Indian slavery

Indian slavery was the practice of using indigenous peoples of the Americas as slaves.

Native American enslavement of Native Americans

In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica the most common forms of slavery were those of prisoners-of-war and debtors. People unable to pay back a debt could be sentenced to work as a slave to the person owed until the debt was worked off. Most victims of human sacrifice were prisoners of war or slaves. [ [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9367541 human sacrifice -- Britannica Concise Encyclopedia] ] According to Aztec writings, as many as 84,000 people were sacrificed at a temple inauguration in 1487. [ [http://www.livescience.com/history/human_sacrifice_050123.html Evidence May Back Human Sacrifice Claims | LiveScience] ] Slavery was not usually hereditary; children of slaves were born free. In the Inca Empire, workers were subject to a "mita" in lieu of taxes which they paid by working for the government.

The Haida and Tlingit tribes who lived along the Southeast Alaska's coast were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders, raiding as far as California. Slavery was hereditary, the slaves being prisoners of war. Among some Pacific Northwest tribes about a quarter of the population were slaves. [ [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=2 Digital History African American Voices] ] [ [http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/haida/havwa01e.html Haida Warfare] ] Other slave-owning tribes and societies of the New World were, for example, Comanche of Texas, Creek of Georgia, the fishing societies, such as the Yurok, that lived along the coast from what is now Alaska to California, the Pawnee and Klamath, the Caribs of Dominica, the Tupinambá of Brazil, and the Tehuelche of Patagonia. [ [http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History] ]

European enslavement of Native Americans

European enslavement of Native Americans existed with the Spanish from the earliest days on the Caribbean islands they first settled. One of the first localities for intensive use of slaves was the gold mines of Hispaniola. This resulted in the extermination of Native Americans on most of the islands. A very few mixed-blood survivors remain, especially on Jamaica, and are called Maroons as do some mixed blood survivors of the Arawak on Cuba. Some Carib survive on Dominica. In Brazil slavery was already part of the native population traditions. Native Americans would enslave other Native Americans, captured from rival tribes, and would often eat their slaves after some time. After the arrival of the Portuguese, the Native Americans started to trade their prisoners, instead of using them as slaves or food, in exchange for goods. But the enslavement of Europeans could also occur as happened with Hans Staden who, after being set free, wrote a book about the habits of the Native Americans.

Native American slavery was also practiced by the English in the Carolinas who sold Native American captives into slavery on the English plantations in the Caribbean. One of the first tribes that specialized in slave raids and trade with Carolina was the Westo, followed by many others including the Yamasee, Chickasaw, and Creek. Historian Alan Gallay estimates the number of Native Americans in southeast America sold in the British slave trade from 1670-1715 as between 24,000 and 51,000. He also notes that during this period more slaves (Native American, African, or otherwise) were exported from Charles Town than imported.

Many Native American tribes did enslave small numbers of captives and in the southwestern United States a few of them were sold to local Hispanic residents. In at least one instance in the San Luis Valley of Colorado a female household slave continued in her status long after the Emancipation Proclamation.Fact|date=February 2007

Slavery of Native Americans was organized in colonial and Mexican California through Franciscan missions, theoretical entitled to ten years of Native labor, but in practice maintaining them in perpetual servitude, until their charge was revoked in the mid-1830s. Following the 1848 American invasion, Native Californians were enslaved in the new state from statehood in 1850 to 1867. [Castillo, Edward D. (1998). " [http://www.ceres.ca.gov/nahc/califindian.html Short Overview of California Indian History] ", California Native American Heritage Commission.] Slavery required the posting of a bond by the slave holder and enslavement occurred through raids and a four-month servitude imposed as a punishment for Indian "vagrancy". [Beasley, Delilah L. (1918). "Slavery in California," "The Journal of Negro History", Vol. 3, No. 1. (Jan.), pp. 33-44.]

References

*Gallay, Alan. [http://www.raceandhistory.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/1362 "Forgotten Story of Indian Slavery"] (2003).
*Gallay, Alan. "The Indian Slave Trade" (2002).
* [http://www.lehigh.edu/~ejg1/natimag/Harry.html Brown, Harry J. "Hans Staden Among the Tupinambas"]
* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-585 English Trade in Deerskins and Indian Slaves] , New Georgia Encyclopedia

Notes