Spanish American Slavery

The Spanish handled their colonial acquisitions by having slaves and dividing races. Spain was running an encomienda system which meant that the Spanish had the control over native Americans and had the power to tax them or make them slaves. Native Americans labor was needed because it was cheap but more product was made. Another reason why Native American slavery was needed was sugar cane, sugar cane was the cash crop at the time and in order for the sugar to be processed, you have to pull it off the cane grain by grain. The Native Americans males were treated badly by the Spanish, they were badly beaten and more.
In order to keep the Native American population growing the Native American women were brought over to Spain. The harsh treatment …show more content…
Like the native Americans, African Americans were treated worse. The races began to mix creating new breeds of human life and of course, the Spain created a new race system. Race meant nothing back then DNA wasn't yet determined it was just white and black, native. The Spanish thought that blacks, whites, and natives should never mix or mate, and that they should only come together for economic reasons only. The races, of course, couldn’t resist the temptations and started to mate. Those of a mix raced were called Castas by the Spanish. The Castas were treated harshly, no one gave Castas loans and they refused to buy from them. The Spanish had many names for mixed races, for example, a white and a black person would be called a Mullato, a Spaniard and an American Indian would be called a Mestizo or Mulato with an Espanola were called Morisco. The Spanish would use a complexion system which meant that if you were white then you were free if you were a black or had darker skin you were beneath the Spanish and the Europeans, you were basically the slaves or the help. Spain was responsible for most of the racisms systems in America between the European and Africans this system lasted for many years and cultivated many