms of semi-free labor, such as debt peonage, war prisoners, and convict labor, done by Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Native Americans alike, should fall into this category.
2) The economic dimension of indentured labor is wholly absent from the author's narrative - which is a shame, because it would have done wonders to help expand the reasoning.
The book suffers from a lack of primary sources to work with and the author fills what is absent largely with speculation. The book itself is choppy - some chapters in it discuss slavery only tangentially (such as the histories of the Comanche and Navajo peoples). I think for a casual reader of history it would be very easy to get confused and to lose the bigger picture along the way.
1) The definition of slavery is far too narrow. By the author's own admission the period of what we could call chattel slavery - the buying and selling of people, concomitant with the purchasing of their marginal value product, for the term of their life - occurred for a very short period toward the Native American population in the New World (the Spanish crown made it illegal by the mid-16th century). The author's central thesis is that many other forms of semi-free labor, such as debt peonage, war prisoners, and convict labor, done by Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Native Americans alike, should fall into this category.
2) The economic dimension of indentured labor is wholly absent from the author's narrative - which is a shame, because it would have done wonders to help expand the reasoning.
The book suffers from a lack of primary sources to work with and the author fills what is absent largely with speculation. The book itself is choppy - some chapters in it discuss slavery only tangentially (such as the histories of the Comanche and Navajo peoples). I think for a casual reader of history it would be very easy to get confused and to lose the bigger picture along the way.
October 20, 2022
“The Other Slavery” by Andres Resendez shines a light on the enslavement of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas by the Spanish, Mexicans, Americans, and other Indigenous groups, over a period of over 400 years. Resendez explains that part and parcel with the erasure of Native American identity is the obscuring of the full scope of their enslavement.
As Resendez argues, Native enslavement was widespread and devastating, as it directly contributed to the genocide of Native peoples. “Well before smallpox was first detected in the Caribbean, the Native islanders found themselves on a path to extinction.” Resendez spends much time detailing how the popular narrative about Native population decline is at best incomplete, and at worst misleading. The Natives didn’t merely die off due to disease, they were exterminated in large part because of the various systems of forced labor that not only worked them to death, but placed them into conditions were deadly pathogens were more likely to spread. Accordingly, this book isn’t just about slavery, it’s a definitive account of the Euro-Mexican-American genocide of Natives, of which slavery was a central part.
The book essentially reads in chronological order, beginning with the “discovery” of the Americas by the Spanish. The enslavement of the Natives was almost immediate, as Columbus packed up Natives from the Caribbean and sent them across the Atlantic by the hundreds, essentially inaugurating the “Middle Passage” journey decades before the first Africans were sent to the Americas. In fact, according to Resendez, Columbus wanted to turn the Caribbean into the same type of center for slave-trading that the Portuguese had created in West Africa, but was prevented from doing so by a reluctant Spanish Crown and the mining-centric labor needs within the Caribbean itself. Nevertheless, Natives were enslaved from the very beginning, first directly and then via the “Encomienda” system, continuing even after its official legal sanctioning had ended. As such, the Caribbean islands were almost entirely depopulated by Spanish enslavement of the Indigenous inhabitants. The books goes on to trace the evolution of “the other slavery” over time, all the way up through the American Civil War. The book also shines a light on the highly contentious relationship between Natives in the American Southwest and Mexico, important because Mexico often flies under the radar when examining the history of enslavement in the Americas.
One of the most striking aspects of this book is its highlighting of the scope and innovative nature of forced Native American labor. The Spanish used any and all methods to meet their labor needs, including Missions and Presidios, both of which were militarized camps designed to dilute Native culture and extract Native labor. Further, both the Spanish and later the Mexicans used sophisticated forms of debt peonage to maintain the coerced labor status of the Indigenous even after enslavement was abolished. Resendez does a good job drawing a parallel between these methods and the “Black codes” that would come do define Black Southern life post-abolition. Finally, Resendez spends much time detailing the complicity of Native nations themselves in “the other slavery.” While the point about complicity is important, I would have appreciated if the book placed that complicity in its proper context by highlighting the extent of civilizational devastation that European colonialism imposed, rather than merely asserting that “Indians enslaved Indians.” Nevertheless, this book provides valuable information about the genocide of Native “American” peoples, and leaves no doubt that slavery and genocide is foundational to virtually the entirety of the societies of the Western Hemisphere.
As Resendez argues, Native enslavement was widespread and devastating, as it directly contributed to the genocide of Native peoples. “Well before smallpox was first detected in the Caribbean, the Native islanders found themselves on a path to extinction.” Resendez spends much time detailing how the popular narrative about Native population decline is at best incomplete, and at worst misleading. The Natives didn’t merely die off due to disease, they were exterminated in large part because of the various systems of forced labor that not only worked them to death, but placed them into conditions were deadly pathogens were more likely to spread. Accordingly, this book isn’t just about slavery, it’s a definitive account of the Euro-Mexican-American genocide of Natives, of which slavery was a central part.
The book essentially reads in chronological order, beginning with the “discovery” of the Americas by the Spanish. The enslavement of the Natives was almost immediate, as Columbus packed up Natives from the Caribbean and sent them across the Atlantic by the hundreds, essentially inaugurating the “Middle Passage” journey decades before the first Africans were sent to the Americas. In fact, according to Resendez, Columbus wanted to turn the Caribbean into the same type of center for slave-trading that the Portuguese had created in West Africa, but was prevented from doing so by a reluctant Spanish Crown and the mining-centric labor needs within the Caribbean itself. Nevertheless, Natives were enslaved from the very beginning, first directly and then via the “Encomienda” system, continuing even after its official legal sanctioning had ended. As such, the Caribbean islands were almost entirely depopulated by Spanish enslavement of the Indigenous inhabitants. The books goes on to trace the evolution of “the other slavery” over time, all the way up through the American Civil War. The book also shines a light on the highly contentious relationship between Natives in the American Southwest and Mexico, important because Mexico often flies under the radar when examining the history of enslavement in the Americas.
One of the most striking aspects of this book is its highlighting of the scope and innovative nature of forced Native American labor. The Spanish used any and all methods to meet their labor needs, including Missions and Presidios, both of which were militarized camps designed to dilute Native culture and extract Native labor. Further, both the Spanish and later the Mexicans used sophisticated forms of debt peonage to maintain the coerced labor status of the Indigenous even after enslavement was abolished. Resendez does a good job drawing a parallel between these methods and the “Black codes” that would come do define Black Southern life post-abolition. Finally, Resendez spends much time detailing the complicity of Native nations themselves in “the other slavery.” While the point about complicity is important, I would have appreciated if the book placed that complicity in its proper context by highlighting the extent of civilizational devastation that European colonialism imposed, rather than merely asserting that “Indians enslaved Indians.” Nevertheless, this book provides valuable information about the genocide of Native “American” peoples, and leaves no doubt that slavery and genocide is foundational to virtually the entirety of the societies of the Western Hemisphere.
February 7, 2017
In this important history of the enslavement of the Native peoples of the Americas, Andres Resendez takes us through 400 years of the buying and selling of Indian people and the exploitation of their forced labor, from the gold mines of Hispaniola in the 1500s to the silver mines of Mexico in the 1600s and the sprawling ranches of northern California in the 1800s.
There is a wealth of information in this well-researched and enlightening book. Resendez throws new light on the causes of the 1680 Pueblo revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico; highlights the brutal impact of slavery on the indigenous people of the Caribbean, Chile, and Mexico; and describes how the Mormons came to justify the enslavement of Native Americans.
Resendez confronts the history of Indian slaveholding head-on. He points out that human bondage in Native American societies existed in very specific cultural contexts and did not resemble the wholesale trafficking in humans that Europeans engaged in when they colonized the Americas. He also discusses how some Native American nations, such as the Comanche and the Ute, became dominant players in the slave trade, as they adapted their own captive-holding practices to meet the demands of the Euro-American slave market.
Although The Other Slavery is wide-ranging in scope, it is also tightly focused. Resendez has a strong command of his material, and I found the maps particularly helpful.
This is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn about one of the most shameful and least-known chapters in the history of the European invasion of the Americas.
There is a wealth of information in this well-researched and enlightening book. Resendez throws new light on the causes of the 1680 Pueblo revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico; highlights the brutal impact of slavery on the indigenous people of the Caribbean, Chile, and Mexico; and describes how the Mormons came to justify the enslavement of Native Americans.
Resendez confronts the history of Indian slaveholding head-on. He points out that human bondage in Native American societies existed in very specific cultural contexts and did not resemble the wholesale trafficking in humans that Europeans engaged in when they colonized the Americas. He also discusses how some Native American nations, such as the Comanche and the Ute, became dominant players in the slave trade, as they adapted their own captive-holding practices to meet the demands of the Euro-American slave market.
Although The Other Slavery is wide-ranging in scope, it is also tightly focused. Resendez has a strong command of his material, and I found the maps particularly helpful.
This is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn about one of the most shameful and least-known chapters in the history of the European invasion of the Americas.
May 27, 2016
It's been a long time since I took American History in school, but I know "The Other Slavery" was not only not taught, it wasn't even mentioned which it should have been. Atrocities, mistreatment and dehumanization applied to African as well as Indian slaves; and, not just by the white man. The book takes us from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand funding exploration of the new world (and the slavers and slavery that became an industry) through the New Mexico, the United States as it was being settled and the wild west was being discovered, through modern day (think human trafficking).
It's no wonder there were Indian uprisings and rebellions, explorers and exploiters tricked Indians into thinking they were friends then turned around and massacred the men and enslaved the women and children. They brought new diseases to the new world that sickened the Indians and caused many deaths. They relocated tribes hundreds of miles away from their homeland where they had been successful at agriculture, for instance, and relocated them to barren plains and deserts.
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it - and thus we have human trafficking in the world today. A well written and well researched book.
It's no wonder there were Indian uprisings and rebellions, explorers and exploiters tricked Indians into thinking they were friends then turned around and massacred the men and enslaved the women and children. They brought new diseases to the new world that sickened the Indians and caused many deaths. They relocated tribes hundreds of miles away from their homeland where they had been successful at agriculture, for instance, and relocated them to barren plains and deserts.
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it - and thus we have human trafficking in the world today. A well written and well researched book.
February 20, 2017
An interesting introduction to thinking about enslavement of American Indian people from the beginnings of colonization. Reséndez traces not only explicit enslavement, but also the ways in which enslavers (particularly Spanish enslavers) managed to keep systems of enslavement in place even when laws dictated they should fall apart. Through this analysis, Reséndez makes the systems of enslavement that still exist more legible as such.
His analysis does fail entirely to go into the ways that sexual violence was a major part of this--he makes clear that women were more highly valued on slave markets, but just erases the reasons for that, which mirrors the continual erasure of the amount of sexual violence that Native women experience to this day. This massive gap in his analysis really needs to be addressed, and the fact that it is not in this book is really a problem.
Nevertheless, undoubtedly this book will open doors for more historians to examine this phenomenon, and to begin to make connections intellectually between American Indian enslavement and African enslavement on the North American continent, making both avenues of thought more productive.
His analysis does fail entirely to go into the ways that sexual violence was a major part of this--he makes clear that women were more highly valued on slave markets, but just erases the reasons for that, which mirrors the continual erasure of the amount of sexual violence that Native women experience to this day. This massive gap in his analysis really needs to be addressed, and the fact that it is not in this book is really a problem.
Nevertheless, undoubtedly this book will open doors for more historians to examine this phenomenon, and to begin to make connections intellectually between American Indian enslavement and African enslavement on the North American continent, making both avenues of thought more productive.
December 16, 2016
The revelation in this book about the unbreakable cycle of slavery in the world is disheartening, but vital. When you eradicate slavery in one area, history demonstrates that a new slavery will be born in its place. That was just one of the profound insights offered in this detailed and well-constructed book. It is a fascinating thought-experiment to imagine how the world would have evolved without slaves since pretty much every mineral, wealth, and product has been (or currently is) a result of slavery - including peonage.
Also: I did not know the 13th amendment makes our current system of prison slavery legal.
Much to think on.
Also: I did not know the 13th amendment makes our current system of prison slavery legal.
Much to think on.
October 3, 2017
There are probably better and less racist books on this topic out there. Don't know what I was thinking giving anthropologists the benefit of the doubt. From a strictly date and facts perspective I learned quite a bit about the spanish and beyond enslavement of indigenous populations on this continent.
August 26, 2023
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story Of Indian Enslavement In America, by Andres Resendez
As a narrative history that describes the process by which the native inhabitants of the Americas were, even potentially up to the present day, ensnared in various coercive relationships with elites that amount to states of unfreedom, this book does a good job. However, there are some things that keep this book from being as good a book as it could be. For one, the author has this absurd and foolish Marxist worldview that leads him to think of capitalist Western Europeans as uniquely commodifying other people and exploiting them, when such exploitation and commodification can be found in all cultures at all times, especially in pre-modern and non-Capitalist societies, which the author does not consider. Nor does the author recognize the ways in which white people have often served as victims of the same processes that the author laments others suffering from. This blind spot is lamentably a common one, but insofar as this book presents a look at a generally obscure phenomenon by which indigenous people served as slaves, indentured servants, peons, sharecroppers, or were "free" workers entrapped in various debt schemes, it is a useful book, though it must be admitted that such schemes have often been foisted on the rural poor of all backgrounds at all times and in all places, something that would be surprisingly well-suited to works that sought to escape the contemporary problem of identity politics.
This book is a bit more than 300 pages of core material, and it begins with a list of illustrations, maps, and appendices. This is followed by an introduction that seeks to frame this book as an exploration of another, more secret, sort of slavery to go along with the more familiar slavery of Africans and African Americans in the New World. The author moves in a generally chronological way, starting with the initial settlement of the Caribbean islands by the Spanish, especially Santo Domingo, and the demographic collapse that resulted form intense slaving in the area (1). This is followed by a discussion of the good intentions that led the Spanish to try to ban this slavery of indigenous Americans (2). A chapter follows that examines the complex life and cruel fate of a successful human trafficker who worked in both the Transatlantic slave trade and in the northern Mexican indigenous slave trade (3). A chapter then follows on the pull of silver in drawing unfree labor of various kinds to Mexican mines (4). A chapter on the campaign the Spanish royal government made against slavery and its difficulties in the face of local attachments to unfree labor (5) is then followed by a discussion of the role of the slavery of local tribes in the great rebellion of late 17th century New Mexico (6). The author examines the slave trading of powerful nomads like the Comanches, Utes, and Apache tribes (7), as well as the way that the Spanish efforts to build missions and presidios in the northern reaches of New Spain (the American Southwest) led to the proliferation of unfree labor among local inhabitants (8). The author talks about various contractions and expansions in this unfree labor during the first half of the 19th century (9), the interaction of Americans with this type of unfree labor (10), and the resulting new era of Indian bondage that followed contrary to American law (11). The author then talks about the difficulties of emancipation from this sort of slavery (12) up to the present day, along with an epilogue, acknowledgements, appendices, notes, and an index.
One of the things that this book gets right, and deserves to be taken seriously for, is the way it points to various sorts of labor exploitation as being an unrecognized cause of the demographic collapse of indigenous populations in the Americas. Indeed, if we look at the violence of slave raids, the harm and death due to labor exploitation, and the susceptibility to slaves that resulted from the mobility of unfree people and their being concentrated in mining towns, encomiendas, and urban cities to serve as domestics to diseases, the horrific losses that such people are viewed to have suffered begins to make some sort of sense, and various phenomena of the replacement of vanishing "Indian" slaves with black slaves and then with indentured workers from other areas begins to make sense as different stages of labor in order to make plantation agriculture and mining profitable endeavors within North and South America. There has always been work to do here that no one wanted to do that profited people with power that needed someone to do that work, and where it was possible to coerce the native population to do that sort of work in order to improve one's life, that sort of solution has long been a desirable solution for successful invaders into a new land. That such invaders also often argued (not without reason) that they were performing a civilizing function also seems rather par for the course. The author's difficulty in finding this sort of trade viewed honestly is testament to the fact that it is far easier to ban slavery in law than to eradicate the desire to have mastery over other people in our dark hearts.
As a narrative history that describes the process by which the native inhabitants of the Americas were, even potentially up to the present day, ensnared in various coercive relationships with elites that amount to states of unfreedom, this book does a good job. However, there are some things that keep this book from being as good a book as it could be. For one, the author has this absurd and foolish Marxist worldview that leads him to think of capitalist Western Europeans as uniquely commodifying other people and exploiting them, when such exploitation and commodification can be found in all cultures at all times, especially in pre-modern and non-Capitalist societies, which the author does not consider. Nor does the author recognize the ways in which white people have often served as victims of the same processes that the author laments others suffering from. This blind spot is lamentably a common one, but insofar as this book presents a look at a generally obscure phenomenon by which indigenous people served as slaves, indentured servants, peons, sharecroppers, or were "free" workers entrapped in various debt schemes, it is a useful book, though it must be admitted that such schemes have often been foisted on the rural poor of all backgrounds at all times and in all places, something that would be surprisingly well-suited to works that sought to escape the contemporary problem of identity politics.
This book is a bit more than 300 pages of core material, and it begins with a list of illustrations, maps, and appendices. This is followed by an introduction that seeks to frame this book as an exploration of another, more secret, sort of slavery to go along with the more familiar slavery of Africans and African Americans in the New World. The author moves in a generally chronological way, starting with the initial settlement of the Caribbean islands by the Spanish, especially Santo Domingo, and the demographic collapse that resulted form intense slaving in the area (1). This is followed by a discussion of the good intentions that led the Spanish to try to ban this slavery of indigenous Americans (2). A chapter follows that examines the complex life and cruel fate of a successful human trafficker who worked in both the Transatlantic slave trade and in the northern Mexican indigenous slave trade (3). A chapter then follows on the pull of silver in drawing unfree labor of various kinds to Mexican mines (4). A chapter on the campaign the Spanish royal government made against slavery and its difficulties in the face of local attachments to unfree labor (5) is then followed by a discussion of the role of the slavery of local tribes in the great rebellion of late 17th century New Mexico (6). The author examines the slave trading of powerful nomads like the Comanches, Utes, and Apache tribes (7), as well as the way that the Spanish efforts to build missions and presidios in the northern reaches of New Spain (the American Southwest) led to the proliferation of unfree labor among local inhabitants (8). The author talks about various contractions and expansions in this unfree labor during the first half of the 19th century (9), the interaction of Americans with this type of unfree labor (10), and the resulting new era of Indian bondage that followed contrary to American law (11). The author then talks about the difficulties of emancipation from this sort of slavery (12) up to the present day, along with an epilogue, acknowledgements, appendices, notes, and an index.
One of the things that this book gets right, and deserves to be taken seriously for, is the way it points to various sorts of labor exploitation as being an unrecognized cause of the demographic collapse of indigenous populations in the Americas. Indeed, if we look at the violence of slave raids, the harm and death due to labor exploitation, and the susceptibility to slaves that resulted from the mobility of unfree people and their being concentrated in mining towns, encomiendas, and urban cities to serve as domestics to diseases, the horrific losses that such people are viewed to have suffered begins to make some sort of sense, and various phenomena of the replacement of vanishing "Indian" slaves with black slaves and then with indentured workers from other areas begins to make sense as different stages of labor in order to make plantation agriculture and mining profitable endeavors within North and South America. There has always been work to do here that no one wanted to do that profited people with power that needed someone to do that work, and where it was possible to coerce the native population to do that sort of work in order to improve one's life, that sort of solution has long been a desirable solution for successful invaders into a new land. That such invaders also often argued (not without reason) that they were performing a civilizing function also seems rather par for the course. The author's difficulty in finding this sort of trade viewed honestly is testament to the fact that it is far easier to ban slavery in law than to eradicate the desire to have mastery over other people in our dark hearts.
January 13, 2021
very well written and researched account of the enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Americas. Resendez shows how institutions and practices of coerced labour adapted and survived over centuries and how, when combined with infectious diseases, they ultimately led to genocide
September 26, 2021
Absolutely fascinating. Well written and engaging. Just a revelation. From Christopher Columbus to New Mexico it’s all here. We are just kidding ourselves if we believe slavery no longer exists.
September 30, 2022
Necessary, and ugly. I think the most potent point was the deconstruction of the pervasive theory that we killed all the Native Americans with diseases. The author makes the point that virgin-soil epidemics are really bad, but they rarely wipe out whole swathes of society (the Black Death was a virgin-soil epidemic) -- societies are resilient, and they bounce back.
...unless of course, you are also systematically depopulating them, working them to death, etc. The role of the breathtaking amount of human misery that was Spanish imperialism and enthusiastic slaving in wiping out Native populations is largely understated in the general literature, and I'm glad I read this. I wish the post-spanish parts had been covered in a little more detail - I wanted to hear more about how American California & New Mexico adapted, and the epilogue was just ... way too short in saying "here's how we dealt with it, or rather how we didn't really, thanks for reading bye!". It just kind of ... ended abruptly, without wrapping up the whole thesis in a stirring conclusion.
But that's overall a minor quibble in what is otherwise a quite good book, especially if you pair it with Brian DeLay's War of a Thousand Deserts -- I caught that referenced late in the book and went "oh hey, I read that a while ago!" and darned if it doesn't make an excellent companion narrative to this one.
...unless of course, you are also systematically depopulating them, working them to death, etc. The role of the breathtaking amount of human misery that was Spanish imperialism and enthusiastic slaving in wiping out Native populations is largely understated in the general literature, and I'm glad I read this. I wish the post-spanish parts had been covered in a little more detail - I wanted to hear more about how American California & New Mexico adapted, and the epilogue was just ... way too short in saying "here's how we dealt with it, or rather how we didn't really, thanks for reading bye!". It just kind of ... ended abruptly, without wrapping up the whole thesis in a stirring conclusion.
But that's overall a minor quibble in what is otherwise a quite good book, especially if you pair it with Brian DeLay's War of a Thousand Deserts -- I caught that referenced late in the book and went "oh hey, I read that a while ago!" and darned if it doesn't make an excellent companion narrative to this one.
March 21, 2020
This is an important book.
Read
September 27, 2018If this book is to be believed, and I have no reason not to, it's extremely important.
July 31, 2022
Possibly a paradigm-shifting work of excellent historical scholarship, Resendez' thesis of a sometimes visible but all too often hidden and veiled "other slavery" is a deserved winner of the Bancroft Prize. His argument regarding the connections between colonization, disease, and enslavement also provides an excellent starting point for further scholarship. The few detractions from this monograph include noticeable lack of insight into sexual violence and coercion within the various forms of unfree labor and outright enslavement experienced by Native peoples, as well as the transportation and trade of Indians from the East Coast and interior through colonial ports into the Caribbean. Nevertheless, this effort clearly accomplishes its goals in demonstrating the changing and varied forms of bondage experienced by Native people over several centuries and locales.
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