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TheSeedofSlaveryintheNewWorld-AnExaminationoftheFactorsLeadingtotheImpressmentofIndianLaborinHispaniola.pdf

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The Seed of Slavery in the New World: An Examination of the Factors Leading to the Impressment of Indian Labor in Hispaniola

Author(s): Edwin A. Levine

Source: Revista de Historia de América , Jul. - Dec., 1965, No. 60 (Jul. - Dec., 1965), pp. 1-68

Published by: Pan American Institute of Geography and History

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/20138702

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THE SEED OF SLAVERY IN THE NEW WORLD: AN EXAMINATION OF THE FACTORS LEADING TO THE IMPRESSMENT OF INDIAN LABOR IN HISPANIOLA

Introduction

In the not too distant yesterday, Hispaniola enjoyed an im portance far greater than her current state or size suggests. This tiny island, the first of Spain's New World colonies, furnished the ground upon wich Spaniard and Indian met, took measure of each other, and clashed. Two diverse peoples, two different cultures, two alien civilizations crossed paths at a junction formed by Hispaniola. This meeting, pregnant with both possibility and problem, generated a variety of processes and institutions governing the daily life of both groups and subsequently adapted and employed by the Spanish in newer conquests. To a marked degree, Hispaniola served as a laboratory for the development of Spain's World institutions. Furt her, adjustment and accomodation forced a change in both Spaniard and the Arawak. Once met, neither Indian nor conqueror could resume his travel along his separate path. On Hispaniola, at the very least, life assumed new proportions for both groups.

When faced with a new situation, man's action springs from two sources. The first of these, desire or expectation, defines and limits his hopes and wants. The second, experience, conditions, and almost dictates, the type of action calculated to guarantee the goal. Therefore, each of Spain's New World institutions, though ap parently developed or created to answer new problems, find their well-spring in the past. Spain's past affected and conditioned her

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Edwin A. Le vi ne R. H. A. N?m. 60

choice of tentative solutions applied to her New World problems. As such, an examination of the pertinent aspects of Spanish expe rience will help in understanding her choice of action on Hispaniola.

The winds of Spanish desire and expectation blew the caravels toward their westerly port as surely and as strongly as the gusts that filled the sails. While the spirit of God or of adventure propelled many a Spaniard toward the New World, the desire for gain ruled many a heart. As often as not, both God and gain struggled for dominance within the confines of one breast. Further, the simple matter of survival in a seemingly benificent, but really hostile climate, exacted a full measure of Spanish ingenuity. Conversion, gain, survival; each desire indicated some control of the Indian's labor.

It is the purpose of this paper to examine not only one form of the institution which evolved: Spanish impressment of human labor, but to attempt to discover the causes contributing to the evolution of the system as well. Further, since the elements of Christianizing, financial gain, and physical survival do not neces sarily complement one another, attention to an evaluation of the relative part played by each must follow. All of the geography of

Hispaniola, all of the Arawak character and life, all of Spanish history met on this island and conspired to establish a unique system for the regulation of Indian labor which impressed its mark on all subsequent Latin American history.

The land supplied the frame of reference; the Indian furnished the raw material of impressed labor. Individuals such as Columbus, Isabella and Ferdinand, formulated and dictated policy. The Church, split between the ideil and the real, enunciated a moderate policy as doctrine, but offered little in fact. Finally, the Spanish colonial, behind his barricade of distance, followed the dictates of his con science or his desire. An ocean separated Spain and Hispaniola. Royal policy, especially its enforcement, suffered because of the distances separating the Queen and her colony. Each of these elements and entities contributed its mite to the labor system.

Though this paper employs the word "slavery" in its title, the sub-title contains an immediate limitation. In modern usage, slavery

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery* in the New World...

conjures emotion rather than inspiring reason. The term has lost much of its cognative value. The dictionary definition of a slave, one "whose person and services are under the control of another as master or owner," allows far too much latitude for subjetive ex pansion. Both impressed labor and slave labor existed in Hispaniola. Often, the practical difference between the two challenged descrip tion. Nonetheless, a theoretical difference guaranteed paper rights, to the impressed laborer. The slave, taken under specific conditions, had no rights; his body and soul belonged to his master. This limited definition of slavery, "the legal ownership of one individual by another," maintains in this paper. Both slave and "free" Indian proved unwilling members of the new labor force. In their bondage, differentiated by technical rather than real limitations, both sup plied the raw material from which the colonials fashioned their peculiar system of impressed labor.

The land, the Indian and the Spaniard all made their contri bution to the system of impressed labor. In retrospect, it seems that the Indian dared not hope to have escaped the bonds of virtual, or real, slavery. Nor did he.

The Land

The land was first, verdant and real before either Arawak or Spaniard. Green-capped, life-giving it remains, while the Arawak are no more, and the Spaniard has all but disappeared, leaving behind him as a reminder that proud conquerors once passed this way, a trace of hidalgo blood in the present inhabitants of old His paniola.

Yet, the land's claim to primary consideration stems not only from its primacy in time but also from the fact that the land supplies the frame of reference within which any people develops. The land sets the limits; even modern science has found no way to make the truly arid desert bloom nor support life on an ice cap. Even today, man's use of the land depends upon the benificence of the earth.

Geographically, Hispaniola falls between the parallels 17? 36'

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Edwin A. Levirie R. H. A. N?m. 60

North and 10??6'36" North and the meridians 68?19' West and 74? 01' West. Therefore, based on geographic position, Hispaniola enjoys a sub-tropical climate. The island, mountainous to an extreme degree, displays a rugged terrain. In the Dominican Republic alone, two important mountain chains rise: The Cordillera Central, the highest and most important chain, runs from north to southeast and splits almost at a right angle, throwing a sinewy arm south ward toward what is now the town of Bani. The highest peak stretches skyward reaching an altitude of 3.175 meters, while all the peaks of this chain exceed 2.000 meters. Flowing down from these elevations, ranging from east to west, the rivers race both north and south. The second chain, the Cordillera Septentrional, furnishes the northern limit of the modern Dominican Republic. This lower ,less rugged costal range, plays a much smaller part in the geography of the country.

Early in his exploration, Columbus noted the glittering sands of the Yaque del Norte and enjoyed for a moment the elation of a man who feels that his search for gold is over. Yet, the Yaque del Norte, so rich in the promise of gold, assured a more stable wealth. Flowing from the high Cordillera, fed by many a tributary such as the Jimenoa, Jagua, Bao, Amina, Mao, Gurabo, and Guayubin, this river carved one of the most fertile valleys of the whole An tillian chain, the Vega Real or Cibao Valley. This valley stretches from Samana Bay to the town of Monte Cristi; is bounded on the north by the lower hills of the Cordillera Septentrional. Loam, underbased by friable limestone, offers the most fertile of subtro pical soils. Rainfall was plentiful. The varying trade winds visited the northern area with heaviest rainfall during the months of

November, December, and January. While the overall fall averaged well over 2.000 millimeters a year. When the trade winds shifted to the southeast in March, April, and May, a relatively dry season ensued. Yet, the river water and the most rudimentary irrigation techniques served to make this valley one of the best watered and fertile areas of the Antillian chain.

Flowing southward, the Yaque del Sur, with its system encom passing the Mijo, Rio del Medio, Las del Cueva, Las del Medio, and

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

the San Juan, carved its own valley. The large and long Artibonito, crossing from Haiti and fed by the Ozama, Higuamo, Chavon, Soco, Nagua, and others, helpedwater the South. Nonetheless, desert pressed hard against the southern face of the Cordillera. However, the valley of San Juan, stretching from the Haitian frontier to the Bay of Ocoa supported an agriculture second in importance only to the Cibao.1

Hispaniola boasts two basic types of climate. The Cordillera Central serves as a line of demarcation. To the north, the rainy tropical climate maintains. A nearly vertical sun at all times, nights and days of more or less equal length, steamy air approximating that found in a green house, high sensible temperature,2 cloudy skies, and heavy rains distinguished this climate.3 It has not changed much since 1492.

To the south, the so-called monsoon tropical climate prevailed. Basically, all of the elements attributed to the rainy tropical climate maintain with the exception of one important factor, concentrated rain falls in one season affording an approximation of a seasonal break. Under the circumstances, apparent temperature varies, and comfort increases or decreases seasonally. Since rainfall occurred seasonally, unrealibility followed.4 Nontheless, the river system of the south, flowing from the Cordillera, negated extensive aridity.

This island, graced with fertile soil, an almost perpetual growing season and ample rainfall, only awaited the seed to assure a harvest.

The mountainous configuration of Hispaniola suggests the mighty surface chainging forces at work in the bowels of the earth under the Cordillera Central. The resultant faulting afforded at least a possibility of mineral wealth. However, though every indica

1 Anuario estad?stico de la Rep?blica Dominicana, 1954, Ciudad Trujillo, 1957, pp. IX-XX.

2 Sensible temperature is defined as the degree of heat sensed or felt by the human body. Humidity will magnify extremes, increasing the degree of discom fort experienced.

3 C. Landon White and George T. Renner, College Geography, New York, 1957, pp. 51-53.

4 Ibid., pp. 107-8.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

tion of mineral deposits haunted the prospector, only minor deposits of the earth's precious metals graced Hispaniola's soil.5 The real wealth of this island lies on her topsoil, not in her subsoil. The Spaniard, immediately upon disembarking, initiated his hunt for golden treasure. Mine labor claimed the body, then the life of Ara wak after Arawak. Like the mythical El Dorado, the earth con stantly promised that the next turn of the spade would uncover her golden vein. Hope, effort, life itself gave full measure of devotion to the quest. The earth received this labor as her due, but she gave nothing, for she had nothing to give. The true gold of Hispaniola, her rich and fertile soil, represented a cloak waiting only to be torn apart to reveal the glittering beauty of the gold. Years later, men realized that the value of this land lay in her cloak, her soil.

Columbus made his first landfall on the northern coast of His

paniola. The potential of the land amazed him. In his letter to Santangel, chief accountant of Aragon, the Discoveror literally sings a paean of praise to the economic promise of the new land.

In the iands there are many mines and people of inestimable number, Espa?ola is a marvel: the woods, and the mountains, and the valleys and the countryside, so fertile and pregnant for the planting and for the harvest,

for the growing of life stock of all classes, for the building of villages and towns. The parts here are unbelievable unless they have been seen, and there are rivers, numerous-and large, and good water, the most of which carry gold. . . in this island there are many spices and large mines of gold and other metals.6

How human it is to see exactly what we want to see! How obvious Columbus' primary enthusiasm for gold. Myth taught that gold is sunlight, caught by the mountains, filtered by the hills, and finally crystallized into precious metal. The Admiral bathed by the

5 G. Etzel Pearcy and Associates, World Political Geography, New York, 1957, p. 145. "In a land as mountainous as most of the Caribbean one might expect to find rich deposits of metallic minerals."

6 Fern?ndez de Navarrete, Colecci?n de documentos de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los Espa?oles, Madrid, 1955, Vol. I, p. 168.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in ttie New World...

tropical sun and yet, standing in the shadow of the Cordillera, could dream indeed that his mountain of gold beckoned.

Yet, though partially blinded by the glitter of gold, the Ad miral still recognized and described most glowingly the agricultural potential of his land. Earth, water and sun remind him that this tropical land cries only for the seed in order to grant her bounty.

Still, even if Columbus, like many a later day immigrant, expected to find riches in gold lined streets, the reality of the land confounded him. Columbus, even in his enthusiasm, failed to realize the true extent of the land's value. His paean falls short of describ ing the land's true value. The limited mineral wealth promised greater finds and both appeased and whetted the appetites of the early colonists. Yet, this land of constant summer, of rich valleys washed by abundant rains and coursed by many a stream, stretched out her arms, supplicating seed, plow, and labor to wrest a fortune worthy of a Croesus.

Yet, not unlike a woman, Nature displays a double face and and ambivalence often confusing and confounding her most ardent suitors. The sum of the elements offering so much promise con spired to make the realization of this potential almost impossible for the Spaniard. This land of constant summer visited the colonial with unbroken months of enervating heat. This land of steady rain fall bathed the conquerors in constant humidity with ensuing uncomfortably high apparent temperatures. This land of rapid growth nurtued insect and exotic disease which found the European tasty fare and ready prey. We have still not won our battle with the tropics; the Spaniard hardly understood the nature of the war.

We leave the tropical lowland to the primitive man and we seek the higher, cooler ground. Strength and energy-sapping humidity, debilitating, and often deadly, insect-born fever join to make this area forbidding today. The Admiral watchetd his early colonial effort after his second voyage wither and die before this tropical climate. Las Casas and Navarrete both note the inroads made into

the Spanish ranks by disease and death. Whether or not the early colonial expected to work, or could ha ve even been forced to labor, in any climate, must remain a moot question. Nonetheless, the

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

strongest desire to labor in this climate could hardly have been crowned with success in 1493 when we realize that modern science

still fears to open the Pandora's box of the tropics. The marriage of land and man can only bear fruit, can only

be consummated through labor. Our mistress, the land, exacts this tribute as her due. Whatever the wealth of the mines, whatever the promise of sun, soil and rain, all are nothing without the added element of labor. Indeed, the good fortune of the Spaniard knew no limits. Benificent Hispaniola offered them not only her mines and her soil, she gave them a ready supply of her red-skinned children to dig and to till.

The People

Who, among us, views the red man with an unprejudiced eye? Is he the simple and noble savage presented by Rousseau or does dirt, lies, treachery and death follow his moccasin tracks? In our contact with others, we demand the simple delineation of black and white, of good and evil. Yet, the history of any race generally denies predominance to either the black or the white. The Arawak, red of skin, displayed the same checkered history common to man kind in general. He also had good and bad traits, neither devil nor yet an angel, simple within his frame of reference, fatally irrational, obstinate and cruel from the white man's point of view.7

The genetic name Arawak embraces a multitude of tribes and sub-tribes all speaking a kindred Arawakan tongue. Modern anthro pologists now belive that the people originated, as a tribal entity, on the eastern slopes of the Andes. From this source, they presum ably moved down the Amazon and its tributaries into the Orinoco

Valley. Then, they spread along the coast into Venezuela, eastern Colombia, through the Guianas, and into the Antilles. Island-hop ping from bead to bead of the pearl necklace of the Antilles, the Arawak drove the Guanuhatabey (Ciboney) Indians before him.8

7 Julian Steward and Louis Faron, Native Peoples of South America, New York, 1959, pp. 177-8, 247.

B Ibid., p. 246.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

The Tainos, an Arawakan sub-tribe, controlled Hispaniola at the time of the discovery. Actually, six major chiefdoms divided control of the island. Five of these units contained people of Taino-Arawak stock; one chief dorn differed embracing a Ciguayo-Arawak sub group.9 The great chiefs delegated power to as many as thirty sub chiefs. Estimates of Indian population during the discovery vary widely. Las Casas' figure of three million doubtless represents a grave overstatement. Modern anthropologists place the population somewhere between 100,00 and 300,000 souls.10

Two basic types of chiefdom existed. The first, a militaristic and more warlike society, characterized the Arawak of the northern

Andes and Central America. The second, a basically theocratic society, practiced the art of agriculture and lived sedentary and relatively peaceful lives.11

The benificence and insularity of Hispaniola allowed the devel opment of theocratic leadership among the Taino. Where the land gaves her bounty and afforded protection, man turned his effort from the basic struggle of survival toward more satisfying endeav or. An hierarchy, with its social differentiation and leisure class, followed. The Naboris (the plebians), the Nitaynos (nobles), and Caciques (chiefs) all enjoyed this abundance in order of rank. Fur ther, the religion of the tribe cemented the position of the nobility. Every man, commoner, lord, or chief, kept his special guardians. The physical representation of these guardians, or Zemis, served as symbols of personal power and creativeness and were probably phallic in origin. The physical possession of the Zemi granted the person control over the powers ascribed to the Zemi. Naturally enough, the chiefs controlled the crucial Zemis.12 Both the hierarchy

9 Ibid., p. 247. 10 Steward maintains there were no more than 100,000 Arawaks on His

paniola. Peschel, the anthropologist and historian, feels that no less than 200,000 and not more than 300,000 Arawaks inhabited Hispaniola at the moment of discovery. John Collier, The Indians of the Americas, New York, 1947, p. 99.

11 Juli?n Steward and Louis Faron, op. cit., pp. 177-8. 12 Ibid., pp. 177-8, 256, and Fray Pane's report to Columbus as quoted in

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

and the rater advanced theocracy often characterizes natives and other primitives living in areas of agricultural abundance. The social and religious organization, itself the end product of a rela tively long period of peace, helped weaken the Indian's ability to resist capture or exploitation. Their own institutions, reflections of their peculiar character, speeded their impressment.

The individual Arawak, a man of medium stature, brachy cephallic (round headed) displayed a proportion and grace praised by many of the colonials. Culturally, he ranked among the more advanced people of the eastern half of the continent. Because of custom, they either roamed stark naked or covered the genitalia with a small apron. Crops such as maize and manioc grew on fields clared by "the slash and burn'*13 method, a technique which the white man adopted and continues to use in many areas today. Fer tilization, rudimentary at best, depended upon woodash and human urine.14

Unlike many of his brothers, the Antillian Arawak seldom hunted. Since mammals are relatively scarce on Hispaniola, the hunt held little attraction. The small rodent, agouti, various birds, reptiles (particularly the very tasty iguana), worms, spiders, and selected insects offered variety to the basically vegetable diet of the

Antillian Indian.15 The Arawak employed the dug-out and fished, but his skill and daring fell far short of the sea-faring Caribs. As a matter of fact, the Taino experienced a paroxysm of fear whenever he heard that the can?bal Carib approached. The native erected his villages inland for that tiny extra measure of protection thus afforded.

If any Indian can be termed peaceful, the Taino fits the defi nition. Perhaps his lack of success with arms helped foster such an attitude. Although earlier (and probably more virile) ancestors had

Benjamin Keen, The Ufe of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1959, pp. 153-158.

13 Land is cleared first by cutting or slashing the higher growth and the balance is cleared by burning.

14 Julian Steward and Louis Fara?n, op. cit., p. 247. 15 Ibid., p. 247.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World ?

cleared the Antilles of the Ciboney, the Indian contemporaries of Columbus lived ii} mortal fear of the Carib. Arawak warfare consisted of an attempted ambush or surprise of the enemy. Since spears, spear throwers, javelins, clubs, and stones describes the whole Taino armory, all Arawak warriors spent a great deal of time and practice learning to dodge the missiles of an enemy. As a fighting force, they offered little difficulty to the fierce Carib or to the Spaniard trained in organized warfare and armed with the heaven's thunder and lightening. Under these circumstances, the peaceful ness of the Arawak can be overemphasized. After all, when war is obviously equated with defeat, peacefulness becomes a negative virtue?16

The Arawak inherited both the boon and the bane of his environment. The land, blessed by a benificent climate and a rich soil, allowed plentiful harvests. This bounty fostered a relative ease of life permitting a differentiation of classes. Plenty dulled one of the major reasons for waging primitive warfare and combined

with the relative security offered by the inaccessability of the island, allowed the practice of peaceful pursuits. This description fits the rather idealized portrait drawn by Las Casas, but Oviedo, using the same facts, pronounced the natives shiftless instead of sedentary, cowardly insteat of peaceful.17

Yet, the Admiral wrote first, and since his point of view affected the Arawak more strongly and profoundly than the thought or action of any other individual, his words merit attention. Like any other man of his era, he noted the stark nudity of the Indians first. Would not any noble, freshly transported from a European court, feel that he had stumbled upon a new Garden of Eden populated by many an Adam and Eve? In his letter to Sant angel, he describes the beauty, the liberality, and general nobility of the people.18 He found them, he went on to say, eager givers,

16 Ibid., p. 248. 17 It would be a mistake, however, to infer that the Arawak was cowardly

or stupid. Given the limitations, individual Arawaks resisted the Spaniard with courage.

18 Fern?ndez de Navarrete, op cit., p. 148.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

without cupidity, lovers of their neighbors, altogether a gentle and amiable people.19 In effect, Colon supplied the very first eyewitness testimony to the doctrine of the Nobility of the Redman that continued to dominate the European salons for two centuries.

The Admiral's description of Guacanagari, the first of the tribal chiefs known to him on Hispaniola, demonstrates the good will and grace displayed by both Columbus and the Arawak chief.

Your highness would doubtless think well of the dignity and respect in which they all hold him, though they all go naked. When he came aboard, he found me at the dining table below the sterncastle and came quickly to seat himself besides me; nor would he let me rise to meet him or get up from the table but insisted that I should eat. And when he entered below the castle, he signalled with his hand that all people should remain out

side and they did with greatest readiness and respect in the world; and they all seated themselves on the desk, except two men of ripe years whom I took to be his councillors and tutors, who sat at his feet. I thought he imight like to eat our food and ordered some brought to him. Of the ?dishes which were placed before him he took only as much as one would take for pregustation and the rest he sent to his people, and they all ate of it, he did the same with his drink, which he raised to his lips and then gave 'to others with a wonderful dignity and very few words, and those that lie spoke to what I could undestand, were very weighty and sensible. And these two elders looked at him and spoke for him and with him, with great

respect.20

Did the Admiral display a prejudice in favor of the Indian? Observation, dimmed and clouded by expectation, often beclouds the reality, while we project the "stuff which dreams are made of" onto the canvas of reality. Columbus never dream of a New World and a new people. He expected to find ancient Cathay, civilized Cathay. No. Hispaniola was not Cathay. Hispaniola, clearly recog nized as an island, had to be Cipango21 guarding the approach to the fabled Cathay. Guacanagari, a noble subject to the Great Khan, would doubtless point the way to the city of gold, the city of

19 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 113. 20 Benjamin Keen, op. cit., p. 78. 21 Japan.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in t&ie New World...

fulfillment. Colon had found his King and Court at Cipango. Cathay remained but a short sail away.

Incident after incident only served to impress the Admiral more forcefully with the nobility of this Indian Lord. Due to carelessness, the Santa Maria ran aground. Guacanagari, informed of the AdmiraPs misfortune:

Immediately sent all his people and many large canoes to the ship. So they, and we, began to unload, and in a short times we had cleared the whole deck, so helpful was the King in the affair. Afterward, he, in person, together with his brothers and relations, kept careful watch both and ashore to see that all was done properly. And from time to time he sent one of his relatives to tell me not to grieve, that he would give me whatsoever he had. I assure your highness that no where in Castille would better care have been taken of the goods, so that not a lace point was missing.22

Granting the Admiral's early positive prejudice, certain facts still stand out. The amiability, good grace, honesty, and sympathy of Guacanagari and his Arawaks shine forth. The native, already conditioned by his theocracy, readily accepted the Spaniard as the terrestial embodiment of his god. Yet, contact between man and god falls after a while. Many an ungodlike act by the Spaniard doubtless hastened this reaction.

The sinking of the Santa Maria afforded Guacanagari and his Tainos an opportunity to demonstrate both honesty and sympathy. The sinking also forced Columbus' hand. Since he could not trans port all of his men aboard the last23 caravel left to him, the establish ment of a colony proved inescapable. The cacique promised both his good offices and protection. Just how long Guacanagari kept his word will never be known.

The Spanish man-gods quickly revealed their feet of clay. The lust for gold and the desire for Indian woman must have astounded the gentle chief. His action, if any, must remain forever unclear.

However, no doubt clouds the action taken by the less gentle and more warlike Caonabo, cacique of the Cibao and lord of Colum

22 Benjamin Keen, op. cit., p. 82. n Columbus did not rejoin Pinz?n until the voyage home had started.

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Bdwin A. Levine R. H. A. Num. 60

bus' golden mountain. A group of the colonials moved on the Cibao, Caonabo, guided by his coastal brothers' experience, undoubtedly, believed that the Spaniard acted as if he were "a mysterious stranger announcing himself with words of love, welcomed with delight as a friend, given the run of the house, and taken into the family's bosom, had suddenly revealed himself as no man but as a devouring werewolf."24 He attacked and massacred the advance party and turned to attack the Spanish settlement in Navidad supposedly under Guacanagari's protection. Coanabo burned the fort to the ground and killed every Spanish soul.

Whether or not the noble Guacanagari resisted Coanabo's onslaught is open to question. Quite possibly the ravenous appetite of the Spaniard for both gold and flesh convinced the cacique that gods, living in such proximity, present many an unexpected problem of a very earthy nature. Possibly, Guacanagari feared the more virile and powerful Caonabo. Finally, Guacanagari displayed a rather superficial leg wound supposedly inflicted by Caonabo's forces.

Columbus accepted Guacanagari's version of the slaughter and Las Casas followed this lead. Whatever the case, the original rela tionship showed signs of strain. The fissure, eroded by mutual

misunderstanding, grew ever wider and deeper. The sedentary Arawak, schooled in peace, weak in war, at least accustomed to working the land in season, offered a source of exploitation all too tempting to any man. A primitive people, a people without concept of mine and thine, proved all too convenient a commodity. The Arawak suffered from a grievous fault?his accessability.

The open warfare of Caonabo allowed the Spaniards to enter a punitive war against him. The captives became slaves. Later, every Indian became a potential enemy in the colonial's mind and allowed an extension of the slaving activity.

The Indian of Hispaniola told a prophetic tale of .his ultimate decimation. Fray Pane repeats this story.

24 John Collier, op. cit., p. 97.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

. . .and the cacique claimed to have spoken with Yiocavugama [a god], who announced to the cacique that those /succeeded to his power would enjoy it only for a short time because there would come to his country a people wearing clothes who would conquer and kill the Indians, and that they would die of hunger. At first they thought he referred to the cannibals; later, reflecting that the cannibals only robbed and then went away, they decided he must have meant some other people. That is why they now believe that the idol prophesied the coming of the Admiral and the people who came with him.25

Shades of the Apocrypha! Yiocavugama spoke so truly that a sus picion of hindsight, rather than foresight, rushed to mind.

The star-crossed career of Columbus led him to the land of the Arawak. Had he landed a bit further south, his discovery might well have gone unheralded and unknown. The fierce, cannibal Carib had driven the Ingeri-Arawak from the lesser Antilles. If the Admiral had landed in the heartland of the Carib, this warlike cannibal people might have swallowed and digested the whole ex pedition. While the Arawak originally welcomed the Spaniard, the Carib offered war. Because of this, the Spanish doctrine of "just war"26 assured any captive the brand and chain of the slave.

The primitiveness of the Indian proved an insurmountable handicap. The Arawak, unable to understand Spanish motivation, placed him on a pedestal with his gods. Satisfaction of the very human Spanish appetite followed. When knowledge, gained pain fully through more intimate acquaintship, forced the Arawak to amend his original appraisal, winged time had flown and the Indian looked down to his chains.

The land displayed an immediate resemblance to his beloved Nonetheless, the conquerors dictated policy, the Indians obeyed. The motivation and the character of the Spaniards, the movers rather than the moved, supply the basis for the following chapter.

25 Benjamin Keen, op. cit., p. 165. 26 From the earliest period, Indians resisting Spanish colonization and

Christianizing could be enslaved. These Indians were owned outright; body and soul depended on the master's pleasure. This dependence enjoyed both legal and practical sanction.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

The Conquerors

When the prow of the first caravel touched land in the New World, a man, new to the Americas but old in his own culture, stepped ashore. At this moment, all that Spain represented in the late days of the fifteenth century disembarked as well. The Span iard carried ashore in his heart, soul, and head all that his heritage had made him or allowed him to become.

The land displayed an immediate resemblance to his beloved Andaluc?a. Unfortunately, this similarity proved more apparent than real. The tropical sun sapped the strength of the White Man. The tropical rain forest threw its barrier before him. Exotic diseases, bred in tropical swamps, laid him low. This environment, so seem ingly beneficent, turned a hostile face toward the newcomer.

When confronted with new and difficult problems, man has but one weapon at his disposal. He must draw from the arsenal of past experience. The Spaniard proved no exception. Therefore, any explanation of Spanish action in the New World finds its wellspring in Spanish experience in the Old World. Further, survival supplied only one of many problems facing the conqueror. Men came to the New World for many reasons, some idealistic, some quite practical.27 In any case, survival, though a primary requisite,

27 The reason men came to the New World remains a controversial point. The Admiral noted that men came to seek their fortune and then decamp. "All in favor of the settlers who have taken up abodethere because the best lands are given to them. . . I should not say so much if the people were married men, but there are not six among them all whoses purpose is not to amass all they can and then decamp with it." D'Arcy McNickle, They Came First; New York, 1949, p. 120.

In the second voyage, the Gold Rush, the Admiral carried as companion many hidalgos and courtiers seeking a lawless holiday and bags of gold." Charles Duff, The Truth about Columbus, London, 1957, p. 149.

After the difficulty of colonization became clear, a royal order propelled prisoner and malfactor toward the Indies. "... all and every person. . . who may have committed, or up to the day of publication of this our letter, may commit any murder and offense, and other forms of crime of whatever nature and quality they may be...shall go and serve in prison in Espa?ola." D'Arcy McNickle, op. cit., p. 120.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

represented one of many drives. Additionally, policy, dictated from the higher echelons of government, played its part in all of the

New Worlds embryonic institutions. Therefore, any understanding of the impressed labor system in the New World must be based on a recognition of Spain's late fifteenth century character.

The fusion of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon granted a unity to Spain unmatched since the era of the Roman domination. The war against the Moors, prosecuted with equal vigor by both Ferdinand and Isabella, sanctified this union covering it in the cloak of holy war. Pulgar, the Royal historian, stated, "... one of the ad vantages which the neighboring Kings envy you is to have within your frontiers people against whom you can wage not merely just but holy war".28 Further, the very act of battle in the name of the cross magnified the fervor that led men willingly, even joyfully, into battle. The Spaniard "was a soldier of the cross fighting not only for his country, but or Christendom. . . Hence, the national character became exalted by a fervor, which in later days, alas: settled into a fierce fanaticism. Hence, that solicitude for the purity of the faith, the peculiar boast of the Spaniards, and the deep tinge of superstition, for which they have ever been distinguished among the nations of Europe/'29

The successful prosecution of the war against the Moors ce mented the unity of the "Spains" fashioned through the marriage of the Catholic Kings, imbued the Spaniard with a sense of holy crusade, and, unfortunately, fostered the growth of an intolerance for unorthodoxy.

Men came for different reasons, some by will, some by force. The causes of their coming seemed to vary with the material success of the colony at the time. They made up their minds, or had their minds made up for them.

Nonetheless, the hope for material gain, while probably present in both Columbus and Isabella, suffered to some degree due to the rather pronounced religious approach of both. The Admiral and the Queen, and their motivations? are treated at length in the text of this paper.

28 Salvador Madariaga, Christopher Columbus, New York, 1940, p. 10. 29 William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella

the Catholics, New York, 1900, p. 161.

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"Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

The name of both Isabella and Ferdinand are amplified by the suffix the Catholics?Isabella and Ferdinand, the most Catholic Kings of the most Catholic Spain. Still, a portrait of a King and Queen or country drawn in stark black and white, without shading or highligth, cannot prove satisfactory. The Catholicism of Spain can be traced to Visigothic sources. As such, the Arians, the early heretic non-believers in the Trinity, visited their Catholicism on Spain. Though the Spanish subsequently embraced the Roman Holy See, the heritage of a long established independence remained. The Gothic liturgy maintained until the eleventh century, the sovereign guarded his right of jurisdiction in all ecclesiastical causes until the twelfth century, and the right of collating all benefices, or at least annulling or confirming ecclesiastical appointments lasted as long. The code of Alfredo X surrendered many of these particularly Spanish prerogatives to the Popes. Yet, the ancient feeling of in dependence never died, and given weaker Bishops of Rome and stronger monarchs, resurrection of ancient privileges followed. Catholicism played a major part in the life of all Spain, still, the force remained localized, truly Spanish. In effect, "the native ec clesiastics obtained such complete ascendency over the popular mind, the Roman See could boast of less influence in Spain than in any other country in Europe."30 Indeed, Spain boasted a sanctity "more holy than the Pope's."

Developing concurrently with the independence in religious matters, the nobility, and in some instances the tradesman and mechanics, of Spain enjoyed a freedom beyond all contemporary comparison in Europe, Isabella carried to the throne on the shoulders of her Castillian nobility, owed her primacy to them. The path of Ferdinand to the throne, beset by many an obstacle or barricade erected by his people, proved torturous and long.

Barcelona, in the realm of Ferdinand, demonstrates the degree to which freedom of action grew in Spain. Her government con sisted of a senate, or council of one hundred members and a board of councillors, or regidores varying between four to six members.

30 Ibid,, pp. 40-41.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tlhe New World...

The Senate exercised legislative functions while the regidores dis patched administrative matters. Merchants, tradesmen, and me chanics sat in the senate. Further, her authority incorporated many of the rights usually common to absolute sovereignty. Barcelona could sign treaties with foreign states, she superintended her own defense, provided for her security of trade, granted letters of re prisal, raised and appropriated money for useful work. Barcelona stoutly maintained that her union with Aragon, a matter of mutual convenience, remained subject to the city's consent. Her governors, addressed as magn?ficos (magnificences), remained seated, head cov ered, in royalty's presence. Mace bearers, lictors, and other physical trapings of royalty fell to these plebian lords. Barcelonian deputies to court received the treatment afforded to foreign ambassadors.

Yet again, Barcelona, ruled and governed by the merchant, the tradesman, the mechanic; in a word, the plebian, furnished the gem of the Aragonese diadem.31

Certainly, Barcelona represents an extreme. Nonetheless, the independence of the many "Spains" must be measured by degree rather than by kind. This freedom, so amply obvious to all, prompt ed Navagiero, the Venetian Ambassador to Spain, and no mean republican himself, to state, "... the inhabitants have so many pri vileges that the king scarcely retains any authority over them; their liberty should rather go by the name of license".32

Clearly, this view of Spain, outlined in the preceeding para graphs flys in the face of popular concept. Rather than the ab solutism so common to the popular view of Spain, a rather exag gerated sense of independence characterized the period before, and coeval with, the ascension of the Catholic Monarchs. This sense of independence transported to the colonies, first by the Castillians and then by the Aragonese, proved to be of transcendental importance.33

While the Moorish wars and the particular nature of Spain's

31 Ibid., p. 88. 32 Ibid., p. 90. 33 This sense of individual independence, termed personalismo by Professor

Lee Deets in his Latin American Sociology given at Hunter College, stemmed from the Visigothic incursions.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60*

Catholicism aided the efforts of a Ferdinand and Isabella to unite the country, the Moorish wars also created a circumstance both divisive and difficult of solution. Wars, even crusades, have always; cost a great deal of money. Neither Ferdinand nor Isabella held great wealth before the wars. When nobles are powerful and burghers: strong, little enough falls to the monarch. Beyond the Moorish wars, the battle for the throne of Castile between the forces of the Catholic kings and the King of Portugal denuded the treasury. The popularity of the Monarchs prompted the Church to pledge its: plate so that the war of succession with Portugal could be pro secuted to a successful end. This act, rare enough in any period,, gives testment enough of the Spanish Church's appraisal of both Isabella and Fernando. Nonetheless, even the church plate could not: defray the many expenses of internecine and holy war. Pulgar stat ed, "... all that was collected from the crusade, and from the sub sidy of the clergy, and from the sentences on those who had judaised' and were reconciled to the Church, an from their (the king's and queen's) ordinary income and from every part where the money could be found (the King and Queen), ordered it to be devoted to the war." Pulgar continued ". . ., the King and Queen had to bor row from the pocket of some singular persons."34 In fine, the royal coffers, almost empty, added still another problem which cried for solution. On behalf of his monarch, Quintanilla, the Contador Ma yor (Treasury Head) supported any idea that might open the por tals of Cathay, or any other treasure trove, to Spanish entry. Neigh boring Portugal, pushing her caravels southward, tapped new sour ces of wealth. Who dares deny that envy, even in the strongest, can long be contained while the neighbor profits and your need daily increases?

In summary, therefore, in 1492, Spain had defeated the last of the Moorish princes, and a high degree of unity and religious zeal followed in the wake of the conquest. The relatively high degree

34 Salvador de Madariaga, op. cit., p. 143. Madariaga translates "singular"1 to mean Conversos (converted Jews) near the Crown. Certainly rich converted Jews stood near the Crown. Yet, singular probably means individual and probably incorporates persons of private wealth, whether Converso or not.

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-Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tine New World...

of personal independence, peculiar to the Spaniards in this epoch, persisted in spite of the strengh of the Catholic kings. Further, a resurgence of ecclesiastical independence occurred. The voracious wars, both of succession and crusade, devoured the joint treasuries of both Castile and Aragon. As we shall see, every one of these characteristics contributed their mite to the development of Spain's

New World labor system. Policy, however, is not dictated generally by the broad charac

teristics of an environment at any given point in history. Policy, probably conditioned by the general attitude, seeks its generation in the effort of given individuals or groups of limited size. Many

men and several groups shared in the evolution of the impressed labor system of Hispaniola. However, the action taken by three individuals, of Isabella, Ferdinand, and Columbus, translated and conditioned the Spanish character for the New World. Not only Spanish history, but their own personal histories, worked through them and colored their actions. The effect of these three upon His paniola proved both immediate and forceful. They led; other fol lowed.

Isabella, Queen of Castile, held proprietary right to all the New World colonies. Theoretically, the rule of this area fell to her. What could be expected of this woman, this very Catholic Queen? The chronicles written by contemporaries emphasize her absolute devo tion to her religious creed. First, last, always, she stands Isabella the

Catholic. Certainly, she did all in her power to stay and to reverse all viciousness in the clergy. "She gave alms, prayed, fasted, re pressed soothsayers and sorcerers, and rewarded the clean and the devout. Her mental abilities and strength of character do not allow question. Her difficult march to the throne, her ability to bind the wounds of a Castile rent asunder by the sword of internecine war and to the reunification of her people under her banner attest to both her strength and her astuteness. The Queen rendered her jus tice personally, guided more often by rigor than by ruth. This Catholic Queen, good, devout, strong, astute, just and wise, ruled both Castile and a fresh New World."35

35 Ibid., pp. 5-7.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

This idealized portrait of the Queen, drawn by the court his torian Pulgar, continues to color or view of the lady. Nonetheless, an Inquisition grew and flourished during her reign. It could not have been born, or once born, could not have lasted without her tacit approval at the very least. How much blood, how much suf fering descended on Spain in the name of God and orthodoxy will probably never be known. The fervor that rewarded an upstanding (and orthodox) religious order could also condemn an upstanding (but unorthodox) individual to the rack. Devotion can be a two edged sword.

The conversion of her American indigines goaded the Queen to effort after effort. On her death, through the medium of her will, she specifically charged her husband and Juana, her unfor tunate and insane daughter, to continue the task of conversion. Her will succinctly summarises her entire Indian policy.

I very affectionately supplicate my lord the king, and charge and command my said daughter [Juana], that they act accordingly, and that this [the conversion of the Indians] should be their principal end, and that in it they should have such diligence, and they should not consent or give occasion, that the Indians who dwell in those islands or on the tierra firme, gained or to be gained, should receive any injury in their persons or goods, but should command that they be well and justly treated. And if the Indians have received any injury, they [the king and her daugther Juana] should remedy it, and look that they do not infringe in any respect that which is enjoined and commanded in the words of the said concession [of the Pope].36

Based on her words, the Queen understood her New World charge and interpreted it to mean conversion and protection of her new vassals. Unfortunately, a wied gulf separates the theory and the practice; a deep chasm cleavesits boundary between the word and the fact. The enunciation of policy is relatively facile; the design of the proper machinery to effect and administer this policy proves more difficult. Had Spain been located closer to the Americas, had

36 Sir Arthur Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America, New York, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 151-152.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tine New World...

the Queen been able to visit or even stay in her new colony, the page of history recording Indian servitude could well have changed. Isabella's policy reflected the hope, unfortunately, never to be re alized, of the Indies. While her devotion brooked no deviation, and the boundary of her fervor allowed no change, her approach re presented the Arawak's one firm chance to weather the transition. The simple Indian, ready, even anxious to embrace the Spanish God would have no trouble with the Queen, since Isabella subjected everything, even the indigence of her treasury, to her desire to con vert. Her policy, by nature, would have proved most satisfactory for the Arawak. Unfortunately, the Queen did not rule alone and her policy, given lip service by all, received but nominal support.

Husbands and wives supposedly grow more similar not only in physical appearance but in general outlook as time passes. The old wives would have us accept this principle, in any case. Possibly, even these old tales do not apply to royalty. Certainly, Isabella and Ferdinand furnished a clear exception. Though of the same blood, the Catholic Kings held little in common. The Moorish wars and the Wars of Succession united their early efforts. Both desired a united Spain; both sought a strong monarchy; both lacked funds. Thereafter, the similarities end.

Ferdinand, the King, before all else a soldier and politician, practiced temperance in food and drink. Like all successful leaders, he had the ability to make men follow through love and desire.37 The fact that Ferdinand had no legal power in Castile furnished a source of constant annoyance to him.38 The anger to the vexed prince quieted only after the Queen assured him that the royal division of power could be more nominal than real.39 Notwithstanding these words of comfort, Isabella remained the principal, almost the only, power, in Castile until her death. Doubtless, the King advised the Queen; certainly, his advice carried weight. Nonetheless, Isabella directed the destiny of Castile, and Ferdinand exercised no legal power in Castilian affairs until the death of Isabella and the regency.

37 Salvador de Madariaga, op. cit., p. 8. 38 William H. Prescott, op. cit., pp. 241-42. 39 Ibid., p. 243.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

Supposedly, the King supplied the model for Machavelli's Prin ce. Ferdinand did turn his attention more and more to the political. Legally excluded from Castilian affairs and inheritor of the Ara gonese interest in Europe generally, and in Naples and Sicily speci fically, this advent of Spanish political activity followed a pattern established earlier in Aragon. The King erected a complicated group of alliances, basically through marriage of his offspring, which fin ally gave the Empire of Charles V. He diverted Spanish interest from Africa, then America, toward Europe.

The influence of Ferdinand in Hispaniola, limited to an advi sory capacity during Isabella's reign, enjoyed full sway after her death. This realist, chained by no idealistic limit, viewed the Indies as a source of needed and desired wealth. Efficient exploitation awaited only proper design. This man, so accustomed to the direct action of the soldier, schooled in the craft of the politic, needing and desiring wealth to cement the fissures of his grandoise European ventures, could hardly be termed a desinterested protector of the New World peoples, the Queen's will nothwithstanding. Isabella viewed the New World as a kingdom to be gained for her God. The King saw an opportunity to exploit the resources and erected a more immediate kingdom in Europe.

The variant policy of the Catholic Kings toward the colonies would probably have remained rather academic had they not listened to the siren song of Columbus. Yet, the Admiral did more than open this world and transport the desire and policy of his lords. Through the power granted to him, the Discovered ruled the new colony. The policy of the Crown depended directly upon his ad ministration. His actions, crucial to the Arawak, directly condi tioned the efect of the Spanish crown on the red-skinned vassals.

The character of the Admiral almost defies description; a great deal has been written about the discovered, yet, an Alice-in-Wond erland quality pervades many of these works. According to his contemporaries, Columbus stood:

. . of good size and locks, taller than average and of sturdy limbs; the eyes lively and the other feature of the face in good proportion; the

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tlhe New World...

hair was very red, the complexion some what flushed and freckled; a good speaker, cautious and of great talent and an elegeant latinist and a most learned cosmographer, graceful when he wished, irate when he was crossed."40 ". . .In, the matters of religion he was a catholic of great devo tion . . . He fasted with utmost strictness... he quoted every hour that God has shown great favor as to David... he begged Quen Isabella to make a vow that she should spend all the wealth gained by the crown as a result of the discovery in winning back the land and holy house of Jerusalem. . . "41 Los Casas felt that the hand of Devine Destiny rested heavily on the Admiral's shoulder, in his history the Bishop stated "... the Divine and Supreme Master chose from among the soms of Adam who dwealt in these our days on earth that illustrious and great Col?n i.e, by name and his works first colonizer. . . "42 Yet, years before the Admiral wrote in his, own Book of Prophecies: "there will come a time in the long years of the wrold when the ocean sea will loosen the shackles that bind

things together and a great part of the earth will be opened by a new sailor such as the one who was Jason's guide, whose name was Thyphis, shall discover a new world, and then shall Thule no longer be last of lands.43

In 1476, the Admiral never doubted that he was, in truth, the new Thyphis and only had to tour the western sea to find his Cathay. Can any doubt exist that the Admiral believed himself the chosen instrument of God; a view shared, incidentally, by many of his contemporaries? This belief sustained the Discoverer during the years of rebuff. However, transported to the New World, this certainty of recitude engendered an inflexibility, an unwillingness to listen or accept advice, that only those chosen by God can afford.

Still, notwithstanding the celestial bounty, Columbus did not turn his back upon the world nor its goods. In presenting his bill for his projected services to the Crown, the Admiral displayed a fine appreciation of both position and wealth. In a desperate gamble, Columbus walked away from the Court and turned his step toward France when it seemed that the Kings would refuse his demand for

the golden spurs and his title of Admiral and Viceroy. Only a royal

40 Salvador de Madariaga, op. cit., p. 83. 41 Ibid., p. 83. 42 Ibid., pp. 17-18. 43 Ibid., p. 80.

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Edwin A. Levine H. H. A. N?m. 60

change of heart and a messenger, mounted on a swift horse, return ed Columbus to the banner of Castile. The Agreement of Santa Fe, promulgated on April 17, 1492, granted the Admiral not only sail but also elevation to a position among the greatest Grandees of Spain.

Yet, position without wealth must ever remain a beautiful ban quet table without food. In the Agreement of Santa Fe, Columbus obtained a one-eighth share in all the treasure his voyage would uncover. The Admiral's mind dwelled not only on the discovery of Cathay but on the gold of this distant land as well. In his note books and log, Columbus iterates and reiterates the gold, precious stones, spices, and crystals awaiting the discoveror.44 During his first ten days in the islands Columbus used the word "gold" twenty-one times in his account of his experiences.45 Furthermore, in the hour of discovery, at the moment when the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy, and Governor took substance, Columbus saw fit to cheat one of his crewmen out of a rather inconsequential reward offered the first sailor to sight land. Through the simple expedient of claiming that he saw lights the night before, the Ad

miral claimed first discovery. Who could argue the point with the all-victorious Discoveror? Certainly right and justice dictated that the God-guided Admiral would sight land first. Who can measure the effect of the small reward? Still, in this time of fulfilled promise, Columbus did not soar like the eagle but remained as earthbound as any barnyard rooster.

The "Man of Destiny" must labor up a steep hill under a heavy pack. The experience and the popularity of the Pinz?n brothers summoned Columbus5 hostility. The failure of the Admiral's colonial efforts conjured cruelty. The close of the fifteenth century, an epoch not marked by humanity, carried its Inquisition, its auto-de fes, its intolerance and religious hate as visual scars. The Spanish world, yes, even the world in general, accepted sanction and force

44 Ibid., pp. 90-91. 45 Germ?n Arciniegas, Caribbean, Sea of the New World, New York*

1946, p. 27.

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Julio-Diciembre de ?965 The Seed of Slavery in tftie New World...

as legitimate vehicles to a "worthy" end. The Admiral could hardly escape this tenet, this very basic approach, of his era. He, Don Cris tobal Col?n, the chosen Discoveror, the Admiral who had won his victory over disbelief, indifference, hostility, and the Ocean Sea itself, alone knew how to satisfy the demand of his Cathay. When

we know that God directs us, dare we take time to question any act even if we must hang, maime, or punish a main in many another refined manner to assure his loyalty to our cause?

The exaggerated "Sense of Destiny" of the Admiral limited his field of vision and served as a blinder. The ensuing character defects:

. . especially the lack of due appreciation for the labor of his subordinates, unwillingness to admit his shortcomings as a colonized, a tendency to complain and feel sorry for himself whenever the sovereigns, owing to these shortcomings, withdrew some measure of trust in him. . .46

conditioned and limited the Discoverer's administration. The Ad miral reached the apex of his career when the first caravel "hove to" in the first New World harbor. If there be a Destiny, the man

with a mission had fulfilled his appointed purpose. "For he was not like a Washington, a Cromwell, or a Bolivar, an instrument chosen by multitudes to express their wills and lead a cause; Columbus was a man with a mission, and such men are apt to be unreasonable and even disagreable to those who cannot see the mission."47

Therefore, in Col?n, we find a man of fixed purpose, filled with the certainly that unwavering belief affords. The real could only be viewed through the cloud of the dream.

Still, over emphasis on the dream quality of the Columbus administration could prove both dangerous and erroneous. Madariaga stated that the Admiral represented an early Don Quixote. The Ad

miral, however, tilted with real problems not windmills. His dream told him of wealth but his promise of wealth to the sovereigns can not be termed a dream. The Admiral acted as if he meant to ful

46 Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Boston, 1942, p. 46. 47 Ibid., p. 46.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

fill this promise. He won his ships, his spurs, his Cathay. We find no windmills here.

After the discovery, once his mission had been fulfilled, the pure gold of the Admiral's character had been rendered and the base metal remained. The Discoveror, like many a leader, held sway beyond the limit of his personal ability and greatness and suffered thereby. The Columbus pendulum swung full moment at the ins tant of discovery then slowly began to retrace its path. Confronted with a strange, new group of problems, the arsenal of his resources failed him. Because of the Admiral's limitations, the Arawak suf fered.

Columbus, ever a foreigner, an Italian among Spaniards, faced immediate difficulty from his own men. These first colonials forced jgiven degrees of their will not only upon the Arawak but upon the Admiral. These first colonials served as agents transporting Spanish experience to the New World.48 t?* The crew of criminals supposedly accompanying Columbus on

his first voyage must find its basis in myth rather than fact. These sailors, representative Castilians, probably magnified the character istics of valor and independence. Who but the brave and the inde pendent or self-sufficient would dare undertake such a voyage? In all, this crew represented a cross-section of the more valorous Cas tilian sailing man.49 Nonetheless, these men failed as colonists.

The sinking of the Santa Maria and the apparent defection of M. Alonso Pinz?n, who sailed away one night to seek his own treasure, posed a difficult problem for the Admiral. Left with but one ship, he could not carry all of his men home to Spain. Due to the sinking of his flag-ship as well as a desire to leave a settlement

48 The clearest case of disobedience took place when Roldan mounted an

open revolt against Columbus and his brother, Bartolom?. Furthermore, the failure of the first colonists at Navidad to obey the Admiral and follow his instructions

forced open conflict with the more warlike Ciguayo-Arawak, Caonabo. Columbus had to finish this war, and from the battle, took the first Arawak slaves. Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., pp. 102-110.

49 For an excellent treatment of this first crew, please Samuel Eliot Morison, op. cit., pp. 141-150.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tilie New World...

in Hispaniola, the Admiral planned the first New World colony. Thirty-nine men, all carefully selected, remained behind under the command of three loyal lieutenants, Diego de Arana, Pedro de Gu ti?rrez, and Rodrigo de Escobedo. Biscuit and wine for a year as well as artillery to prevent any difficulty guarded and supported the colonials. The Admiral commended the colony to the protection of his friendly lord, Guacanagari, and as a parting gift to all, gave his colonials seed to be sown. The prospect seemed promising.

Yet, the colonials had some rather independent ideas of their own. Apparently, they wished neither to sow nor reap. Possibly, a combination of hostile climate in addition to the stated Spanish phobia against manual labor conspired to forbid agriculture. Cert ainly, the shimmering vision of a mountain of gold must have caused agriculture to seem both tame and unprofitable. In any case, if we can believe the story later told by Guacanagari to Columbus and cited by both Las Casas and Navarrete, the colonials immediately launched their own private gold rush. The Spanish took whatever gave, or promised, satisfaction. Indian women satisfied one appetite, and when sated, the colonial sought other pleasure. They seized Indian food, used Indian labor. Then, in greed and envy, the Spanish split into factions. Caonabo, Cacique of the Cibao and far more war like than Guacanagari, isolated and eliminated one Spanish group moving into his territory. He then turned to attack the fort at Navidad, burned it, and killed all of the colonials.

In Spain, the disaster at Navidad remained unknown. When the Admiral called for volunteers to accompany him on a second voyage, he wanted and expected a thousand replies. Three thousand men, half of which boasted the blue blood of the courtier and the hidalgo, clamored to go along. From this array, Columbus selected one thousand five-hundred men. Like many a later day immigrant, these men, the best of mother Spain's sons, rushed to the New World to pluck their profit from her gold lined streets.50

The shock of a ruined Navidad offered no positive lesson to the new colonials. They behaved like men possessed, and so they

50 Fern?ndez de Navarre te, op. cit., p. 145.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

were possessed by a fever for wealth. Sickness, disease even famine visited the colony until total disaster and death marked every Spanish face. Then, though an ocean separated Hispaniola from Spain, the tidings of failure washed the shores of Spain.

Hidalgos did not answer the Admiral's third call for men. The Grown had to open the prisons and send its croppedear malefactors to people the New World.

". . All and every person. . . who may have committed or up to the publication of our letter, may commit any murder and offenses and other forms of crime of whatsoever nature and gravity they may be. . . shall go and serve in person in Espa?ola."51 For saftey's sake, Jews, Moslems, and heretics enjoyed exclusion from this edict. Further, though Columbus approved, even festered, this proclamation, he later swore "that numbers of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water from God nor man."52 "Yet, these were men who had come out with grand especta tions and who found themselves pinched with hunger, having dire storms to encounter, and vast labors to undergo; who were contained in due hands by no pressure of society; who were commanded by a foreigner, or by members of his familiy, when they knew to have enemies as court; who thought that Los Reyes themselves could scarcely reach them at his distance; who imagined that they had worked themselves out of all law and order. . . "53

The Crown, Columbus, and the colonials all shared given ex pectations in the Indies. Unfortunately, the stress on wealth flour ished paramount in one while conversion held first importance with another. Haring summarized the reasons for Spanish colonization. He places the desire for wealth at the very top of the list. This burning desire for gain propelled many a Spaniard westward, and certainly neither Columbus nor Isabella held any aversion to material gain. Yet, the Queen subordinated this desire to her religion and the Admiral looked toward gain as a fulfillment of the rank granted him so deservedly and a completion of his promise to his sovereign. Adventure is the second reason ascribed. Yet, desire to wander far

51 Charles Duff, op. cit., p. 149. 52 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., p. 107. 53 Ibid., pp. 110-111.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

afield graces given individuals more than others. Adventure might be emphasized on the first voyage, but its importance must decrease thereafter. The third reason centers about Spain's zeal to pro pagandize. This zeal husbanded best by Isabella, and to a lesser ex tent by the Admiral, furnished the Spanish claim to the Indies. The saintly Queen and the chosen Admiral would have to assume the duty of teaching Christ to the Arawak. Neither Ferdinand nor the colonials saw any reason to allow this zeal to stand in the way of practical solutions to their labor problem. As foreign adventures increased his need for gold, Ferdinand, in a letter to Ojeda and

Nicuesa instructed them to "get gold, humanly if you can, but at all hazards, get gold, and here are facilities (the Indians) for you."54 Finally, Haring offers discontent as a propelling factor. This dis satisfaction with old Spain must stand as a subordinate reason par ticularly after the true conditions of New World colonial life be came manifest.

The Crown, the Admiral, and the colonials all shared the same expectations. Unfortunately, they shared them to varying degrees and with a different emphasis. The Queen wanted conversion then wealth. The colonial desired wealth then conversion. Columbus, the viceroy, stood between the two. His position forced concession in both directions. For the Arawak, all history had telescoped. Many

incidents reaching far into a past unknown to him had delivered him into bondage.

54 C. H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America, New York, 1947, pp. 37-39; also, John Collier, op. cit., p. 101. "At the future Vera Cruz, the

Aztecs gave every help and hospitality; and the chief, or governor, agreed to send couriers to the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, at the capital. The Chief,

Teuhtile, construed literally the words of Cortes' address that the Spaniards were troubled with a disease of the heart, for which gold was a specific remedy."

Though this story takes place beyond the confines of Hispaniola, I include it because it describes the "Spanish sickness" so well. Possibly, Teuhtile did not go far astray in construing Cortes' words in a literal fashion.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

The Form of Impressed Labor

The Indian enjoyed a boon not offered many primitive people hurled into contact with a more advanced civilization. The Holy Church declared the Arawak worthy to receive the Holy Ghost. Therefore, the duty, the theoretical claim, of the Spaniard in the New World rested upon the conversion of the Indian. In Spain, a Queen reigned who assumed this task both willingly and seriously. Nonetheless, the impressment of Indian labor in Hispaniola proceed ed with amazing rapidity.

Impressed labor followed two basic patterns. Both systems evolved simultaneously, both grew side by side designed to solve the problem of exploitation. Slavery, legal and real, sprang up al most immediately. The second form of impressing labor developed more slowly and culminated in encomienda. Practically, the Indian could find little difference between the systems, yet important theoretical differences existed. Actual slavery supplied only a small segment of the labor pool. However, this unlimited bondage is easier to understand and, therefore, provides a ready point of departure for the investigation of the more complex encomienda.

Slavery, the absolute ownership of one individual by another, was known in Europe quite some time before the Admiral's first voyage. The Roman, Moslem, and Visigothic heritage of Spain certainly offered nothing prohibiting the holding of slaves.55 Rather

55 "There were from the beginning two kinds of unfree Indians in the colonies: chattel slaves, presumably prisoners captured in a *just war,' that is, when they refused submission to the Spaniards; and *free' Indians held in Enco mienda." C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 53, quoting Lesley Byrd Simpson, Studies in the Administration of the Indians of New Spain, IV, The Emancipation of the Indian Slaves and the Resettlement of the Freedman, 1548-1555, Berkeley, Cali fornia, 1940, pp. 20-24. I cannot help but feel that the term "from the begin ning" is ambiguous. Slaves are taken early in the first voyage. Encomienda is more gradual, growing as repartimiento under Colon and Bobadilla until regular ized and given official form by Ovando in 1503. Furthermore, Spain knew slavery. The Romans held slaves, and during the Moslem conquest, the Moors enslaved Christians. See Charles E. Chapman, The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, The Catholics, New York, 1900, pp. 41-2.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

the very reverse proved true. Further, the voyage of the Portuguese navigator Gil Eaunes opened up a source of Negro slaves to both Portugal and Spain.56 The vogue of Negro slavery in both Spain and Portugal remained limited, however. Nonetheless, this limita tion probably finds its source in economic reality rather than on any social conscience. However, since the Church held Indians worthy of conversion, and since this policy received the active sup port of the Queen, New World aborigines could be visited with this yoke only after rather rigid requirements had been met. If the Indian refused Christianity, if he resisted with force the coloniza tion, the Spaniard could embark upon a just war. Any captive taken in such a war fell beneath the yoke of slavery. He became the

warrior's personal property and chattel. Yet, even this doctrine, enunciated in a far off Spain, depended upon Columbus and his crew for meaning.

Columbus, even during the enchantment of his first voyage, constantly seemed to "trim sail" in his treatment and approach to the Indian. Though the captain insisted that value be given for value in all trade with the Indians (of course, value is relative; a Spanish hawk's bell or glass bead was considered value for gold dust), this same captain who stated in his diary:

. . . and afterwards I sent them to a house. . . and they brought me seven head women some of them small (young) and some larger (more mature) ... I did this because the men would behave themselves better in Spain having women from their homeland than they would without them.57

This callous capture of seven "head" of Indian woman, their removal from home and family, the purpose for which the captain seized them speaks for itself. The fact that the doctrine of just war can be translated to mean unilateral just war seems obvious. In

56 "Princely persistence was finally rewarded when Gil Eaunes rounded the cape in 1434 and found the reputed terrors of the ocean south of 28? North Latitude did not exist. Within a few years, ships had gone far enough to capture Negro Slaves and trade for gold dust." Samuel Eliot Morison, op. cit., pp. 30-31.

57 Fern?ndez de Navarrete, op. cit., V. I. p. 5 5.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

1495, Columbus sent slaves to Spain. A year later, Bartolom?, his brother, followed suit.58 The very Catholic Isabella faced a problem. At first she temporized, and ordered Rodr?guez de Fonseca to sell the slaves in Andaluc?a. She countermanded this order and directed

Fonseca to impound the slaves pending clarification of the legal as pects of the sale. On June 20, 1500, she ordered the surviving Indians freed and returned to their country of origin.59 As far as the Arawak is concerned, this series of episodes erected the limits on his technical slavery.

However, the doctrine of just war did fit the warlike Caribs. They did not bend easily to Spanish rule; they dared resist. As such, Spanish war parties, seeking slave labor, made regular calls along the northern coast of Venezuela60 and to the southern Antilles. This

area became the focal point of Spanish slaving activities and re mained such well into the 15 th Century.

Yet, even in the case of the cannibal Caribs, obviously taken in a just war, the Queen resisted the acceptance of their enslave

ment. The Admiral, reporting on this warlike group, suggested that their souls could be saved far more efficiently in slavery. What matters the body when an immortal soul hangs in the balance? Further, these Indians represented a source of ready income. Both arguments must have tempted the crown. Nonetheless, the Queen informed the Admiral that his proposal "... is suspended for the present until there is some other way of doing it {conversi?n) there, and let the Admiral write what he thinks of this5'. The reply con tains no reprimand; none should be expected since the halo effect of the discovery still glittered round the Admiral's brow. Rather, the door swung shut, for the moment, even on Carib slavery.61 How

58 C. H. Haring, op. cit., pp. 53-54. 59 Fern?ndez ee Navarrete, op, cit., Vol. II, p. 173. 60 History is filled with interesting "if" propositions. Certainly, Las Casas'

experiment in humane Indian treatment at Cuman?, Venezuela might have escaped slaughter and failure had the Caribs of the area not had prior contact with Spanish slavers. This is pure speculation but interesting nonetheless.

61 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 94-96.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tine New World...

ever, time reversed this policy, and as we have seen, many a Carib felt the sting of slavery.

In summary, the Arawak escaped technical slavery based on the Church's dictum that they were worthy of conversion, and their lack of desire, or inability, to resist Spanish colonization. Since Spain held the New World colonies under the terms of the Patronato and since Isabella was very sensitive to the desires of the Church, tech nical slavery never gained a real foot-hold among the Arawaks of Santo Domingo. This is true in spite of the efforts made by many of the early colonists, and the Columbus brothers in particular, to tap this source of exportable wealth. The Caribs, however, fell under the terms of the doctrine of "just war" and the Spaniards hunted them as slaves. Most important, however, is the fact that slavery could not and did not answer the question of labor supply. Further more, since the Arawak of Hispaniola did not fall under the rule of technical slavery another form of social organization regulating the day to day contact of Spaniard and Arawak was demanded. It is here that we must begin to trace the development of enco mienda.

Encomienda did not spring suddenly on the scene in Hispaniola. A seed, planted during the first colonial attempt at Navidad, gave shoot, then leaf, and finally the plant. The word encomienda would

mean but little to the early colonials since the term itself defined an institution developed slowly over a period of years. Did the Spaniard call upon his vocabulary at all to describe his early use of Indian labor? Did an act so necessary and so logical demand either word or definition?

With or without name, the Spaniards availed himself of Indian food, women, and labor. Their appetite knew no limit. The hidalgo and the courtier, accustomed to a finer life, made ever increasing demands on Arawak resources. Since primitives seldom store life's necessities beyond their immediate demands, the pressure mounted between the Spaniard, insisting upon dole, and the Indian, unable to understand these requirements much less satisfy appetites.62 Final

62 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 42.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

ly, in 1494-1495 the explosi?n occurred and the first revolution of the New World flammed. The defensless Arawak furnished but light exercise for the organized Spaniard; the revolution ended quickly. As a result, the Admiral determined both to formalize and regu late the demand on the Arawak. Instead, he levied a tax payable in a flanders hawk bell full of gold or a given amount of cotton.

This tax, payable quarterly, represented the full demand of Spaniard upon Arawak. A tin medal, hung around the aboriginal neck, sig nified that payment Had been made. However, if any Indian could not satisfy this tax, labor would replace the gold or the cotton.

At once, the Admiral attacked two problems. His dream of New World gold receded like a mirage before the short supply offered by Hispaniola. If gold existed, let the Arawak mine it and bring it to him. Possibly, he could satisfy his promise to his monarchs. Still, if the gold and the cotton did not come to him, carried in Indian hands, then these hands could be turned to forced labor in the mine or in the field. The Admiral faced the fact that his

colony sorely needed Indian aid. Without the labor of the Arawak, Spanish survival remained problematical and the hope of wealth? a mere chimera. At once, Columbus attempted to limit the drain on Arawak resources and to guarantee both Spanish survival and wealth.63 His expedient, a compromise, could satisfy no one. The Indian found the tax onerous; the Spaniard wanted more, not less? labor.

In 1497, the Admiral received letters of patent so that he could grant repartimientos of lands to Spaniards.64 The repartimien to started in the time of James the Conqueror and his conquest of the Balearics and Valencia. He granted land taken from the infi dels to his followers. Though no specific statement regarding the fact hat the captive or enslaved Moors went with the land, it is inherently probable that such a transfer took place.65 Columbus, even before the receipt of formal power, granted land to followers

63 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 43. 64 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., p. 107. 65 Roger B. Merriman, The Spanish Empire in the Old World and m the

New, New York, 1918, Vol. II, p. 232.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

in the New World. Since no Moors lived on the land and because

its value would remain forever unrecognized without labor, the use of Indian labor for non-payment of taxes filled the void. This tiny wedge served to force the door of impressment of the Arawak toil in Hispaniola. Beginning in March 1495, the intrigues at Court against the

Admiral mounted. Though Columbus obviously still enjoyed the basic faith of Isabella, it is equally obvious that his enemies now felt that the time propitious and he ammunition sufficient to begin their attack. In August of the same year, Aguado left C?diz to sail to Santo Domingo to investigate he supposed mis-management of the Admiral. These first signs of doubt prompted Columbus to leave Santo Domingo on March 10, 1496 to defend himself before the Court. He arrived in C?diz on June 11th theatrically garbed in penitent's colthes. Meanwhile, his brother, Bartolom? remained in Santo Domingo and filled the post of Adelantado to which Colum bus had named him illegally.66

When Columbus returned to Santo Domingo on August 31, 1498, he found the situation in an advanced state of deterioration.

Certainly, we have demonstrated that Columbus' solution proved satisfactory to no one. Bartolom?, during his short period of rule, did little more than alienate still more colonists and regarding the Indian, he adopted the simple expedient of repression. The state of distrust and dislike grew among the colonists until, in 1498, Francisco Roldan withdrew from Santo Domingo (the city) with a group of about forty men and mounted an open rebellion again st Bartolom? and the absent Admiral. This particular action is of transcendental importance to this paper since the final settlement granted to Roldan and his followers repartimientos of land and Indians. In a word, Rold?n's victory secured for himself and his fol lowers grants of land and the services of the Indians on the lands.

05 Only Isabella of Castile had the authority to name an Adelantado in the New World at this time. According to Las Casas, Colon was called to task, but the appointment was allowed to stand.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

This is a crucial link in the chain of Indian impressed labor and, as much, demands closer investigation.

Las Casas, doubtless speaking in part from a pro-Columbus, pro-Indian perjudice, characterizes the Roldan band as a group need ing little inducement to rebel, since several of the band were mur derers, delinquents, and others condemned to death because of gra ve crimes.67 Las Casas them described the modus operandi of the Roldan band which:

"Went from Indian village to Indian village, each one taking the women

that pleased him, and (taking) as many servants as the migth wish, whether or not they (the servants) were daughters or sons of chiefs.. . robbing any gold they had and any other thing that might value, and cutting the ears and killing those who did not serve to their liking, and an infinity of similar things."63

In effect, Roldan and his band had separated themselves from the main body of colonists and were, quite literally, taking whatever the land had to offer including the services of the Indians.

Yet, in the face of this open revolt, Columbus did not move against Roldan. Columbus turned a face so conciliatory to the bel licose Roldan, so surprising when the details of the situation and men are known, that true copies of the correspondence between Roldan and Columbus are included in the appendix of this paper. There are three possible reasons for Columbus' failure to take direct re pressive action. Las Casas obviously shares the first two of these arguments, included in his paper, but he is mute on the third. First, Columbus feared, after his recent difficulties, any new jarring note which might reach the ear of the Catholic Kings.69 Second, he could not count on the support of his own subordinates in Santo Domin go.70 Third, apparently he was satisfied to let Roldan have his repar timiento. A precedent, under force, would be established. The Spa

67 Bartolom? de las Casas, Historia de las Indias, Vol. I, Chap. CXLIX^ p. 69.

* Ibid., Vol. I, Chap. CXLVIII, p. 65. 69 Ibid., Vol. I, Chap. CXLIX, p. 69. 70 Ibid., Vol. I, Chap. CLIII, p. 79.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 T'he Seed of Slavery in tino New World...

niards would have their labor, and should the Crown complain, force majeur would supply the plea. In the meanwhile, a tremendous amount of local patronage became available to Columbus. He could use this patronage to retard or reverse the wave of unpopularity and as an added bit of value, end the Roldan difficulty. Of the assence is the fact that by 1499, the systematic assignment of land and Indian labor had become a fact.71

Whether or not Columbus hoped the patronage made available would bolster his waning fortunes will probably never be known. If true, his hope was to be confounded. General disappointment in the administrative potential of the Admiral and his brothers grew at Court. The vision of Cathay, of opportunity, had appeared clearly to the Admiral. The Court now dropped a veil before his eyes and the vision faded. It would be useless to repeat the story of Bobadilla's appointment, of his arrival, of his seizure of power, and of Columbus' return to Spain in chains. However, Bobadilla's advent must be regarded as a day of extreme importance to the Arawak. In a short period of three years, the exploitation of the Indians in Santo Domingo raced ahead. Haring feels that the worst elements of the colony gained control.72 The general situation dete riorated to rapdly that the Court on February 15, 1502, impatient and disappointed, replaced Bobadilla naming the just and stern Nico l?s de Ovando as his successor.73 Above all else, the Crown charged

Ovando with the responsibility of regulating repartimiento.

In a period spanning a little more than nine years, the Spanish had cemented together the elements of a system whereby both the land and the service of the Arawak supported their colony. Ovando could not escape the problems which beset both Columbus and Bobadilla before him. Ovando gave the Indies his encomienda, a system all to similar ro the repartimiento established by usage. Ho wever, Ovando inserted clauses guarding against the rampant ex

71 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 43. 72 Ibid., p. 43. 73 Columbus protested. He rather fancied the job for himself.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

ploitation of the Arawak. He could do no less while the Queen still lived.

Based on Ovando's recommendations, the sovereigns issued the orders of March and December 1502 finally legalizing the impres sment of Indian labor in Hispaniola. In mitigation, the orders clearly stated and provided for both moderation of toil and fair wages. In order to assure civilization and conversion of the Indians, the Span iards received instructions to gather them into villages under the protection of a protector or administrator. Naturally enough, the Arawak had fled the Spanish areas and sought the back country and the hills. The colonials doubtless appreciated the concentration of the Indian population in villages where the work supply proved easier to tap. While both Crown and colonial wanted concentration of the Arawak population, they desired this relocation for diverse motives. Even the Crown recognized the wisdom of proper location, however, and instructed Ovando to buid his villages as near to the mines as possible. Excluding the labor due the Crown, the Arawak remained free to do, or not to do, more or less whatever he pleased.

With the exception of the Caribs, the enslavement of the Indians ceased.74

Therefore, encomienda really offered nothing new. This sys tem stands as inheritor of a process starting with the colony at Na vidad, continuing through the unauthorized actions of the hidalgos demand on the indians during the second colonial attempt, moving into the Admiral's tax and forced labor in lieu of taxes and then into repartimiento of the Discoveror and of Bobadilla.75 In effect, the Crown attempted to moderate and formalize the system evolved in the colonies through necessity and usage.

Unfortunately, Isabella acted too late. Furthermore, the dis tance between Spain and Hispaniola rendered any sanction almost worthless. For a period of over nine years, the colonials, operating within the most general principles enunciated by the Crown, had managed the Indians to their own colonial satisfaction. The Queen,

74 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 44. 75 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., p. 104.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

doubtless ill informed dealt in generalities rather than specifics. The royal "thou shalt treat well" or "thou shalt not enslave" gave the colonial a great deal of latitude. He took full advantage of this area of maneuverability in erecting his repartimiento. Yet, even if the Queen possessed full information from the very outset and if she ordered the moderation of encomienda in 1492 instead of 1502, the result would probably remain the same.

Encomienda postulated moderation; the colonial demanded more labor. Since the Spaniards in America, already accustomed to independence enough, enjoyed a moat as broad as the Atlantic, royal desire, even the King's command, offered little to fear. The land exacted its toll in labor. The Indian supplied the sinews of the sys tem. Royal orders notwithstanding, this basic fact, only partially recognized by the Crown, presaged the failure of the moderating elements of the new encomienda.

Nicol?s de Ovando, architect of the encomienda system, sup plies a fine example of early good will changed after extended con tact with the colonials. In his position as Governor of Hispaniola, the problems of the Spaniards, naturally enough, became his pro blems. Neither Columbus nor Bobadilla, in his short tenure, could successfully stay the colonial march to wider exploitation. Since sanction of consequence proved impossible, the Spaniard could take the bit in his teeth and run. Planning a system of government on paper offers difficulty enough; operating this system in the face of opposition challenges the greatest. Ovando, in action, proved less thant great.

While the Spaniards were finding this New World their oyster, the Indians were growing more and more resentful. The newcomers would not let the Indian women alone. The men were sent to the mines for a

stay ? which meant eight months of hard work ? and the women were left behind. When the men returned, they found their home in ruins.

The women, rather than raise children to be slaves, killed them at birth.76

La Casas described the hunt for the Arawak fleeing encomien da. We need only an ice floe to remind us of our own Uncle Tom.

76 Germ?n Arciniegas, op. cit., p. 53.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

Dogs tore out a caciques bowels,77 exquisite torture rendered death a release.

Whether or not Ovando ever admitted, even to himself, that he fell completely under colonial sway will probably never be known. His action in Xaragua, should dispell any doubt on this point how ever. Friction developed between the Spaniards and the Arawak in that area. The settlers, employing the one certain device to gain of ficial attention, informed the Governor of an impending revolt. Ovando, accompanied by ninety horsemen and three hundred foot soldiers, a potent striking force, marched westward toward Xaragua.

Anacaona, Queen of the province and a woman of rare beauty according to Las Casas, summoned her fendatories to do her honor, and quite incidentally, to protect her. On the approach of Ovando, she went to meet him doubtless hoping to charm him as she charmed the Adelantado, Bartolom? Columbus, years before. Ovando, made of sterner stuff, managed to resist.

Anacaona arranged pleasures calculated to warm the Spanisr heart. However, the settlers whispered their message of revolt into the Governor's ear, and he listened. Ovando drew all the feudatery caciques to the bohio of the Queen. On his signal, his followers seized the Indian leaders, bound them, and put the bohio to the torch. Every Arawak ruler in Xaragua perished in the blaze. The next day, Las Casas5 beautiful Queen felt the Spanish rope placed around her throat. The revolt, whether real or imaginary, never materializ ed. Afterward, the Spaniards founded a town near the site of the village of Anacaona and called it La Villa de la Vera Paz (The vil lage of True Peace).73

In 1504, the Good Queen died. Fortunately, her vision could not pierce the veil of distance. She went to her rest ignorant of the absolute failure, given her point of view, of her Indian policy. Yet, in that last moment if her eye had fallen on Hispaniola, bitterness

would have filled her soul.

77 Ibid., p. 54. 78 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., pp. 144-146.

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Julio-Dieiembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in tine New World....

She had maintained that the Indians were to be free: she would have

seen their condition to be that of slaves. She had declared that they were to have spiritual instruction: she would see them less instructed! than dogs. She had insisted that they should receive payment for their labort she would have found that all they received was a mockery of wages* just enough to purchase once, perhaps, in the course of a year, some chil dish triffles from Castille. She had always ordered they should receive kind treatment and proper maintenance: she would have seen them literally watching under the tables of their masters, to catch crumbs which fell there. She would have beheld the Indians laboring at the mine under cruel buffetings, his family neglected, perishing, enslaved; she would have mark ed him on his return after eight months of dire toil, enter a place which, knew him not, or a household that could only sorrow over the gaunt creature who had returned to them, and mingle their sorrows with his; or, still more sad, she would have seen Indians who had been brough from far distant homes linger at the mines, too hopeless, or too careless, to return.79

Yet the dregs of bitterness of the Arawak cup still remained. Disregarding the rather short rule of Philip in Spain, the regency

of Castile passed to Ferdinand with the death of his Queen. From beyond the grave, through the medium of her will, Isabella charged her husband with the care of her Indian vassals. While too harsh a

judgment of Ferdinand's actions could prove unfair, there is little doubt that his worldly and material view seriously affected the Arawak. Ferdinand's own words aptly summarize his approach.

After all, our Lorcl has begun to give us such good prospects in these mines, it is fitting that I should assist and see to it that nothing is left undone that can reasonably be done.80

Until the King assumed the regency of Castile, Hispaniola remained the private preserve of Isabella and Castile. To all intents and purposes, the loyal subjects of Aragon received no benefit from the colony. In 1511, Diego Columbus, serving as governor of His paniola, lost his right to distribute encomiendas. Pero Ib??ez de Ibarra and Rodrigo de Albuquerque journeyed to Hispaniola in 1514

79 Ibid., pp. 150-151. 80 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 46.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

with the official title repartidores de indios to redistribute the In dians. Both fell under the strong influence of Lope de Conchillos, Secretary to the King. The new repartidores took the encomienda away from any settled married colonists and awarded the courtiers in Spain.

Now, the Aragonese at court found a method whereby the wealth of the Castilian colony ? the labor of the Arawak ? could be tapped for their profit. These Grandees of Aragon had no inten tion of migrating to, or even visiting, the New World. All of the evils of absentee ownership followed. For the Arawak another Cross Was thrust upon the bended shoulder of the Indian by the very people who had come to teach him the meaning of the Sacrifice of the Cross. Further, no matter how cruel the yoke of the settlers, it could never match the depredations of absentee ownership. Ste

wards, loyal to an absent lord, had to seek newer and more effective methods of getting more work and more productions out of the Indian encomiendas. Further, the seizure of encomiendas from the settlers only set up a chain reaction demanding still a greater sup ply of Indian labor. The colonials had become far too accustomed to Indian labor to live without it. The Crown stood powerless to negate their demand. In the end the encomiendas taken had to be partially (at least) replaced. The Aragonese Grandees would hear of no surrender of their recent gains. The cry for more labor, men to work both mine and field, increased in its intensity.

1510, in order to take full advantage of the "good prospects" given by the Lord, the King issued a Real C?dula allowing the capture of Indians in neighboring islands. He commanded that they be given the boon of Christianity and that they be treated just like the "free" Arawak of Hispaniola.81 Naturally, no one missed the

point; new labor rested on neighboring Arawak islands. Further, if a little resistence could be stimulated and just war joined, even the paper and formal restrictions faded. This right to seek new labor on neighboring islands completes the circle. Under Ferdinand, the practical requirements of Hispaniola received an emphasis desired

81 Ibid., p. 54.

,44

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by the earliest colonists. The solution of the lands demand for labor, so simple if uncluttered with moral consideration, progressed even

more rapidly with royal support. The Queen could do little to halt this progression; the King opened new islands to aid its process.

For the moment, the Spaniards had found their answer to the question of the land and its exploitation. Whether we consider the direct action of the Navidad settlers, the tax of Columbus, the re partimiento of the Admiral and Bobadilla, or the encomienda of Ovando and Diego Columbus, we return, full swing, to the same basic system. Any discordant note in this progression emanated from the Church or Isabella. Muted by distance, their quiet voices fell on unhearing ears. The colonials behaved with straight line logic. A blessed land and a primitive people indicated a master-slave rela tionship with undeniable force. No matter the semantics, a very real slave system grew.

Las Casas pours and ocean of ink into his description of the cruelty of the system. Yet, this cruelty served only as a tool of repression, a guarantee of control of the multitude by the few. Repression with disease and hard work, decimated the Indian popu lation. By 1530, the land of the Arawak felt the barefooted tread of few of its natives. The System, whatever its name, when applied to the Indian carried the seed of its own destruction. Unfortunately, the death of encomienda depended directly upon the death of the native. Then, since the demand for labor did not die with the Arawak, a new labor supply, the African, rose to fill the gap death had carved in the Indian ranks. The growth of negro slavery re

mains another story however.

Under the tropical sun, washed by the abundant rains, Spain's answer to her New World labor problem grew into the hideous plant of slavery. The lush tropics boasting many a class of flora of nightmare quality, received an old world mutation of a seed, not completely unknown to her, and in her fertility, brought forth a monstrous growth previously unknown to either world. A slavery, so voracious that it consumed whole segments of a race, grew so tall, spread its branches and leaves so wide around; that it obscured the face of God in His Heaven.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

Yet, the Queen had insisted on the conversion and protection of her vassals, the Church demanded that they know the Spanish God. Men rose in Spain and in Hispaniola, not only after the fact of slavery but before the act as well, demanding that Spain obey both the letter and the spirit of her charge. These efforts to eradi cate or mitigats the system supply the basis of the next chapter.

Reaction and Attempted Reform

The attempts to eradicate or retard the impressment of Indian labor proceeded from two sources. Certainly, any action in any direction had proced directly from the monarch wearing the crown of Castile. The Church constituted the second source and acted in consort with the Queen, while she lived, and prodded a less willing Ferdinand, or even a Charles, after she had gone. For the sake of clearer discussion, a separation of Crown and Church action would prove helpful. However, the efforts of both, cut from a whole cloth with Church and Crown woven into the pat tern, defies any separation.

Furthermore, the opposition of the Church and the Rulers did not impose a steady, direct-line pressure. The action of the Crown, even in word, differed as rule passed from Isabella to Ferdinand. The policy of the Church, though generally static with regard to the Indians, varied in effect when administered by the Borgia Alexander or the reforming Paul III. A world of dif ference separated the administrations of these Popes. Further, the reign of the Catholic Kings marked a resurgence of religious inde pendence from Rome, and the Holy See could not count on the support or aid of all of the Orders peopling the New World. The Dominican view toward helping the Indian took "such root in that brotherhood as almost to become one of the tenets of their faith/'82 The Franciscans, rivals of the Dominicans, held a dia metrically opposite view. Las Casas even hints at a hidden motiva tion suggesting the encomiendas held by the Franciscans colored

82 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 174.

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their action. A serious rift between the orders, doubtless based on old rivalry, developed and outwardly centered around Indian treat ment in the colony.

Strangely enough, the first major effort at reform finds its source in encomienda. Ovando received his royal preference based on his strength of character, devoutness, and administrative ability. His system, specifically designed not only to guarantee labor but to protect the Arawak, attempted to reconcile two ends standing poles apart. In practice, the system created by Ovando had to gra vitate either toward the colonial or the Arawak view. Ovando shared the colonial's heritage; the choice made by the Governor reflected his orientation. Other men, less preferred by royalty, heard the call of reform and rushed to fill the void created by Ovando's default, and cried for change.

Ferdinand, who felt the economic pinch of his European ad ventures, turned toward the colony in an attempt to replenish his treasury. He told his lieutenants, "Get gold, .. .at all hazards, get gold.. .'m Operating within the limits of such a royal climate of opinion, the ever-increasing destruction of encomiendas protective stipulations should surprise no one.

Then, in almost cyclical fashion, when the extreme of oppres sion shocked even the callous, the cry for reform swelled. Isabella lay dead almost seven years when the Dominican, Antonio Mon tesinos, mounted his pulpit in Santo Domingo on Advent Sujiday, 1511, and pronounced his "terrible words." In words both "pierc ing and terrible" he castigated the colonials telling them that they lived in mortal sin because of the tyranny exercised over the In dians. On what grounds did they impose this servitude? How could they explain the wars, the labor, the neglect? Their action gave them as much hope for salvation as the chance enjoyed by Moor or Turk.84

The Spaniards reacted immediately and vehemently. By what right did this friar tell them that their treatment of the Indians

83 Ibid., pp. 170-1. 84 Ibid., pp. 176-77.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

prejudiced their immortal souls? They demanded a retraction; Montesinos promised another sermon. The colonists might have expected a retraction, for they filled the pews of the Church on the following Sunday and spilled over into the aisles. Montesinos retracted nothing; he returned to the attack and forced another dose of his very strong medicine down unwilling Spanish throats.85 In effect, the friar threw his gauntlet not only at the feet of the colonials but before the very seat of the throne .

The process, once started, snowballed. The Dominicans sent Montesinos to Spain to plead his cause. The inhabitants rushed a Franciscan to the King to counterbalance, the Dominican action. Ferdinand, usually practical and seldom stupidly cruel,86 saw the necessity for action. Certainly no one doubted the Indians remain ed free men; obviously they should not be worked so hard that conversion became problematical. Of course their bodies merited food, covering, and shelter even a King could readily accede to these verities. Then, after ordering the Dominicans to cease discus sing such obvious principles, he summoned a commision of the clergy to investigate and report to him. The end result of this and another junta gave the Indian and the colonial the Laws of Burgos of 1512.

The committee found, in principle, that the Indians should be free but that encomienda remained a necessity. Again, we have a nice contradiction in terms. Given this preamble, they postulat ed the following legislation:

1. The ablest Indians were to be chosen as teachers and so trained.

2. Specific rules regarding satisfactory conditions of labor, food and instruction were offered.

3. Those Indians who were desirous of becoming Christians and demonstrated that they could govern themselves should be freed.

85 Roger B. Merriman, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 234. 86 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., p. 177.

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4. All Indians must give nine months of service each year to the Spaniards. One-third of all the Indians must be kept at service in the mines at all times.

As Haring states, these laws actually sanctioned the system devised by Ovando while attempting to check more effectively the tendency to unlimited exploitation possible under Ovando's encomienda?1 With minor additions in 1513 and 1518, the Law of Burgos became the basic code for Indian relations. It is not surprising that the law satisfied no one. The colonial resented any abridgement of his assumed right of Indian exploitation. The refor mer, such as Las Casas, denounced laws regarding the type of corral in which the Indians were to be kept and the type of fodder they were to be fed. This code failed for two basic reasons. First, though the statute included enabling legislation (to some degree), it provided no real method of control or sanction. Even more im portant is the fact that even these minor concessions trespassed the scope of the colonials. They adamantly refused to cooperate and the Crown could do nothing about it.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Cuba, another and by far the great est defender of the Indian ?Fray Bartolom? de las Casas? slowly drew near his moment of revelation. His father had sailed with Columbus on the Admiral's second voyage. The elder Las Casas returned to Seville in 1498 a rich man.88 In 1502, Bartolom? de las Casas sailed for Hispaniola with Ovando. Later, in 1510, he accepted Holy Orders, and as a priest, joined Diego Vel?zquez in his Cuban adventure. Las Casas admittedly witnessed many a slaughter in the conquest and subsequently held an encomienda. Since he had taken Holy Orders, he preached a sermon from time to time. Reflecting on a subject, his eye fell upon Chapter 34 of Ecclesiastics, verses 18 through 22. His sermon for Pentecost Sunday, 1514, took form and with it, the desire to turn his back upon the past and upon his encomienda grew. "With the possible exception of Saint Paul, quick

87 C. H. Haring, op. cit., pp. 48-49. 88 Fern?ndez de Navarrete, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 40.

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Edwin A. Levin? R. H. A. N?m. 60

conversions, even of priests, remain suspect. How many hours Las Casas mulled over his decision can never be known. Yet, he ascribes the final grain thrown into the balance to his preparation and the words:

He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is ridicu lous: and the gifts of the unjust man are not accepted.

The Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked: neither is he pacified for sin by a multitude of sacrifices.

Whosoever bringeth an offering of goods of the poor doeth as one that killeth the son before his father's eyes.

The bread of the needy is their life, he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood.

He that taketh away his neighbor's living slayeth him; and he that defraudeth the laborer of his hire is a bloodshedder.

With this scaffolding, Las Casas prepared his sermon and his future. As Sir Arthur Helps noted, Las Casas strangely omitted the twenty-third and last verse of this chapter. Its content, almost prophetic for Las Casas, failed to receive any attention. It reads, "When one man prayeth, and another curseth, whose voice will the Lord hear?89

Las Casas, converted to the Indian cause, realized that nothing of moment could be accomplished in Hispaniola. Cuba offered even less a possibility for reform. After a short stop in Hispaniola, Las

Casas proceeded to Spain accompanied by the fiery Dominican, Antonio Montesinos. Both priests shared the view that the Law of Burgos had failed. They arrived in Plasencia during Christmastide of 1515 and secured an immediate audience with Ferdinand. The

King referred Las Casas to his Minister, Lope de Conchillos, and Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, neither a friend to the Indians.

Las Casas poured out his tale of death and destruction only to be interreupted by the Bishop answering, "See here, you stupid fool, what is this to me or to the King," to which Las Casas replied, "Is it nothing to your Lordship or to the King, that all these souls

89 Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 322-323.

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should perish."90 The Bishop's reply remains unrecorded. Ferdinand never had opportunity to reply to this callous comment; Las Casas never saw him after the first interview, for Ferdinand started his journey into eternity from the roadside town of Madrigalejos on January 23, 1516.

The death of the King and the succeeding regency of Cardinal Ximenes allowed a change in Indian policy. Las Casas found an ear ready to listen. The Cardinal turned his back upon the pompous and prejudiced Bishop of Burgos and listened to his humble, but no less prejudiced, New World priest. The Regent asked Las Casas to select members of a committee to journey to the New World not only to report conditions but to take steps to alleviate the situation. Las Casas, long absent from Spain, pleaded ignorance of the men. Therefore the Cardinal selected three Hieronymite friars.

The friars sailed armed with two sets of alternative orders.

Had the first group of orders been invoked, the encomienda system faced demolition. These orders instructed the monks to take away all Indians belonging to members of the Council of the Indies or other absentees. A court of impeachment for all officers, "who had lived as Moors without a King," followed. These instructions further stipulated a visit by the monks to every island so that the land could be studied and villages relocated in line with Indian desires. Administrators, married and paid by the Crown, should dwell in each settlement. The orders also stipulated that conversion de manded first attention, education should be opened to the Indians, and a hospital (poorhouse) erected in each village.

Regarding the very crux of the matter, labor, no further removal of Indian men to the mines could follow. If a man lived

in a farming area, his tax could be paid in produce. One-third of all Indian men living near the mines and between twenty or fifty years of age, must seek employment in the mines. This order directed a two month work period, however. The order divided all gold

mined into three parts. One part belonged to the King, the other two parts to the Indians from which they would pay for tools, the

90 Ibid., p. 337.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

ten to twenty mares, fifty cows and six to seven hundred pigs allotted each village. An Indian utopia lay on the designing board.

What of the Spaniards denuded of labor and with the mine shaft closed to them? The Indian would pay for his land with his gold. Any married Spaniard could obtain a gold license by paying only a tenth of the mines proceeds to the Crown while an unmarried man would pay a seventh. Further, every man could hold up to five slaves taken from the cannibal Caribs.91 In fact, these orders never had a chance.

Still, the friars sailed with another set of instructions. If the aforementioned orders seemed impractical, they should allow enco mienda to stand but suggest amendments to the Laws of Burgos. Las Casas claimed colonial agents influenced the monks. Possibly so; nonetheless, their arrival caused consternation in the colony. However, the monks moved cautiously. They did "free" Indians who belonged to absentee owners, but they also reported to Xirne nes that the colony would certainly perish without Indian labor* They asked that new colonists be married and that wife, seed, and farm implements accompany them in their migration.92 Disillusion ed, Las Casas withdrew to Spain shortly before the death of his supporter, Cardinal Ximenes.

In 1518, Ximenes appointed Rodrigo de Figueroa to replace the friars. Again, a charge to free the Christianized Indians bore no result. Ordered specifically to suppress the enconmiendas of the Crown, of all officials, Diego Columbus, and, of all absentees, Figue roa formed three villages of freed Indians. A fiasco ensued.93 But in 1520, Las Casas convinced Charles V that he could establish a self supporting community on a free labor basis. He sought fifty Cas tilians of good character (and with 250 ducats apiece to accompany him to territory assigned him by the King. Unfortunately, the site of the territory granted fell near what is now the city of Cuman? in Venezuela. It had been the hunting ground of slave-catchers.

91 Ibid., p. 341. 92 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 50. 93 Ibid., p. 50.

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After a great deal of difficulty, the experiment began in 1521. While Las Casas remained in Spain, the Indians fell upon the settle ment and killed or scattered the Spaniards. Las Casas withdrew and entered a life of seclusion in a monastery.94 The practical Oviedo always regarded Las Casas' experiment as sheer madness, and a great deal of the "bad blood" between the two was probably generated by this disagreement.95

In any case, the efforts of Las Casas stand out in clear contrast. His voice, loud and clear, spoke for the Spanish conscience.96 His favor at the Court of Charles V remained substantial. Navarrete

94 Ibid., pp. 50-51. 95 Las Casas, realizing that Oviedo was going into print, wrote his Historia

to give the '"true" view. Lewis Hanke traces the development of the Las Casas Oviedo disagreement in his introduction to the Biblioteca Americana version of the Historia. (See bibliography).

96 There is a movement now underway to r??valua te the contribution of Las Casas. Even earlier, Navarr?te saw fit to scold the good bishop for supply ing information which sided and comforted the enemies of Spain. Further, Las

Casas has been called an extremist; his factual (particularly statistical) information has been questioned. So be it. Even if we grant all of the foregoing, we have, at very best, a tempest in a teapot. Las Casas did go to extremes, but he faced an extreme situation. Las Casas, doubtless, exaggerated the Spanish depredation, but a simple recital of the all too gruesome facts did not stir sufficient action. We must be careful if we read Las Casas for pure history. We can trust Las Casas when we take from his work the fervor of reform.

Finally, Las Casas is criticized for his approval of Negro slavery while seeking to liberate the Indian. This criticism is a beautiful example of a cross cultural evaluation. Instead of realizing that Las Casas was a prisoner of his own environment, instead of praising him for the remarkable degree to which he escaped this environment, he is criticized because he did not escape far enough. Las Casas was a man of the Church. Neither the Church nor the civilization

believed in the possibility of the Christianization of the Negro. Las Casas merely followed the thought of his time. He sought to save a soul with a non-soul. This was his drive. Then, lest we grow too sanctimonious, let us remember that the view of the Negro as a sub-human creature was rather widely held in our own South prior to and after the Civil War. I rather suspect that it is not unprevelant in given areas and individuals today. If Las Casas must be judged, let him be judged in the light of what he was, not what others pretend he should have been.

There is value enough.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

took cognizance of this influence and stated that "(Las Casas) came to Spain twice, and taking advantage of his influence with the ministers, returned to the Indies with favorable dispatches."97 Royal attempts to eradicate or limit impressed Indian labor offer a better gauge of this favor.

In 1520, in spite of the failure of past reform, Charles V made one more attempt to eliminate the encomienda. He sent orders to Figueroa and other authorities in the islands to speed the program outlined earlier to them. Further, he strictly forbade the conversion of Indians by force. He instructed his lieutenants to avoid the errors which caused the destruction of the Indians in Hispaniola and the other islands. Yet, again, petition after petition flooded Spain. The colonials resisted the order.98 In the end, Charles capitulated.

The last attempt at reform to be considered in this paper began through the effort of the Dominican friar, Bernadino de Minaya. Through his urging, Pope Paul III enunciated his Bull of 1537 reiterating the fact that Indians were rational beings and capable of becoming Christians. As such, they should not be "deprived of liberty and the possession of their property even though outside the faith of Jesus Christ. . nor should they in any case be en slaved."99 The Pope even invoked the sanction of excommunication.

Haring stated that this Bull angered Charles V because he construed it as an encroachment upon the rights granted in the Patronato. Further the pain of excommunication must have seemed severe in the eyes of the Spanish. Even though the Pope subsequently rescinded the provision for excommunication during the following year, this Bull did spur the Crown into the enunciation of the so-called New Laws of 1542-43.

These Laws incorporated:

1. A formal declaration that the natives remained free per sons and direct vassals of the Crown of Castile.

2. Indians should not labor against their will.

97 Fern?ndez de Navarrete, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 41. 98 Cort?s, in M?xico, actually held up publication of the order. 99 C. H. Haring, op. cit., p. 55.

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3. The Law expressly forbade all further enslavement and branding.

4. New grants of encomiendas were prohibited. 5. Mistreatment of Indians meant an immediate loss of the

encomienda. 6. Those with valid claims to encomienda could not transmit

or entail this claim.

7. Encomenderos, with valid claims, could exact no duty beyond that due the Crown.

8. The encomendero must live in the province where his encomienda existed.

9. The order forbade overtaxation of the Indian. 10. The Law established Protectors for the Indians.

11. And finally the Crown ordered special relief for the Indians of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.100

Had this law been enforceable, encomienda would have died* It should be obvious by now that the law must prove unenforceable,

since it still failed to come to grips with the basic problem of labor demand and labor availability. The Crown stated that special relief was due the Indians of Hispaniola, for the King felt that His paniola was an example of the terrible error not to be repeated. In a word, any further discussion of reform becomes academic as far as the Indians of Hispaniola are concerned. Time and run out for any effective help.

In summary, a definite pattern emerges from our discussion of the attempts to limit encomienda. First, we can conclude that both Crown and Church in Rome opposed the impressment of Indian labor. This opposition was varied, but generally followed a course against encomienda. We can also conclude that every attempt at reform failed. If we reach a bit further back in the paper, we can conclude that this failure was based on two factors. Chief among these is the simple fact that the Spanish colonials needed and wanted cheap labor. The Indian furnished the most

100 Ibid., pp. 56-57.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

ready supply. The Crown remained obviously unable or unwilling to recognize this basic factor. A more enlightened policy governing migration could have proved a material aid. This suggestion made by the three Hieronymite friars sent by Ximenes to study and report possibly seemed impractical.

Another pattern, suggested earlier in this paper, also becomes more clear. Excessive colonial cruelty and exploitation spurred agitation for reform: the King proclaimed reform; the colonials resisted; the King revoked his original decree. Distance and time served the interests of the colonials. The end effect of this failure

of early reform dictated the end of the Arawak in Hispaniola.

Fait Accompli

We should now be in a position to consider a few tentative hypotheses regarding the evolution of impressed Indian labor in Hispaniola. In order to re-set the frame of reference, we must note that the movement in Hispaniola covered a relatively short span of time. Peschel estimated that not more than 300,000, and not less than 200,000 Arawaks inhabited Hispaniola in 1492. Although we have questioned this estimate previosly, of more interest and of probably far greater accuracy is the fact that F'eschel estimates that only 60,000 Arawaks remained in Hispaniola in the year 1508; only 46,000 in 1510; only 20,000 in 1512; and only 14,000 in 1514. By 1548, it is doubtful that 500 pure blooded Arawaks remained in

Hispaniola.101 While there may be reason to question PescheFs estimates on the larger scale, the task of counting becomes more and more simple as the quantities decrease. We can conclude that, while the Arawak constituted a numerous people in 1492, their decimation proceeded rapidly, and, by 1512, their number fell so sharply that they ceased being a key factor. Certainly, by 1548 their identity had all but been erased.102 Indeed, this process moved rapidly.

W Johk Collier, op. cit., p. 94. 1)02 The world had to await the 20th Century and.the German gas chambers

:56

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The land was first. It did offer some opportunity for mineral wealth, and it did offer, above and beyond all else, a broad vista of agricultural possibility. Moreover, the configuration of the land, the broad, long uninterrupted valleys, offered an opportunity for large scale, for latifundio type agriculture.103 Climate blessed this land with and everlasting growing season. The land had only to await the introduction of a plantation type crop to cement the individual bricks and finally erect the edifice of the plantation system. Sugar became the crop.

The Spanish colonial recognized both possibilities from the very beginning of his discovery. Moreover, he realized quite early that the wealth of this land would not fall into his lap as a ripe apple falls from the tree. If the Spaniard hoped to secure the land's wealth, it would have to be won through labor. Nonetheless, the Spaniard could not visualize or equate labor and self.104 Further, if

to find a process of equal efficiency. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that the Spaniards decimated the Arawak quite unwittingly. The Anglo-Saxon colonization in North America, unfettered by the religious scruple of the Latin,

could not match this speed and efficiency in eliminating red-skinned competition. 1K3B in Costa Rica, a land marked by mountains and narrow, short valleys,

the latifundia system of agriculture never became firmly established. To the contrary, relatively small farms, reminiscent of our own New England, were general. It is also interesting to note that slavery did not become a factor in Costa Rican development. The contrast in the development of Costa Rica and Hispaniola suggests a line of study that I intend to pursue further in the future. Furthermore, a plantation system and slavery developed in the southern United States and in given French and British colonies of Latin America. It would be extremely interesting to trace the varied development of each of these systems. I suspect that they had very little in common save two important characteristics

?geography and greed. It is my intention to incorporate this study of Costa Rica and Hispaniola in an overall study attempting to determine those factors common to all slave systems in the New World which, by extension, are crucial to the development of the slave systems.

km professor Lee Deets of Hunter College, in an excellent course centered about the social growth of Latin America, gives due emphasis to the Spaniard's exaggerated aversion to manual work. The roots can be traced deep into the soil of Spain's history. The Admiral shared: this view constantly complaining that the colonials would not work. See Sir Arthur Helps, op. cit., p. 107.

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

he needed an excuse, the rigors of an enervating climate could furnish the plea.

The peninsular Spaniard recognized the economic possibilities of the land quickly: they were a land-minded people and knew good land when they saw it. Many an emotion propelled them toward the New World. Wealth formed a part of the hope and desire of every colonial. This drive lived paramount in most, sub ordinate in others, present in the preponderant majority. If we now combine the two elements of the difficulty of exploitation and the desire to tear the wealth out of this land, we begin to realize why the Spaniard cast about for a ready source of labor.

The Arawak became the victim of Spanish desire. His very nature, his myths, all made the Spaniard's task all the more facile. The Arawak originally thought that a group of gods had come to dwell in their midst. By the time they discovered the nature of these gods, it was too late. Actually, though the Arawak could not know it, the moment the colonial set foot on Hispaniola, the sand in the Indian hour glass had about run out. The peaceful, naive, pastoral Taino could not have contained the Spanish thrust. Had they resisted, they would have become technical slaves.105 They did not resist, so they felt the yoke of practical slavery. Forces far beyond the ken of the Arawak had conspired to reduce him to the most abject of human estates. The land, which had always been so benif ic ent, now became the domain of the Spaniard and the prison house of the Arawak. The land had not changed; it remained constant. A new man had arrived, however, and with him he carried new ideas, new desires which dictated a change in the use of the land. The Arawak stood auxiliary to this land, and became a tool of the Spaniard in the exploitation of this land. The Arawak, in a short time, became a virtual, if not technical, slave.

We cannot even flatter the Spaniard by assuming that he used the land or the labor well. The adventurer did not come to the

New World to become a farmer ?no, not even a large scale farmer. He wanted to feel the precious yellow metal in his hands; he wanted

105 Note the Carib's experience.

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

to realize the promise of good, solid, mineral plenty. The Crown welcomed, even actively sought, its share. The Spaniard relocated Indian villages. Indian labor worked in the mines. In fact, the colonial literally poured Indian labor into the mines in a manner disproportionate to the wealth taken from the mines.106 The land could not satisfy this specific disease of the Spanish for which gold alone could provide the only specific cure. He had to await the adventure of Cort?s on the mainland before this hunger could be even partially satisfied.

Agriculture, the real wealth of Hispaniola, came as an after thought. Though the Admiral proportioned seed to the earliest colonials at Navidad, and while each new voyage carried new plants* to Hispaniola, the Spaniards directed their early search for wealth toward the mines. Survival alone did demand agriculture which, in

106 C. S. Haring, op. cit., pp. 267-73. There is reason to doubt that the Spanish Crown actually profited from the gold taken from the New World. Local government costs were high. Below, please find a chart taken from Haring, p. 268, showing the gold imported into Spain during given ten year periods. The unit is Pesos de Minas (450 maravedis per peso). The fall of gold imports in 1521-30 more or less coincides with the period in which the Arawak all but disappears. The surge after 1530 has almost nothing to do with Hispaniola since more attractive sources on the mainland have been tapped:

1503-1510 143.466.30 1511-1520 218.875.00 1521-1530 117.260.60 1531-1540 558.812.50 1541-1550 1.046.217.60 1551-1560 1.786.453.00 1561-1570 2.534.875.10 1571-1580 2.915.855.00 1581-1590 5.320.724.30 1591-1600 6.961.336.30 1601-1610 5.580.853.50 1611-1620 5.464.058.10 1621-1630 5.196.520.50 1631-1640 3.342.545.60 1641-1650 2.553.435.00 1651-1660 1.615.488.30

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

turn, exacted its toll in Indian labor. From the beginning, the Spaniard expected the Arawak to tend his fields and flocks and to build his shelter. The introduction of a plantation crop, such as sugar, convinced the colonial that the real wealth of Hispaniola laid in its fertility and not its limited supply of precious metal. The introduction of this plantation crop added another facet to Indian labor. The Spaniard used Indian labor to this end. Sugar demands quick cutting and harvest and during this season, large labor gangs of cutters must bend to their labor. Allocated groups of Indians could cut the cane in season and work the mines when their

plantation labor was done. Again, Nature and man had conspired to tighten the chain of bondage.

The attempts to mitigate the servitude of the Arawak all iailed. These efforts failed for many reasons. The fact that the reformers, while bewailing the existing situation, offered nothing of a practical nature in its place. Second, the policy of the Crown, even on paper, varied considerably. Ferdinand's needs made him only too happy to dip into his supposed tropical treasure to help finance his European expansions. Charles V, given the benefit of the doubt, might have really wished to end encomienda. Yet, at best, an absentee King of Spain exerted little real pressure on her colonies. Constantly in the business and wars of the Holy Roman Empire, he, too, needed funds to finance his European endeavors. Then, even when reform reached the formal state of an order, the colonial

had the advantage of distance. According to the Spanish formula, he could obey; he need not execute.

The upper hierarchy of the Church did maintain a constant

policy. However, in the face of the colonial opposition, often sup ported by the Spanish Crown, the net effect of this policy proved negligible. The real sanction of excommunication, even when ten tatively attempted, was quickly withdrawn.107 On a lower level, the

lo? The Spaniards first took their Catholicism from the Visigoths. As such, the first Christian experience in Spain came through conversion to the Arian form of Christianity. When the Spaniards finally embraced Orthodox Christian

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

Church itself split into factions. The Franciscans held encomiendas and generally supported the colonials. The Dominicans eschewed the holding of slaves and agitated against both the Franciscans and the colonials. Only one man offered a concrete and workable solu tion. Given the complex nature of the problem, Las Casas' call for the importation of Negro slaves not only suggested a solution but accurately predicted a course of action which proved prophetic after the immediate Indian supply of labor disappeared.

We have examined in detail a number of factors upon which Indian slavery was predicated. It must be fairly obvious by now that if we rank these factors in order of importance, the courses of action directed by the land must stand first. Immediately behind follows the human factor, the use of the land. Since profit supplied the motive, avarice or greed takes its place immediately behind the primary factor of geography. All else flows either directly or inderectly from these cardinal factors. In the end the combination, of these factors produced Indian slavery and death.

Yet, the enslavement and final decimation of the Arawak of Hispaniola is neither the beginning nor the end of our story. The processes dictating this system start well before the discovery. The tentative answer of the Spaniard to his labor problem in the New

World finally vaulted into the sister institution of Negro slavery. The Spaniard enslaved the Indian to answer his very specific labor problem. This need for a work force increased with each new tropical or agricultural colony. The Indian, the moved, instead of the mover, fell before the demand created by his environment and the new Spanish lords of the land. In the fields and mines of Hispaniola, the New World met the Old and a peculiar system of impressed labor, previously unknown to both, developed. In effect, this tropical island served as a bridge between Old World Institu tions and New World bondage.

By Edwin A. Levine

ity, an air of independence remained. I rather suspect, that much of the "holier than the Pope" attitude of Spain can be traced directly to the Visigoths and Arianism. This does demand much more detailed study, however.

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Bdwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

BIBLIOGRAPHYCAL ESSAY

Bibliographies and Guides:

A Guide to the Official Publications of Other American Republics published by the Library of Congress (Washington, 1945-48) in conjunction with Robert (i.e.Robin) Arthur Humphreys' Latin America: A Selective Guide to Publications in English (New York, 1949) furnished the basis of bibliography. Further, the Pan American Union supplied a concise bibliography of both Spanish and English works which served as the initial point of departure for the research of this paper.

Printed Sources:

Richard Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (12 vols., Glasgow, 1904) supplies material of co-lateral or background nature. Based on the reports of English seamen, officials, and adventurers, the author presented the English view of life in the Spanish colonies. This view can be gleaned from selective reading in Volumes 7 and 8. The treatment of Las Casas is of particular interest, and the English view follows the interpretation of the Bishop rather closely. While Hakluyt is not quoted in the body of this paper due to the fact that more immediate source material existed, his work still furnishes important material for any general or specific study of this period.

Historia General y Natural de las Indias by Gonzalo Fern?ndez de Oviedo (14 vols., Asunci?n, Paraguay, 1944) furnishes one of the crucial sources cover ing early Spanish colonialism. While not as erudite as Las Casas, Oviedo's constant labor and observation has given a detailed description of colonial life. Every flower, tree, animal or man received the same careful consideration. Nonetheless,

Oviedo, a nobleman, represented the classical Spanish view toward colonialism. As such, his work supports the Spanish view. His work must be read in contrast to the History of Las Casas.

Bishop Bartolom? de las Casas' Historia de las Indias (3 vols., M?xico, D. F., 1951) represents the life work of a man dedicated to the Indian's cause. This is the key work in any study of Indian servitude in the New World. This edition includes an introduction by Lewis Hanke (84 pages) of particular value for the better understanding of not only the period in question but of Las Casas as well.

The Historia de Santo Domingo (3 vols., Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) of Antonio del Monte y Tejada, first published in 1853, is an invaluable work. Drawn from documents, as well as the log book of Columbus, this history

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supplies a detailed record of early colonial life in Hispaniola. The first volume, as well as the first section of the second volume, proved of particular value.

Any study of this period would suffer if it excluded the Colecci?n de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los espa?oles desde fines del siglo XV (2 vols., Madrid, 1955) by Martin Fern?ndez de Navarrete. This nineteenth century work, based on documents, diaries, logs, and contemporary accounts summarizes the colonial period better than any other single work.

Since Benjamin Keen has traslated The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus (New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1959) originally written by his son, Ferdinand, another important source is available. Because of its content, Fer dinand published his work in Italy rather than Spain. The struggle for the repair of the fortune of his family colors this work to some extent. Nonetheless, its value remains great.

Secondary Sources:

Since this paper has attempted to trace causes, Spanish history demanded consideration. Charles E. Chapman's adaptation of Rafael Altamira's A History of Spain (New York, 1953) supplies a basis for this study. The more exact and detailed information of the reign of the Catholic Kings has been drawn from

William H. Prescott's The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholics (New York, 1900), a thoroughly comprehensive treatment of the monarchs.

Edward Gaylord Bourne in his Spain in America (1450-1580) (New York, 1904) examined the policies and actions of the nascent colonialism of Spain.

Chapters XIV through XVIII are of particular value to this paper. The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the Neu/ by Roger Merriman (4 vols. New York, 1918) follows a parallel path. Volume II, tracing the events leading to the discovery and finally, of the discovery itself, has been usd exten sively in this paper. The more generalized approach of Germ?n Arciniegas through his Caribbean, Sea of the New World (New York, 1946) offers an excellent and colorful introduction to the history of this area. However, the scholarly and precise work of C. H. Haring in his The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947) affords the best and most detailed study of Spain's New World institutions employed in the writing of this thesis.

While works on Columbus are numerous, all are not of equal portent. Probably the best of the English biographies, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Boston, 1942) by Samuel Eliot Morison, affords a clear understanding of the complex

Admiral. Salvador de Madariaga's extensive and intensive treatment of the charac ter of the Discoveror in his Christopher Columbus ? Being the Ufe of the Very

Magnificent Don Crist?bal Col?n (New York, 1940) leans heavily on the source

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

material of some of the Admiral's contemporaries such as, Oviedo, Pulgar, and Las Casas. Unfortunately, Madariaga does devote a great deal of space and effort

in an attempt to establish the true nationality of the Admiral. Finally, Charles Duff's excellent tratise, the The Truth about Columbus, (London, 1957) provides a lucid, deductive treatment of the "mysteries" supposedly surrounding the Discoveror. A good chronology as well as an abstract of writings and documents relating to the discovery add to the overall value of this book.

The study of the Arawak presented its own specific problems. This people, gone forever from their island, have left no written record. Under the circum

stances, the basically anthropological study of Julian H. Steward and Louis Faron, Native Peoples of South America (New York, 1959) was used to recon struct the past of the Indians. Since both Steward and Faron are recognized experts within their field, and because so little material of this nature exists,

their work is of the greatest importance.

Another approach to the Arawak can be found in Sir Arthur Helps' The Spanish Conquest in America (3 vols., London and New York, 1900). Helps drew heavily upon source material and depended, to a great extent, on the Historia

of Las Casas. Volume I, dealing with the growth of New World slavery, is of extreme importance to this study. John Collier, writing much later than Sir Arthur

Helps, followed the same basic pattern in his The Indians of the Americas (New York, 1947). Collier's treatment of Las Casas in chapter six is interesting, but in his sympathy for the bishop, the author does seem to claim too much. Further, Collier assigned a major portion of the responsibility for New World slavery to Isabella. In levying this charge, the author disagrees strongly with accepted source and secondary authority such as Las Casas, Oviedo, Navarrete, Helps, and Prescott. On the other hand, in the course of this study, no authority supporting Collier's position has been encountered.

Statistical Reports and Geographical Works:

The Anuario Estad?stico de la Rep?blica Dominicana, 1954 (Santo Domin go, Dominican Republic, 1957) furnished, the basis for much of the statistical and a large part of the specific geographical information included in this report.

Published by the Dominican government, it does afford a source of the most accurate and detailed information available. In conjunction with this work, the standard geographical texts, World Political Geography (New York, 1957) by G. Etzel Pearcy and Associates, and College Geography (New York, 1958) by C. Langdon White and George T. Renner were also used. Both books cover the area in sufficient detail so that a clear idea of the Geography of Hispaniola evolves.

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APPENDIX 1

Ballester's Report to Col?n on the Bonao Meeting with Roldan, Bonao, Oc tober 16, 1498. Las Casas states that this is a true copy of the original which Las Casas had in his physical possession. Las Casas, op. cit., Book I, chapter CLIII, pp. 78-79.

"Ilustre y muy magnifico se?or: Ayer lunes, a mediod?a, llegamos ac? en el Bonao, y luego a la hora Carvajal habl? largamente a toda este gente, y su habla fu? tan allegada al servicio de Dios y de Sus Altezas y de vuestra se?or?a, que Salom?n ni doctor ninguno no hallara enmienda ninguna, y como quiera que la mayor parte desta gente hayan m?s gana de guerra que de paz, a los tales no les parece bien; mas los que no quer?an errar a vuestra se?oria, sino servirle, les pareci? que era razonable y justa cosa todo lo que Carvajal dec?a, los cuales eran Francisco Roldan y G?mez y Escobar y dos o tres otros, los cuales justamente acordaron que fuese el alcaide y G?mez a besar las manos a vuestra se?or?a y a co certar cosa justa y posible, por excusar y matar el fuego que se va encendiendo m?s de lo encendido; y acordado esto, que ya quer?amos cabalgar, y yo con ellos, porque a todos les pareci? que yo deb?a volver con Carvajal y ellos, y en aquel instante vinieron todos a requerir a Francisco Roldan y a G?mez, que hab?an acor dado que no fuesen, sino que por escrito llevase Carvajal lo que ped?an; y que si en aquello vuestra se?or?a viniese, que aquello se hiciese y otra cosa no. Y yo, se?or, por lo que debe criado a su se?or?a, suplico a vuestra se?or?a concierte con ellos en todo caso, especialmente para que se vayan a Castilla, como ellos piden, porque otramente creo cierto que no se har?an los hechos de vuestra se?or?a como era de raz?n y querr?a, porque me parece que lo que dicen es verdad, que se han de pasar los m?s ellos; y as? me parece que se va mostrando por la obra, que despu?s que yo pas? para ir a vuestra se?or?a se les han venido unos ocho, y dici?ndoles que por qu? no se acercan all?, que ellos saben que se pasar?n m?s de 30; y esto les ha dicho Garc?a, aserrador, y otro valenciano que se han pasado con ellos. Y yo, cierto, creo que despu?s de los hidalgos y hombres de pro que vuestra se?or?a tiene junto con sus criados, que aquellos que los terna vuestra se?or?a muy ciertos para morir en su servicio, y la otra gente de com?n yo porn?a

mucha duda. Y a esta causa, se?or, conviene al estado de vuestra se?or?a, concierte su ida de una manera u otra, pues ellos lo piden, y quien otra cosa a vuestra se?or?a consejare no querr? su servicio o vivir? enga?ado; y si en algo de lo dicho he errado, ser? por dolerme del estado de vuestra se?or?a vi?ndolo en tan gran peligro, no haciendo iguala con esta gente; y quedo rogando a Nuestro Se?or d? eso y saber a vuestra se?or?a, que las cosas se hagan a su sancto servicio y con acrecentamiento y dura del estado de vuestra se?or?a. Fecha en el Bonao, hoy martes, a 16 de octubre.?Miguel Ballester."

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Edwin A. Levine R. H. A. N?m. 60

APPENDIX 2

Letter from Francisco Roldan, Adri?n de M?xica, Pedro de G?mez, and Diego de Escobar to Col?n, written from Bonao, October 17, 1948, Las Casas states that this is a true copy of the original which Las Casas had in his physical pos session. Las Casas, op. cit., Book I, chapter CLI, p. 75.

"Ilustre y muy magn?fico se?or: Vuestra se?or?a sabr? que por las cosas pasadas entre el Adelantado e m?, Francisco Roldan, e Pedro de G?mez e Adri?n de M?xica e Diego de Escobar, criados de vuestra se?or?a, e otros muchos que en esta compa??a est?n fu? necesario de nos apartar de la ira del Adelantado, e seg?n los agravios hab?amos rescibido, la gente que ac? est? propon?a de ir contra ?l para le destruir; e mirando el servicio de vuestra se?or?a, los dichos Pedro de G?mez e Adri?n de M?xica e Diego de Escobar e Francisco Roldan hemos traba jado de sostener en concordia y en amor toda la gente que en esta compa??a est?, poni?ndoles muchas razones e diciendo cu?nto cumpl?a al servicio del rey e de la reina, nuestros se?ores, no se entendiese en cosa ninguna, hasta que vuestra se?or?a viniese, porque entend?amos, que venido que fuese, mirar?a la raz?n que ellos e nosotros ten?amos de nos apartar; e con muchas razones que aqu? no se dicen, hemos estado a una parte de la isla esperando su venida, e agora ha ya m?s de un mes que vuestra se?or?a est? en la tierra y no nos ha escrito, mand?n donos qu? es lo que hubi?semos de hacer; por lo cual creemos est? muy enojado de nosotros, e por muchas razones que se nos han dicho que vuestra se?or?a dice de nosotros, dese?ndonos maltratar e castigar, no mirando cu?nto le hemos servido en evitar alg?n da?o que pudiera hallar hecho. E pues que as? es, hemos acor dado, por remedio de nuestras honras e vidas, de no nos consentir maltratar, lo cual no podemos hacer limpiamente si fu?semos suyos; por ende, suplicamos a vuestra se?or?a nos mande dar licencia, que de hoy en adelante no nos tenga por suyos, e as? nos despedimos de la vivienda que con vuestra se?or?a ten?amos asentada, aunque se nos hace muy grave, pero esnos forzado por cumplir con nuestras honras. Nuestro Se?or guarde y prospere el estado de vuestra se?or?a como por ?l es deseado. Del Bonao, hoy mi?rcoles, 17 d?as del mes de octubre de 98 a?os.?Francisco Roldan?Y por Adri?n de M?xica, Francisco Roldan.? Pedro de G?mez.?Diego de Escobar."

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Julio-Diciembre de 1965 The Seed of Slavery in the New World...

APPENDIX 3

Letter from Col?n and Ballester to Roldan et al, City of Santo Domingo, October 20, 1498, Las Casas certifies that this a true copy of material in his physical possession. The tone of the letter indicates that it answers more than the first Roldan letter. If true, Las Casas never and the second Roldan letter. Las Casas, op. cit., Book I, chapter CLII, p. 77.

"Caro amigo: Recib? vuestra carta luego que all? llegue. Despu?s de haber preguntado por el se?or Adelantado y D. Diego, pregunt? por vos como por aquel en quien ten?a yo harta confianza e dej? con tanta certeza de haber bien de temperar y asentar todas cosas que menester fuesen, y no me supieron dar nuevas de vos, salvo que todos a una voz me dijeron que de algunas diferencias que ac? hab?an pasado que por ello dese?bades mi venida, como la salvaci?n del ?nima; y yo ciertamente as? lo cre?, porque aun lo viera con el ojo y no creyera que vos hab?ades de trabajar hasta perder la vida, salvo en cosa que a mi cumpliese; y a esta causa fabl? largo con el alcalde, con mucha certeza que, seg?n las palabras que yo le hab?a dicho y os dijo, que luego vern?ades ac?. Allende la cual venidla, cre? antes desto que aunque ac? se hobiesen pasado cosas m?s graves de las que ?stas pueden ser, que aun bien no llegar?a, cuando seriados conmigo a me dar cuenta con placer de las cosas de vuestro cargo, as? como lo hicieron todos los otros a quien cargo dej?, y como es de costumbre y honra dellos; veramente, si en

ello hab?a impedimentos por palabras que se far?an por escrito y que no era menes

ter seguro ni carta: y que fuera as?, yo dije, luego que aqu? llegu?, que yo asegu raba a todos que cada uno pudiese venir a m? y decir lo que les plac?a y de nuevo lo torno a decir y los aseguro. Y cuanto a lo otro que dec?s de la ida de Castilla, yo av?a causa y de las personas que est?n con vos, creyendo que algunos se querr?an ir, he detenido los navios diez y ocho d?as m?s de la demora y detuviera m?s, salvo que los indios que llevan les daban gran costa y se les mor?an; par?ceme que no es deber creer de ligero y mirar a vuestras honras m?s de lo que me dicen que fac?is, porque no hay nadie a quien m?s toque, y no dar causa que las personas que os quieren mal ac? o en vuestra tierra hayan en qu? decir, y evitar que el rey o la reina, nuestros se?ores, no hayan enojo de cosas en que esperaban placer. Por cierto, cuando me preguntaron por las personas de ac?, en quien pudiese tener el se?or Adelantado consejo y confianza, yo os nombr? primero que a otro, y les puse vuestro servicio tan alto, que agora estoy con pena que con estos navios hayan de oir lo contrario; agora ved qu? es lo que se puede o convenga al caso, y avisadme dello pues los navios partieron. Nuestro Se?or os haya en su guarda. De Sancto Domingo, a 20 de octubre."

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Edwin A. Levine R, H. A. N?m. 60

APPENDIX 4

Colon's second letter to Roldan, city of Santo Domingo, October 26, 1498. Las Casas states that this is a true copy of the original which Las Casas had in his physical possession, Las Casas, op. cit., Book I, chapter CLIII, pp. 80-81.

"Yo, D. Crist?bal Col?n, Almirante del Mar Oc?ano, visorrey y gobernador perpetuo de las islas y tierra firme de las Indias por el rey e la reina nuestros se?ores e su capit?n general de la mar y del su Consejo. Por cuanto entre el Ade lantado, mi hermano, y el alcalde Francisco Roldan y su compa??a ha habido ciertas diferencias en mi ausencia, estando yo en Castilla, e para dar medio en ello de manera que Sus Altezas sean servidos, es necesario que el dicho alcalde venga ante m? e me faga relaci?n de todas las cosas seg?n que han pasado, caso que yo de algo dello est? informado por el dicho Adelantado. E porque dicho alcalde se recela por ser el dicho Adelantado, como es, mi hermano, por la presente doy seguro en nombre de Sus Altezas al dicho alcalde y a los que con el vinieren aqu? a Sancto Domingo, donde yo estoy por venida y estada y vuelta al Bonao, donde ?l agora est?, que no ser? enojado ni molestado por cosa alguna ni de los que con el vinieren durante el dicho tiempo; lo cual prometo y doy mi fe y palabra como caballero, seg?n uso de Espa?a, de le cumplir y guardar este dicho seguro, como dicho es; en firmeza de la cual firm? esta escritura de mi nombre Fecha en Sancto Domingo, a 26 d?as del mes de octubre. El Almirante".

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Contents

Issue Table of Contents

Revista de Historia de América, No. 60 (Jul. - Dec., 1965), pp. 1-332

Front Matter
The Seed of Slavery in the New World: An Examination of the Factors Leading to the Impressment of Indian Labor in Hispaniola [pp. 1-68]
A Abolição da Escravidão no Brasil [pp. 69-90]
Church-State Financial Negotiations in Mexico during the American War, 1846-1847 [pp. 91-123]
Un gran editor del siglo XVIII, El Capitan don Diego de la Barrera y Navarro [pp. 125-159]
La sexta reunion de consulta de la comision de historia: La Antigua, Guatemala. 25 de junio-6 de julio de 1965 [pp. 161-215]
Noticias

[El IV Congreso Nacional de Historia del Perú] [pp. 217-219]

Reseñas de Libros

Review: untitled [pp. 221-222]
Review: untitled [pp. 222-223]
Review: untitled [pp. 223-224]
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Review: untitled [pp. 263-265]
Review: untitled [pp. 265-267]
Review: untitled [pp. 268-269]

Bibliografía de Historia de América (1963-1965) [pp. 271-329, 331-332]
Back Matter