AFRICANS & THE CONQUEST
OF THE AMERICAS
HISTORIOGRAPHY
INVISIBLE
VICTIMS
RESISTENCE LEADERS
AGENTS OF THEIR OWN DESTINIES
THE KINGDOM OF THE KONGO, 1670s
AFRICAN KINGDOM OF THE CONGO, 1670s
AFRICANS IN THE KONGO, 1670s
WEST AFRICA
ANGOLAN SLAVE COFFLE, 1780s
SENEGAL SLAVE COFFLE, 1780s
PORTUGUESE SLAVE FORT, EL MINA 1480s
SLAVE TRADE SOURCES, DESTINATIONS
“If the registers show 100, 200 enter illegally, and, if
they are caught, they say they are on another’s
permit. While they are on the vessels, no matter
how many are travelling, they cannot be taken up as
strays. There is fraud even in searching the
ships.”—Judge Esteve of Hispaniola to Carlos V, 1550.
SLAVE SHIP LAYOUT, INSURRECTION
CONDITIONS ABOARD A SLAVESHIP
HEADED FOR BRAZIL (1845)
“I do not understand why so many Negroes have
died: take good care of them.”—Ferdinand I, King of
Spain to a Royal Official in Hispaniola, June 21, 1511.
Guaman Poma, El Primer
Nueva Corónica y Buen
Gobierno (Peru, 1615/1616)
“…Las Casas urged in his memorials that the
Spanish settlers should be allowed to bring
approximately a dozen Negro slaves, because with
them they could maintain themselves in this land
and would free the Indians….[the officials of the
House of Trade of Seville] answered that for these
islands—Hispaniola, San Juan, Cuba and
Jamaica—they believed that at the present time
4,000 Negro slaves would be enough.”—Bartolome
de las Casas, Historia de las Indias.
“…it is essential that Your Lordship give instructions
for the granting of a general permit to these islands,
in particular to this island [Hispaniola], and to San
Juan, to introduce newly imported slaves, since
experience has shown their great value in assisting
the Indians, if these must remain vassals, or in
helping the Spaniards, not to mention the great
profit which will accrue to His Highness from their
sale.”—Jeronimite friars to Cardinal Ximenes, Regent of
Spain, June 22, 1517.
“Indeed, this is urgent need for Negro slaves,…let
ships go there [Cape Verde] and bring away as
many male and female Negroes as possible, newly
imported and between the ages of 15 to 18 or 20
years. They will be made to adopt our customs in
this island and they will be settled in villages and
married to their women folk. The burden of work of
the Indians will be eased and an unlimited amount
of gold will be mined. This is the best land in the
world for Negroes, women and old men, and it is
very rarely that one of these people die.”—Judge of
Hispaniola to Cardinal Ximenes, Regent of Spain,
January 22, 1518.
Guaman Poma, El Primer
Nueva Corónica y Buen
Gobierno (Peru, 1615/1616)
“Your Majesty already knows that the native Indians
are very much on the decline, and, as the most
lasting arrangement is the introduction of Negroes,
we entreat you to permit the colonists to bring over
200 or 300 of these without payment of license, but
paying duty only at the rate of 7½ per cent.”—City of
Santiago de Cuba to Carlos V, April 10, 1537.
SLAVE TRADE SOURCES, DESTINATIONS
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE
“Female slaves will be
provided, who through
marriage with the male
slaves, will make the
latter less eager for
revolt, and the number
of runaways will be
reduced to a minimum,
as you say.”—King
Ferdinand I, to
Pasamonte, Treasurer of
Hispaniola, April 1514.
Painting by Albert Eckhout, Dutch
Brazil, ca. 1630s
“It is idle to fear that the Negroes may rebel: there
are widows living calmly in the Portuguese islands
with as many as 800 slaves: everything depends on
how they are governed. I found that on the arrival of
some Spanish-speaking Negroes fled to the hills: I
whipped some, cut off the ears of others, and there
were no further complaints.”—Alonso Zuazo, Judge of
Hispaniola, to Cardinal Ximenes, Regent of Spain,
January 22, 1518.
The royal administrator
orders an African slave to
flog an Indian magistrate
for collecting a tribute that
falls two eggs short—
Guaman Poma, El Primer
Nueva Corónica y Buen
Gobierno (Peru,
1615/1616)
Guaman Poma, El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno (Peru, 1615/1616)
“There are so many Negroes in this Island…as a result
of the sugar factories, that the land seems an effigy or
image of Ethiopia itself.”—Gonzalo Fernandez de
Oviedo y Valdes, Historia General y Natural de las Indias,
[ca. 1935].
“The Negroes are already doing business and trading
among themselves to an extent involving great value
and cunning, and, as a result, big and notable
robberies are being committed on all the farms in the
country….”—Archdeacon of Hispaniola to Council of the
Indies, March, 1542.
Creolized blacks steal
money from their
masters and give it to
Indian prostitutes—
Guaman Poma
“I have spoken many times to the Court about
putting a stop to this, for if the Negroes wish to rebel
outright, 100 of them are sufficient to conquer the
island, and 20,000 Spaniards would not suffice to
bring them to subjection The island is large and well
wooded, and they are warlike and expert at hiding
out in the forests.”—Archdeacon of Hispaniola to
Council of the Indies, March, 1542.
“On account of the habit of the Negroes to rise up in
revolt, the settlers dare not give their slaves an
order except in the gentlest manner. And now the
position is greatly improved. The emancipation of
the Indians who were held as slaves has been
greatly felt on the mainland. For this and other
reasons, the attorneys are leaving. To sustain the
war with the Negroes and the siege of their
strongholds, excise and duty were levied, to which
the clergymen have always contributed….”—
Audiencia of Hispaniola to Carlos V, July 23, 1546.
“Negroes are essential in the Indies since the
Spaniards do not work there. All Spaniards who go
there immediately become gentlemen, and as they
are too poor to buy Negroes at 150 pesos, the
country is depopulated. It is requested that the price
be fixed at 100 pesos.”—Judge Hurtado of Hispaniola
to Carlos V, 1550.
“Many people treat their slaves with great cruelty,
whipping them brutally, larding them with different
kinds of resin, burning them, and inflicting other
cruelties from which they die. The slaves are so
intimidated and punished, that they kill themselves, or
throw themselves into the sea or run away, or rise up
in rebellion, and one has merely to say that the master
killed his slave, and no proceedings are instituted
against him.”—Spanish Code Noir, 1574.
“Many Negroes run away to the mountains and
crags, and only occasionally are the deserters and
rebels caught by the overseers, planters and
swineherds. We therefore order and command that
any planter, overseer, cowherd or other person who
apprehends a runaway Negro within two leagues
from this town, shall be paid by the master of the
slave 4 ducats; if the slave is apprehended further
away, within 20 to 40 leagues, 12 ducats; and if the
slave is apprehended more than 40 leagues away,
15 ducats.”—Spanish Code Noir, 1574.
Illustrations by William Blake accompanying John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative (1770s)
“In a palm forest 16 leagues northeast of Porto
Calvo existed the mocambo of the Zambi (a general
or god of arms in their language)…[and other
villages] fortified by a wall of earth and sticks…. It is
widely believed that when blacks were first brought
into the captaincies of Brazil they began to live in
these Palmares, and it is certain that during the
period of Dutch rule their numbers greatly
increased.”—Pedro Paulino da Fonseca, “Memoria dos
feitos que se deram furantes os primeiros annos da
guerra com os negros quilombolas dos Palmares”
“They called their king Gangasuma (a hybrid term
meaning ‘great lord’ composed of the Angolan or
Bunda word ‘ganga” and the Tupi word ‘assú’ ). This
king lived in a royal city which they called Macaco.
This was the main city among the other towns or
mocambos, and it was completely surrounded by a
wall of earth and sticks.”—Pedro Paulino da Fonseca,
“Memoria”
“Before the restoration of Pernambuco from Dutch rule,
25 probing expeditions were sent into the area, suffering
great losses but failing to uncover the secrets of those
brave people….The inhabitants of Alagôas, Porto Calvo,
and Penedo were constantly under attack, and their
houses and plantations robbed by the blacks of
Palmares. The blacks killed their cattle and carried away
their slaves to enlarge their quilombos and increase the
number of their defenders, forcing the inhabitants and
natives of those towns to engage in fighting at a distance
of 40 leagues or more, at great costs to their plantations
and risk to their own lives, without which the blacks
would have become masters of the captaincy because
of their huge and ever-increasing numbers.”— Pedro
Paulino da Fonseca, “Memoria”
Paintings of a Mameluco and Negro warrior by Albert Eckhout, Dutch Brazil, ca. 1630s
DOCUMENTS REGARDING THE WAR
AGAINST PALMARES
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