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Most of us know a bit about the history African slavery in North America, but not much is known about the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of American Indians. It was a 400-year ordeal that started around the time of Columbus and ended in the early 20th century. Jack Williams of NET News talked to the author of a book that has uncovered that history, called “The Other Slavery”. Dr. Andres Resendez is a professor of history at the University of California-Davis and will speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Thursday evening as part of the 2017 Pauley Lecture.
NET News: You point out that there are hundreds of books about African slavery, but not much research at all about American Indian slavery. Why haven’t we heard more about these 400 years or so of slavery that decimated the Native American population?
Dr. Andres Resendez: First of all, it was formally prohibited, so the forms of enslavement were varied and they were often covert, so that’s one main reason why we have forgotten about this. Individuals tried to get around this prohibition by using euphemisms and subterfuges, and it has worked.
NET News: When you started this book, did you expect to find what you found? Were you surprised that this has kind of been hidden all these years and that not a lot of people knew about this?
Dr. Resendez: I was very surprised. I started out with a more specific book in mind. I was going to write about Indian slavery in the 16th century which I believed had been the high water mark period for this type of enslavement. And I assumed that once African slavery became more common and salaried work became more common later on in the Colonial period then Indian slavery would decrease. But as I kept collecting sources in the archival records, I realized that this other slavery never went away but in fact coexisted with African slavery and in some ways complemented African slavery geographically and economically.
NET News: You also talk about how this slave trade was not limited to one nation, that the Spanish, Mexicans, Americans and even other Indians enslaved Native Americans. Why do you think that was?
Dr. Resendez: This was a big business. The economic incentives were there, and so it is indeed not a history of good people against bad people or people with good inclinations or bad inclinations, but it was a phenomenon that everybody who was in a position to do it, did it. It was not limited to one European empire or another or one Indian group or another. It was a very widespread phenomenon.
NET News: You mention that this type of slavery often involved more women and children than maybe men. Talk about that a bit.
Dr. Resendez: It is an interesting observation that in some ways, this other slavery, as I call it in my book, is the mirror image of African slavery, which consisted mostly of adult males destined for plantation work. In this case, the composition varied from place to place, but overall there were more women and more children and the reason for this is a lot of it had to do with domestic enslavement and household heads, for various reasons, preferred women over men and they preferred children, who were more malleable and more adaptable than adults. I should point out that I call it the other slavery, but in some ways this is also what we observe in the modern forms of enslavement that still exist that tend to affect women and children disproportionately.
NET News: How did this finally end? What finally stopped the enslavement of American Indians?
Dr. Resendez: Towards the end of the 19th century, the numbers were reduced. I think states became more aware of these practices. Congress passed things like the so-called Peonage Act of 1867 and the same thing goes for other nation-states throughout the hemisphere. But even though the overall numbers decreased, the argument that I make is that there is a continuity coming all the way to the modern forms of enslavement, based on subterfuges and euphemisms hinging on debts, indebtedness, so in many ways the forms of modern enslavement bear striking resemblance to the types of institutions of bondage that I describe in my book for Native Americans that affected them for 400 years.
The 2017 Pauley Lecture with Dr. Andres Resendez is Thursday, October 5th, 2017 at the Nebraska Union, Colonial A&B from 5:30-7:00 p.m..