Commentary No. 065
Date: 1511, July 21. Seville, Spain.
Theme: King Ferdinand expresses concern and perplexity in regards to death of “Blacks” in La Española
Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles--Archivo General de Indias, INDIFERENTE,418,L.3 – 201 – Imagen Núm: 186 / 709. F.88R.-89R.
By 1511 the Spanish king had received news that a number of the enslaved Blacks deployed in La Española had died, and in this communication the monarch expressed his dissatisfaction with what seemed to have been a process of decaying health, despite the fact that –points out the king—there is an opinion that the physical environment of La Española has proven positively healthy for “the Blacks.” This generalization of the term, on the other hand, seems to indicate an already racialized or stereotyped view of Black Africans as enslaved people in the mind of the Crown.
Due to this understanding, the king speculates that what caused their deaths was probably the mistreatment applied to these Blacks “either when they were bought or over there [in La Española] after they arrived”. As a result, the monarch orders that these slaves must be “well treated both in terms of food as well as lodging so that they do not die due to lack of good care,” the ultimate and explicit goal of this necessary effort or investment being “that they stay healthy and good to serve and work in the mines.”
The view of enslaved Blacks as beings or entities whose essential destiny is to work and produce for their masters in performing the most grueling kinds of labor launched in the colonization process is clear in these comments by the top authority of the empire and it is this notion that leads to a concern for maintaining the health of the enslaved at a level that allows for their efficient and productive work for the Crown, only possible if these forced laborers were kept alive.