Manuscript No. 042 - First Blacks in The Americas

Date: 1510, January 22. Valladolid, Spain
Theme: The King of Spain reiterated a prior order to the Casa de la Contratación for the sending of 50 “slaves” to La Española to work in the extraction of gold for the Crown
Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98V.-99R.

Date: 1510, January 22.  Valladolid, Spain.

Theme: The King of Spain reiterated a prior orden to the Casa de la Contratación for the sending of fifty “slaves” to La Española to work in the extraction of gold for the Crown

Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98V.-99R.

[fo. 98v.]

Slaves /

to those of the house of Seville, /
that they must send to La Española/
the 50 slaves /

To the officers of the /
Casa de la Contratación /
so that they send /
50 slaves to the /
Española island for /
the exploiting of the /
mines /

 […] 

                                               The King  /

Our officials at the Casa de la Contratación of the /
Indies who reside in the city of Seville, /
you already know how days ago I ordered to /
mandate that you sent fifty slaves /
to the Española island, and once there they were delivered to Miguel /
de Pasamonte, our general treasurer in those regions /
so that after they arrive and are capable of working /
they are put into the works of the mines that are /
worked on for us there. And because now /
our officials that reside over there have written to me that in the /
said mines they have begun to find good /
quantity of gold thanks to our Lord, and that the said /
slaves are much necessary over there to break /
the rocks where the said gold is found, /
because the Indians are said to be very skinny and of /
little strength, therefore I order you to quickly /
give all diligence to searching for the /
said slaves so they are the best and toughest /
that you may find, and that you send them to the said /
Española island delivered to the said Miguel /
de Pasamonte as quickly as you can. /
If you Dr. Sancho de Matienzo do not /
have them to serve me, you must then /

[fo. 99r.]

Made in Valladolid /
on January 11 of 1510. /

                                                                        xcix  /

look for them pleasing our Lord very [   ] /
that it is paid. This courier had been stopped /
to send you another dispatch, and because this is /
something of so much urgency, I am mandating it is dispatched /
only with this, without waiting for anything else. Made in /
Valladolid on twenty two days of the month of January of five hundred /
and ten years. I, the King. Per mandate of his highness, Lope Conchillos. /

[…]

Date: 1510, January 22. Valladolid, Spain.

Theme: The King of Spain reiterated a prior order to the Casa de la Contratación for the sending of 50 “slaves” to La Española to work in the extraction of gold for the Crown

Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles, Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.2,F.98V.-99R.

In a communication to the Casa de la Contratación of Seville in early 1510, the King informed the recipient that a few days before he had ordered 50 “slaves” sent to La Española, having recently received a request from the treasury officials of that colony to send them “slaves”, because they were “very necessary in the breaking of the rocks where the said gold is found, because the Indians reportedly are very skinny and of little strength.”

In light of the above, the monarch ordered the Casa de la Contratación that “you must quickly put all the diligence you are capable of into searching for the said slaves, which must be the best and toughest you may find, and send them to the island of Española […] as fast as you can.” The king, who was at the time in Valladolid, considered the issue “of so much urgency” that he ordered that the first courier available leave for Seville “with this only, without waiting for anything else.”

As has been indicated elsewhere in this platform, this document confirms the fact that the arrival of the first enslaved black Africans at La Española was connected with the mining enterprise there, as well as the construction of defensive military structures.

Los PRIMEROS NEGROS eN LAS AMERICAS

La Presencia Africana en la República Dominicana