The Other Slavery

The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America is a book about slavery among Native Americans and the European enslavement of Indigenous Americans. It was written by Andrés Reséndez and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2016.

About
The Other Slavery explores the history of Native American enslavement in the Americas. The book argues that Native American enslavement has been historically overlooked and marginalized.

Reséndez shows that slavery existed in the Americas prior to European colonozation; Indigenous peoples and later European colonizers enslaved Indigenous peoples. This practice continued for centuries after European arrival. The author documents the horrific treatment of Native American slaves, including forced labor, sexual exploitation, and physical violence and compares treatment of Native American slaves to the experiences of enslaved Africans.

Synopsis
Andrés Reséndez argues that slavery was of the main factors that decimated the indigenous population of North America. He calls the enslavement of Indigenous people "the other slavery”, that predated and outlasted the African slave trade until the 20th century. The author claims that there is no historical record of disease spread in the Americas until 26 years after European arrival. He also notes that populations usually recover from epidemics within a few generations, as in the case of the Black Death, but the population of Indigenous Americans did not recover.

Reséndez writes that even after slavery was outlawed by the Spanish, and later by the governments of Mexico and the United States, those that benefitted from slavery used legal frameworks to avoid enforcement such as vagrancy laws, convict leasing, and debt peonage. In debt peonage, Indigenous peoples could be forced to work as long as they were paid, no matter how low the wages. Furthermore, Spain allowed the slavery of Indigenous peoples accused of cannibalism (often falsely), those captured in "just wars," and those captured by other indigenous peoples.

Indigenous men performed forced labor in mines and plantations, and Indigenous women and children as domestic and sexual servants. Indigenous children were forced into apprenticeships, thus producing free labor. Mechanisms of economic exploitation and reduced freedom were used to produce forced labor as happened in repartimientos (poorly remunerated, forced labor), encomiendas (forced to pay a tribute to European settlers), Spanish missions and haciendas (where peons "belonging" to a hacienda were part of the price of it).

Christopher Columbus' “first business venture in the New World consisted of sending four caravels loaded to capacity with 550 Natives back to Europe, to be auctioned off in the markets of the Mediterranean.” Hernan Cortes was the largest slave owner in Mexico. Mexican governors and US officials were slave owners or traders. He covers the case of territorial governor Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was caused by Indigenous resistance to widespread slavery of Indigenous peoples from all over New Mexico for export to the large silver mines of Mexico. Even common citizens could arrest Indigenous peoples and once criminalized, were forced to work up to 20 years and sold in slave auctions. No accepting the Christian religion or protecting territory was a crime for Indigenous peoples.

The author points out that the indications of slavery are the following: a) forced displacement, b) lack of freedom of movement or captivity, c) violence or threat of violence in case of non-compliance, d) non-payment or symbolic payment for work.

The book depicts slavery across four centuries, tells stories of slavery that affected 2.5 to 5 million Indigenous peoples. Reséndez uses as primary sources the written records made by European slavers and other observers.

Recognition
The Other Slavery was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2016. Reséndez won the 2017 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy for The Other Slavery.

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