Slavery in Mexico: John Schmal

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 Abstract from SLAVERY IN COLONIAL MEXICO
By John P. Schmal

The Marriages of Slaves in Mexico

The majority of slaves brought to the shores of Mexico were male. With a 
lack of female Africans, most of these men eventually chose Indian or 
mestizo women as spouses. The long-established Siete Partidas laws of 
Spain granted slaves the right to select their spouses. Slave masters 
were thus forbidden from intervening in this decision.
Professor Martha Menchaca, the author of Recovering History, 
Reconstructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican 
Americans, observed that "this legislation was of monumental importance 
because it became the gateway for the children of slaves to gain their 
freedom.
Due to the lobbying efforts of the Catholic Church the children of Black 
male slaves and Indian women were declared free and given the right to 
live with their mother." With laws that granted freedom to the children 
of a slave who married into other racial classifications, it is very 
obvious to see the motivation of this class to seek outside partners.
The Spanish practice of classifying people by race was utilized in the 
Catholic Church records of Colonial Mexico. While doing extensive 
genealogical research into Colonial Mexican church records from the 
1600s and 1700s, this author has spent a great deal of time exploring 
the marriages of slaves in various parts of Mexico. In areas such as San 
Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Guanajuato, I have frequently 
seen church records that documented the marriages of males slaves to 
mestizas, Indians, and mulatas. It is likely that the offspring of these 
marriages would have been free individuals.
The Caste System in Mexico

While the Spaniards and Europeans living in Mexico "enjoyed the highest 
social prestige and were accorded the most extensive legal and economic 
privileges," those persons classified as Indians, mestizos and mulatos 
brought up the other end of the social spectrum.
The social classification of afromestizos – persons of mixed Indian, 
African and Caucasian blood – was allocated a position in the lowest 
rungs of Mexican society. "Because they were of partially African 
descent," states Professor Menchaca, "…they were stigmatized and 
considered socially inferior to Indians and mestizos… afromestizos were 
subjected to racist laws designed to distinguish them from mestizos and 
to impose financial and social penalties upon them."
Eventually, the Wars of Liberation during the first three decades of the 
Nineteenth Century brought an end to Spanish slavery of Africans in 
Mexico. Dr. Palmer has estimated that the total number of African-born 
slaves brought to Mexico from the earliest years of the Sixteenth 
Century to the day that the institution was abolished (1827) numbered 
about 200,000.
Although 200,000 individuals seems to be a large number, in comparison 
to Mexico’s overall population through the colonial period, it is quite 
small and statistics indicate that the African and Black population of 
Mexico never reached more than two percent of the total population at 
any given time. But in some portions of eastern Mexico, it is evident 
that the African presence has left a cultural influence. Patrick James 
Carroll, in Blacks in Colonial Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, and Regional 
Development, is one of the few authors who has discussed the African 
influence in this context.
While exploring Mexican colonial census and church records, this author 
has been given a better understanding of the genetic and economic 
influence of the African in Mexico. In various cities throughout Mexico, 
epidemics would wipe out large numbers of Indians. At times like these, 
the percentage of the Black population would increase significantly. The 
smaller pool of workers thus contained a greater number of Africans, who 
moved into fill the labor vacancies created by the loss of the Indians.
As one example of a strong African presence, the City of Zacatecas in 
1803 had the following population numbers: 11,000 Spaniards and 
mestizos; 9,500 Indians; and 12,500 Negroes and mulattoes. Figures such 
as these are a testament to the value of the African in providing 
essential services (through labor) to the Mexican colonial economy.
Sources:

Aguirre Beltrán, Gonzalo. La Población Negra de México, 1519-1810. 
Mexico, 1972: 2nd edition.
Bennett, Herman L. Africans in Colonial Mexico: Absolutism, 
Christianity, and the Afro-Creole Consciousness, 1570-1640 (Blacks in 
the Disapora). Indiana University Press, 2003.
Carroll, Patrick James. Blacks in Colonial Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, 
and Regional Development. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Harring, Clarence H. The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Harbinger, 
1963.
Menchaca, Martha. Reconstructing History, Constructing Race: The Indian, 
Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. Austin: University of Texas 
Press, 2001.
Mörner, Magnus. Race Mixture in the History of Latin America. Boston: 
Little, Brown and Company, 1967.
Palmer, Colin A. Slaves of the White God: Blacks in Mexico, 1570-1650. 
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976.
About the Author: John Schmal is a student of Mexican history and a 
specialist in Mexican genealogy. He has coauthored a book about the 
indigenous and African roots of a Mexican-American family in The 
Indigenous Roots of a Mexican-American Family, available through 
Heritage books at:
http://marketplacesolutions.net/secure/heritagebooks/merchant2/merchant.mvc
?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HBI&Product_Code=M2469