{"id":2625,"date":"2025-02-16T16:18:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T16:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstblacks.org\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2025-02-16T16:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T16:28:58","slug":"arrival-03-legal-and-illegal-slave-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstblacks.org\/en\/summaries\/arrival-03-legal-and-illegal-slave-trade","title":{"rendered":"“Legal” and “illegal” slave trade"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"Legal\" and \"illegal\" slave trade<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"<\/a>As the early importing of enslaved Blacks into La Espa\u00f1ola continued during the second decade of Spanish colonization, the year 1506 marked the first recorded indication of what would become one of the\u00a0characteristic features\u00a0of Black slavery in the colony throughout the century: the smuggling of slaves into the island.[1]<\/a>\u00a0There is also an order from that year,\u00a0issued by the Spanish Crown, indicating a suspicion that already\u00a0smuggling of non-Christianized (or\u00a0bozales<\/em>) slaves into La Espa\u00f1ola was taking place contrary to the Crown\u2019s explicit prohibition against such activity. A punishment with a fine of 1,000\u00a0pesos<\/em>\u00a0was decreed for those breaking this law or, if no payment was made, of one hundred lashes instead.[2]<\/a><\/p>

The great majority of the cases of sixteenth-century Blacks of La Espa\u00f1ola for which we have a more or less detailed archival record are those who\u00a0arrived in the colony through\u00a0officially authorized and controlled travel, the equivalent to what we usually describe today as documented travelers. One of the earliest recorded licenses to carry Black slaves was issued in September of 1502.[3]<\/a>. But throughout the century, as a result of a drop in the numbers of Spanish ships going in and out of the island that could bring in needed imports and take out exports, a growing illegal or\u00a0contraband importation of African Blacks took place into the island-colony until\u00a0it became a rampant contraband practice that, towards the last quarter of the century, acquired widespread proportions. (Resorting to\u00a0terminology already used\u00a0for decades before that in\u00a0Iberian maritime contacts and exchanges with the societies of the African western coast, smuggled goods of any type, as well as\u00a0particular instances of smuggling, were called\u00a0rescates<\/em>\u00a0because they were, most of the time the result of bartering –referred to precisely with the word\u00a0rescate<\/em>\u00a0in earlier decades– rather than currency-based purchases.) In 1555, for instance, the authorities of Santo Domingo seized\u00a0on suspicion of smuggling a Portuguese vessel that showed up in La Espa\u00f1ola with a shipment of enslaved Black Africans, justifying its great detour westwards across the Atlantic to La Espa\u00f1ola\u00a0by the need for important repairs to the ship in order for it to continue its trip to Portugal.\u00a0(See Manuscript No. 044)<\/a><\/p>

The colonial condition of La Espa\u00f1ola\u2019s population, with a\u00a0high level of\u00a0dependency on imports from the metropolis for consumption,\u00a0required abundant labor to produce the exports that would guarantee the purchasing of the needed imports, constantly demanded more slaves and, from its early beginnings and throughout the century, La Espa\u00f1ola\u2019s colonists and children of colonists seem to have been always hungry for additional slaves,\u00a0regardless of the legality\u00a0of the venue for their acquisition.<\/p>

For free Blacks traveling legally to La Espa\u00f1ola during the 16th century, as in the case of free individuals in general, the basic requirement, besides the payment of the ship\u2019s fare, was buying a royal or governmental\u00a0licencia<\/em>\u00a0or license to travel, which also entailed providing proof of one\u2019s identity by presenting witnesses, and demonstrating that one did not belong to any of the ethnic or social categories forbidden by the Spanish Crown from traveling to the New World. For enslaved Blacks taken across the Atlantic by individual Spanish masters or owners in small numbers (say, between one and a dozen), the master had to pay the Crown a\u00a0licencia<\/em>\u00a0or fee for each \u201cpiece\u201d or \u201chead\u201d of slave transported plus the fare for each. We know of dozens and dozens of individual enslaved Blacks\u00a0who were taken to La Espa\u00f1ola in this fashion in the 16th century. In the meantime, some politically connected or economically powerful individuals,\u00a0Spanish or otherwise,\u00a0including high-ranking bureaucrats of or associates to the Crown\u2019s court, and big financiers or merchants, could enjoy the privilege of purchasing an\u00a0asiento<\/em>\u00a0or permit to import into La Espa\u00f1ola and other places of the Indies hundreds of enslaved Blacks, either in one bulky shipment or in several installments over\u00a0a certain\u00a0number of years, to then sell them in the colonies for a profit.<\/p>

The port of entry for Blacks arriving at La Espa\u00f1ola legally (that is, under an official\u00a0licencia<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0asiento<\/em>) during the sixteenth century was usually that of Santo Domingo City, the colonial capital by the Ozama River\u2019s harbor. It was the main official port of the colony, in accordance with\u00a0Spain\u2019s imperial monopolistic maritime-commerce laws. In the case of enslaved Blacks arriving accompanied by their masters or their masters\u2019 representatives or associates, the latter would be allowed to disembark the enslaved once they showed their\u00a0licencias de esclavos<\/em>\u00a0issued in Spain. In the case of larger quantities of enslaved Blacks arriving either legally under an\u00a0asiento<\/em>\u00a0or captured as suspected smuggled merchandize by the local Spanish authorities along the island\u2019s coasts without a valid\u00a0asiento<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0licencia<\/em>\u00a0document, the slaves would be taken from the ship into some holding quarters either at the\u00a0Atarazanas<\/em>\u00a0or royal warehouse next to the port and inside the walled city or in any other building turned into an improvised warehouse. From there they would be released to their owners or traffickers or, if confiscated as smuggled cargo, auctioned off by the local authorities.\u00a0(See Manuscript No. 053)<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>

\"\"<\/a>Left: Exterior view of the\u00a0Atarazanas\u00a0<\/em>or colonial warehouses in Santo Domingo City.<\/strong><\/p>

In May of 1509, in its instructions to newly appointed Governor of La Espa\u00f1ola Diego Col\u00f3n one of the sons of Christopher Columbus, the Crown reiterated\u00a0(see Manuscript No. 040)<\/a>\u00a0the earlier order given to Governor Ovando in 1501 to restrict the importing of \u201cBlack slaves or other slaves\u201d to those born under Christian rule.[4]<\/a>\u00a0The reiteration of the order seems an indication that the Crown either knew that the smuggling was taking place or that it was likely to happen.<\/p>

As the native population increasingly died off due to disease and forced labor, the colonial administration and the crown began to condone the introduction of African\u00a0bozales<\/em>. Late in 1509 or early in 1510 King Ferdinand ordered\u00a0Casa de Contrataci\u00f3n<\/em>\u00a0to send 50 \u201cslaves\u201d to work in the mines the king had appropriated for himself in La Espa\u00f1ola.[5]<\/a>\u00a0In a document of January 22nd of that year the monarch reiterated the order, instructing royal officials in Spain that the slaves should be \u201cthe largest and sturdiest that you may have\u201d and to send them off as soon as possible.[6]<\/a>\u00a0There\u00a0are indications that 36 slaves were sent first.[7]<\/a>\u00a0According to another source another 100 were sent in April of that year.[8]<\/a>\u00a0These Blacks were bought in Lisbon thanks to private moneys raised by some of the Crown\u2019s officials. The fact that they did not fit the profile of Blacks born or raised under Spanish control constituted a departure from that goal, the Crown leaving the religious requirement aside, at least in this occasion, in exchange for economic convenience.\u00a0[9]<\/a><\/p>

In the spring of 1511 the king, concerned about reports that many individuals who qualified for a license to \u201cpass\u201d to the new colonies\u00a0being stopped from doing so by the officials of\u00a0Casa de la Contrataci\u00f3n<\/em>\u00a0of Seville, and understanding that this harmed the interests of the Crown, sent an additional set of instructions to the agency in which, among a number of items, he ordered its officials to make sure they allowed former Black or white slaves who could prove their freedom and\u00a0appeared capable of working to proceed and go to the Indies if they wanted to do so.[10]<\/a>. In a letter of July 6, 1511 to royal treasurer Miguel de Pasamonte the king confirmed the presence of an undetermined number of Black slaves working in the mines of La Espa\u00f1ola side by side with natives.[11]<\/a>\u00a0(See Manuscript No. 039)<\/a>\u00a0In another letter written in\u00a0July, the king further\u00a0implicitly confirmed their presence when he expressed regret for the unexplained death of a number of Black slaves, ordering the official in charge of overseeing the mines to apply himself so that \u201cthey are well treated\u201d and \u201cso that they do not perish due to lack of good care and may be healthy and\u00a0able to serve and work in the mines.\u201d\u00a0[12]<\/a>\u00a0(See Manuscript No. 038)<\/a>\u00a0Finally in another communication to the\u00a0Casa de la Contrataci\u00f3n<\/em>\u00a0in October, we find the mention of a shipment of Black slaves that had been sent by the Crown approximately a year and a half earlier, possibly in the spring or summer of 1510.[13]<\/a>\u00a0(See Manuscript No. 012)<\/a><\/p>

Furthermore, it seems that by then (1511) a notion prevailed among the colonists that the work by an enslaved Black was much more productive than that of an indigenous man, and this contributed to an increase in the demand for Black slaves.[14]<\/a>\u00a0Private individuals, among them high-level officials of the Crown or members of the aristocracy\u00a0were increasingly\u00a0taking with them or sending small numbers of Blacks to La Espa\u00f1ola under licenses issued by the Crown during the early 1510s\u00a0(see Manuscript No. 014)<\/a>.<\/p>

On September 26, 1513 a special exemption was granted by the Crown to the settlers of La Espa\u00f1ola so that each one of them could import from Castille a Christianized female slave for\u00a0household service in the colony. The King explicitly recommended the importing of female slaves to La Espa\u00f1ola\u2019s colonial treasurer Pasamonte\u00a0so that \u2018in marrying the males slaves there, the latter\u00a0create less worries of uprising.\u2019[15]<\/a>\u00a0(See Manuscript No. 022)<\/a><\/p>

It has been pointed out that\u00a0from approximately 1513 onwards\u00a0divergent perceptions\u00a0of the importation of slaves became evident in La Espa\u00f1ola between those in the colonial bureaucracy (such as\u00a0treasurer Pasamonte) who were mostly concerned about the social order and were recommending a halt in\u00a0the importation of slaves to reduce the likelihood of rebellions, and those settlers who were mostly concerned about their economic livelihood, considered the availability of enslaved labor fundamental, and were seemingly less concerned about having to eventually deal\u00a0with the slaves\u2019 resistance or insubordination.[16]<\/a>. But in 1514 we find the Crown continuing to authorize licenses for some individuals to import small numbers (say, between one and six) of slaves into La Espa\u00f1ola.[17]<\/a>\u00a0And evidence exists showing that at the time, some colonial government officials, like the\u00a0contador<\/em>\u00a0(another of the treasury officials) of the city of Santo Domingo Gil Gonz\u00e1lez D\u00e1vila were clearly in favor of importing enslaved Blacks, which he recommended as a basic step to deal with the gold mining crisis taking place at that time in the colony.[18]<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>

In January 1516 King Ferdinand died\u00a0[19]<\/a>\u00a0and was replaced by a Regent, Cardinal Cisneros, appointed to govern until the heir to the Crown, the Young Charles (later proclaimed as Charles V of Spain and I of Germany) became of legal age to be king. Regents Cisneros ordered a stop to the importation of slaves into La Espa\u00f1ola and other territories, possibly as an attempt to prevent the smuggling of slaves before more efficient controls\u00a0on the importing were in place. But this order was very short lived, and by the time Cisneros passed away in November of 1517 the trafficking of Blacks had reportedly resumed.[20]<\/a>\u00a0The initial assumption was that\u00a0bozales<\/em>\u00a0would pose less resistance to enslavement, but at least by 1528, as a new set of ordinances issued in this regard show, they were engaging in the same fleeing as the\u00a0ladinos<\/em>\u00a0did.[21]<\/a><\/p>

On December 20, 1518, three\u00a0Jer\u00f3nimo<\/em>\u00a0(Hieronimyte) friars arrived in Hispaniola as a new designated trio of governors appointed earlier by Regent Cisneros.[22]<\/a>\u00a0Among their missions was the task of regrouping\u00a0the Ta\u00edno population around independent communities away from the control of the\u00a0encomenderos<\/em>, the Spanish settlers\u00a0who until then had been provided with\u00a0scores of natives as forced laborers by the colonial authorities. This generated a lot of discontent among the\u00a0encomendero<\/em>\u00a0population. The other circumstance the friars\u00a0faced was the constant fleeing of many among the white settlers\u2019 population. As a way out from the negative impact of the gold production crisis and the emigration of whites away from the island, the\u00a0Jer\u00f3nimos<\/em>\u00a0proposed\u00a0development of agriculture, especially in the form of cane-sugar production, and an increase in the importing of Black African enslaved labor force to work in it.<\/p>

Once king Charles V acceded to\u00a0the throne of the growing empire, he sent\u00a0oidor<\/em>-judge Rodrigo de Figueroa to La Espa\u00f1ola to oversee and further propel the cane-sugar business. Judge Figueroa was to facilitate capital and loosen colonial restrictions in order to heighten\u00a0the production of sugar. At the time, this expansion\u00a0necessarily meant the importing of more enslaved Black people.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo (1492-1844)<\/em>, Vol. I, Santo Domingo: Museo del Hombre Dominicano, 1980, p. 25.<\/p>

[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Saco, 1938: I, 98. Cited in\u00a0Deive, Vol. I,\u00a0p. 25.<\/p>

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 The license to transport \u201cas many Blacks as they may want\u201d was issued on September 12, 1502 to two Crown officials, a Juan S\u00e1nchez, from the royal treasury, and Alonso Bravo, a personal guardian of the queen, according to Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo<\/em>\u00a0Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p.22.<\/p>

[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Diego Col\u00f3n had been appointed Governor on August 9, 1508. The Crown\u2019s instructions to him were issued on May 3rd<\/sup>, 1509. On that same date, the king, in an order directed to outgoing governor Ovando, had reiterated his concern about and\u00a0firm opposition to\u00a0the acceptance in the Indies of non-Spaniards (\u201cestrangeros\u201d) without a royal license and non-Christians or their immediate descendants (\u201coffspring of reconciled ones or grandchildren of burnt ones”), indicating or hinting that both restrictions had been violated under Ovando. The king mentions a Genoese businessman active in Santo Domingo, and orders that he\u00a0be punished with\u00a0confiscation of\u00a0his goods; he also\u00a0mentions non-Christians as if some were actually in the island when he\u00a0banned both\u00a0\u201cthose that were in the said island as well as those that were to arrive afterwards\u201d (\u201clos que alla en esa ysla estavan como para los que despues fueren\u201d).\u00a0See\u00a0Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 28.<\/p>

[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 28-29. This interest on\u00a0the King’s part\u00a0coincided with requests in the same direction from\u00a0royal colonial officials in La Espa\u00f1ola, who, according to a communication from the monarch, had pointed out the need for the same number of slaves in the island, \u201cto break the rocks where the gold is found because the Indians reportedly are very slim and of little strength.\u201d<\/p>

[6]<\/a>\u00a0 The royal order issued on January 22, 1510 referred to a prior one sent \u201cin days past\u201d (\u201cen d\u00edas pasados\u201d). Chac\u00f3n y Calvo: VII, 217. Cited in Deive, p. 29.<\/p>

[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Saco: II, 104. Cited in\u00a0Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 29.\u00a0<\/p>

<\/p>

[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Ayala, I, 372. Cited in\u00a0Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I,\u00a0p. 29.<\/p>

[9]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0This shipment may also have been\u00a0in response to the colonists in Santo Domingo City who [that same year? See the source] had been addressing the Spanish Crown to request for the first time to be exempted from the payment of a tax when importing enslaved Blacks to the colony so that gold extraction could be expanded, implying, therefore, that an easing of the taxes would encourage an increase\u00a0in the importing of slaves.\u00a0Rodr\u00edguez Demorizi 1978a, 79. Cited in Deive, p. 30.<\/p>

[10]<\/a>\u00a0 The exact date of the instructions is May 18, 1511. Archivo General de Indias, INDIFERENTE, 418,L.3, fo. 1v.<\/p>

[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Archivo General de Indias, INDIFERENTE,418,L.3, fo. 84v.<\/p>

[12]<\/a>\u00a0 The letter was dated in Seville,\u00a0July 21,\u00a01511. The text of the Crown\u2019s order in its Spanish original, referring to the slaves, says: \u201ctrabajad como sean bien tratados asy de mantenimientos como de camas para que por falta de buen Recabdo no Se mueran y que esten sanos y buenos para servir y trabajar en las minas\u201d. The original may be read in PARES, Portal de Archivos Espa\u00f1oles, Archivo General de Indias, INDIFERENTE,418,L.3,\u00a0fo.89r.<\/p>

[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Archivo General de Indias, INDIFERENTE,418,L.3, fo. 181v.<\/p>

[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo,\u00a0<\/em>Vol. I, p. 31.<\/p>

[15]<\/a>\u00a0 The exact date cited for this letter is\u00a0September 26, 1513. The original Spanish text says: \u201cprovease esclavas que, cas\u00e1ndose con los esclavos que hay den estos menos sospechas de alzamiento” (“female slaves must be\u00a0provided so that, marrying the male slaves that are there, these generate\u00a0less suspision of uprising”)\u00a0\u00a0Larraz\u00e1bal, 1975, 16. Cited in\u00a0Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 32.\u00a0This statement\u00a0may show, as Deive says, the ultimate intentions of the Crown with this introduction of female slaves. (Deive, p. 33).<\/p>

[16]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 33-34.<\/p>

[17]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 31-32.<\/p>

[18]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 34.<\/p>

[19]<\/a>\u00a0 The exact date of king Ferdinand\u2019s passing was January 23, 1516. CODOIN I, 332-47. Cited in\u00a0Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 34.\u00a0<\/p>

[20]<\/a>\u00a0 Cisneros\u2019 death occurred on November 18, 1517.\u00a0Deive indicates this was the time of the first importing of\u00a0bozales<\/em>\u00a0slaves, but as it has been shown before,\u00a0non-Christianized slaves had been\u00a0shipped to the Indies since at least 1504.<\/p>

[21]<\/a>\u00a0 Malag\u00f3n, p. 128. Cited in\u00a0Deive,\u00a0La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 34-35.<\/p>

[22]<\/a>\u00a0 Carlos Esteban Deive,\u00a0La Esclavitud del Negro en Santo Domingo<\/em>, Vol. I, p. 36. The friars-governors were appointed by Regent Cisneros roughly a year before, on December 18, 1517.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Legal” and “illegal” slave trade As the early importing of enslaved Blacks into La Espa\u00f1ola continued during the second decade of Spanish colonization, the year 1506 marked the first recorded indication of what would become one of the\u00a0characteristic features\u00a0of Black slavery in the colony throughout the century: the smuggling of slaves into the island.[1]\u00a0There is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summaries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Legal" and "illegal" slave trade - First Blacks in The Americas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/firstblacks.org\/en\/summaries\/arrival-03-legal-and-illegal-slave-trade\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/firstblacks.org\/en\/summaries\/arrival-03-legal-and-illegal-slave-trade\/2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Legal" and "illegal" slave trade - 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