The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapter 10-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary: “Powerful Nomads”

Reséndez focuses on Indigenous peoples’ involvement in the slaving enterprise in this chapter. From the beginning of European colonization, Indigenous peoples were involved in human trafficking. Initially, they offered the newcomers captives and helped them develop new slave trafficking networks. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Indigenous peoples “increased their power and came to control a larger share of the traffic in slaves” (172). There are three main reasons for this change. The first is that the Spanish campaign, which legally prohibited Indigenous slavery, dissuaded some Spanish slavers from continuing to participate in the enslavement of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous groups could fill this void since the Spanish crown had less control over them. The second reason is that the Indigenous rebellions of the 17th century, including the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, unintentionally opened new slaving grounds. These rebellions also resulted in some groups fusing together and reinventing themselves as mobile bands who traded goods (often captured during wars or raids) for a living, and these goods included horses and Indigenous captives. The final and most important factor is that some Indigenous groups had greater access to firearms and horses, enabling them to capture other Indigenous peoples more easily.

One of the most dramatic examples of an Indigenous group controlling the slave trade occurs in the American Southwest with the Comanches. Originally from the eastern Colorado Plateau, the Comanches, a nomadic Indigenous group, arrived in New Mexico in the early 18th century. The Comanches traveled back and forth over an eye-popping distance of three thousand miles from New Mexico to procure various goods, including Indigenous slaves. By the mid-18th century, the Comanches were the primary suppliers of Indigenous captives in the American Southwest.

In the 17th century, New Mexicans kept slaves for their own ranches and homes, sending any surplus Indigenous slaves to the silver mines in northern Mexico. By the mid-18th century, however, these mines were absorbing fewer and fewer captives. As the Comanches flooded the market with captives, the Spanish households and ranches could not absorb all the slaves. New settlements comprising former slaves grew out of this challenge. More and more of these settlements popped up in New Mexico, further illustrating the Comanches’ “slaving prowess” (180).

The Comanches primarily targeted isolated Apache villages. The Apache are a group of culturally related Indigenous groups from the American Southwest. Archival records from the first half of the 18th century suggest that the Comanche planned to colonize the Apache. Both groups had horses, which often made their clashes ferocious. The Comanche prevailed in the end, killing many adult males, taking women and children as captives, and burning Apache homes and fields. In doing so, they transformed the groups inhabiting the plains. It became the region inhabited by the Comanches rather than the Apaches. The Comanches took captives to New Mexico, where they sold them, along with bison hides and horses, to Europeans and other Indigenous groups in exchange for horses and knives. The Comanches turned their new homeland into massive trading center. They could not have done this without the help of horses and firearms, which allowed them to compete with Europeans, who initially had the advantage.

Chapter 8 Summary: “Missions, Presidios, and Slaves”

While Indigenous groups, like the Comanches, reasserted power in their homelands by controlling the Indigenous slave trade, Europeans also adapted to this new circumstance with new enslavement practices. In the early years of Spanish colonization, “friars boldly ventured into unsettled areas, established contact with Indians, and acted as diplomats, spies, and agents of the crown” (197). These missions played a key role on the frontiers by teaching European languages and introducing Christianity to Indigenous groups. Missions failed, however, since friars lacked the numbers and power to control these frontiers and keep Indigenous groups from fleeing.

Spanish officials opted for a more forceful means of protecting frontiers, which included establishing military garrisons along the frontier controlled by soldiers. These militias and presidios, or fortified bases, came to play a prominent role on the frontiers throughout the 18th century because they enabled Spanish authorities to exercise greater labor control over Indigenous groups.

The Seris, a nomadic Indigenous group who lived on the coast of Sonora, Mexico with little outside interference for hundreds of years, provide a sobering example of how the missions and presidios increased Indigenous peoples’ vulnerability to Spanish labor demands. The Jesuits began missionizing the Seris in the late 17th century. Initially, the Seris received the missionaries peacefully, primarily because they gave food away. Missionaries also liberally used coercion. They would enlist Spanish soldiers’ help in catching Seri families and sending them to missions. The majority of the Seris attempted to flee the Spanish religious and military authorities by retreating to Tiburón, the largest island in Mexico, which was extremely difficult to get to. The Seri example demonstrates “the weakness of the missionary frontier” (204) since the missionaries only convinced a small portion of the Indigenous peoples to settle down.

To gain better control, the Spanish government established the first presidial frontier in the Seri homeland in the mid-18th century. San Pedro de la Conquista del Pitic was the first presidio. Although it was supposed to help bring security to the region, this presidio became a place of coercion and enslavement. Indigenous peoples “were compelled to work from dawn to dusk” (206-7) no matter their crime. Minor infractions resulted in beatings. The Spanish soldiers even forced free Indigenous peoples to work and did not allow them to leave the establishment. A Mexico City lawyer shut down Pitic, but the presidio that replaced it was even worse for the Seri community.

The Seris attempted to retaliate against the Spanish soldiers by running off an entire horse herd, which severely reduced the soldiers’ mobility, and attacking mining towns. The Spanish authorities became even more incensed. They wanted to deport all Seri Indians, which equaled about 3,000 individuals at that time, to either the Caribbean islands or the Philippines. They also wanted to send Seri children younger than eight to the Apache frontier to help “‘contain the enemy Apaches’” (211). This plan was not successful. They deported many of the Seris to Guatemala, where just the men were able to return to their homeland. They also did send children to the Apache frontier. This failed strategy gave the Seri even more reason to rebel. In the end, “the Seri mission program, which had lasted for more than seventy years, had given way to extirpation and enslavement” (211).

Chapter 9 Summary: “Contractions and Expansions”

For 11 years (1810-1821), Mexico struggled for independence against Spain. Much of the fighting took place in the mining districts, which prompted workers to abandon the silver mines. The resulting economic decline led to a breakdown of the control on the frontier, resulting in Indigenous groups becoming even more vulnerable to attacks, particularly from the Comanche.

The initial turmoil of independence coincided with the Comanche expansion into Mexico. One eyewitness account noted that “in the short years between 1816 and 1821 [they] took more than two thousand captives of all kinds, genders, and ages, and killed as many people or more” (221) in several regions of northern Mexico. They continued waging war in northern Mexico through the 1850s, mounting numerous raiding campaigns. The acquisition of horses and goods, including captives, were primary goals of these campaigns. Human captives were more valuable than horses, although the desirability of captives depended on background, age, and gender.

By the 19th century, the US-Mexico border was home to a flourishing market of captives. Indigenous groups, including the Comanche, supplied the captives. The buyers of these captives included New Mexican families looking for servants, merchants and fort operators along the frontier, and other Indigenous groups. The fate of captives depended on their “ethnicity, social standing, and the vagaries of the slave traffic” (227). For example, ransom was unlikely for young Mexican captives from low-income backgrounds. They were instead traded back and forth between different Indigenous groups. Well-off captives, whose families could afford to hire agents or work with government officials, stood better chances of being ransomed. Some of these agents, called comancheros, participated in the slave trade themselves. They acquired captives from the Indigenous groups and resold them at higher prices.

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

Chapters 7-9 focus on new cycles of enslavement. In Chapter 7, Reséndez demonstrates how the acquisition of horses and firearms by some Indigenous groups, such as the Comanche, enabled them to take over the slave trade from the Europeans. The Comanche are an example of an Indigenous group who were still able to retain a great deal of control in their “native grounds” (196) by acting as a “militaristic slaving society” (172). A militaristic slaving society refers to groups that became major suppliers of Indigenous slaves. Capitalizing on the economic, social, and political turmoil caused by the Mexican War of Independence, the Comanche and other Indigenous groups conducted raiding campaigns through the 19th century (Chapter 9). While new circumstance might seem to represent Indigenous power and reassertion of control in their homelands, Reséndez cautions against this interpretation. In response to this newfound Indigenous power, European colonists pioneered new practices of slavery, including militarizing the Mexican frontiers by establishing presidios (Chapter 8) and debt peonage (Chapter 9).

Chapter 7 also allows for the comparison between European and Indigenous treatment of captive Indigenous women and children. Europeans paid far more for Indigenous women than men, in part for “sexual exploitation and women’s reproductive capabilities” (6). Europeans also believed women were better suited for domestic services. Captive women also signaled wealth and prestige for European males. In many ways, the Comanche preferred women slaves for similar reasons. Captive women helped butcher carcasses, look after horses, and perform other domestic chores. They were status symbols too. As a polygynous society, the number of wives correlated to the esteem and success of men.

Europeans preferred children because “they were more adaptable than grown-ups, learned languages more easily, and in the fullness of time could even identify with their captors” (7). Some captive children were even able to become part of European society. Younger captive children faced similar circumstances with the Comanche, whereas older captive children did not. Captor families excluded the older children from becoming part of their families because they had difficulties learning the Comanche language and identifying with their captors. The Comanche also preferred boys over girls, primarily because constant battles and raids took a heavy toll on the male Comanche population. The Comanche might also have preferred boys because they could help look after the horses. While there are some general similarities between how European and Indigenous captors treated captive women and children, there are also culturally specific treatments and preferences. This reality further illustrates how complex the other slavery is. Focusing on abolishing slavery in one particular cultural context might either not work or have unintended consequences in another cultural context.

In this section, Reséndez continues to build on the notion that the other slavery is adaptable and enduring. Mexico extended citizenship rights to all Indigenous peoples residing in the country after its independence from Spain, thereby abolishing slavery. Reséndez notes that “in the absence of slavery, the only way for Mexicans to bind workers to their properties and businesses was by extending credit to them” (238). Debt peonage, a form of the other slavery, became deeply entrenched in both Mexico and the American Southwest. Debt served as a tool of coercion. Individuals could not leave their employer unless their debt was paid off. Individuals had to show certificates that noted they owed their former employer “absolutely nothing” (238) to be hired by another employer. Beatings and other forms of punishment were common within the debt peonage system. The fact that there were likely thousands of individuals bound to the debt peonage system throughout Mexico and the American Southwest by the early twentieth century underscores the expansion rather than contraction of the other slavery.

This section also demonstrates the synergistic relationship between epidemics and slavery. The forced removal of Indigenous groups, such as the Seri and Apaches, from regions of low population density to cities rife with disease decimated these groups. Many of these Indigenous individuals faced starvation on the march to cities, such as Mexico City, from their homeland. They were then forced to stay in hospices and prisons. These conditions, all of which are forms of enslavement, weakened their immune system, making them much more susceptible to disease. Studies have even revealed that malnourishment makes some of these contagious diseases, such as smallpox, even more debilitating. Indigenous prisoners who escaped from the cities back to their home communities likely brought the disease with them as did soldiers who moved back and forth between the urban and rural regions. Despite disease outbreaks among Indigenous communities, the Spanish authorities continued to forcefully move them. Thus, enslavement practices and disease truly go together.