Manuscript No. 058 - First Blacks in The Americas

Date: 1568-1572, approximately. Santo Domingo, La Española.
Theme: Opinions of local royal prosecutor Santiago del Riego about the need for additional enslaved labor y other pending issues in La Española as shared in a letter to the Crown.
Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles—Archivo General de Indias, Patronato, 173, N.2, R6.

[On the left margin: Blacks] ~ but because the main task depends on the Blacks who willingly or unwillingly must work as the island expands, the Blacks are of major necessity, so to my understanding it would be appropriate that your majesty favors this island by granting licenses for two thousand slaves with none or very minimum interest__

~ and after granting your majesty this favor to them, supposing that it is granted for the working of the land and its improvement, [your majesty] could impose these additions and conditions:

~ first, that all peoples in the island of La Española would benefit from this favor__

~ second, that within two years, after being announced, in Each of these towns they should be obliged to bring them And if not brought, the said favor should expire__

~ third, that of these Blacks none should be taken out of the island for a term of six years, and so that there is no fraud, they should be branded in the face by the royal officials with certain iron or sign, and also that the royal officials for the record should note down on a separate book those that each one brings in and [he] should sign there, so that with the book they can be held accountable of those they brought in when there is any doubt__

~ fourth, that of these Blacks that are granted to them they be obliged to put one half of them to work with wheat, barley or ginger or cotton or other toils of Castille, or mines, and that the other half they may put into the businesses or toils that they now have, and of these, to see how it works out, there should be accounting, and that the prosecutor should have it, and that whoever does the opposite be obliged to pay the thirty ducados of the license.__

Forty years after the 1528 statement by two colonial officials of La Española about the convenience to increase the enslaved Black population in the colony as a means to guarantee its survival, judicial colonial official Santiago del Riego, in a communication to the Crown in 1568-72, reiterated the same concept, urging the monarch to allow 2,000 additional slaves into the colony free of duties or paying very little. Del Riego actually highlighted the importance of labor by Blacks in general, enslaved or free, for the well-being of the colony.

Del Riego added the following details to his recommendation for a sizable increase of the enslaved population of La Española: 1) that the opportunity to acquire additional slaves was given to all the towns of the colony; 2) that towns were given a term of two years to import the slaves; 3) that non of the enslaved Blacks to be imported could be taken out of the colony for at least six years; 4) that the imported slaves be branded on the face as a way to avoid their fraudulent transferring to other territories; 5) that a separate book be kept by the colonial treasury officials of the slaves brought in by each colonist; 6) that one half of the imported slaves be devoted to work on wheat, barley, ginger or cotton or mining; and the other half to commercial agriculture.

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