Source: Amy Notes (ID702)
Author: Howard, Amy (ID633)
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this is the name of my book!
this is the name of my book!
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Spain had developed a system of forced labor and forced provision sales on the native Floridians
Date Created: 2023-10-12 20:56:17
Source: Situado and Sabana (ID 82)
Author: Bushnell, Amy (ID 32)
Content_id: 550
CHAPTER 11. NATIVE SUPPORT OF THE PRESIDIO The labor system of the colony of Florida reflected the hierarchical society of early modern Spanish America. A person's place was determined by gender, caste, and estate. One could do nothing to alter the first and most important toss of the coin, that of being male or female, but caste, based upon race or race mixture, was partly a matter of perception. Mobility within or even between the castes was difficult but not impossible, given a big enough change in one's circumstances. Estate was a matter of status. One started out with the status earned by one's ancestors and increased, diminished, or forfeited it oneself. The three hierarchies of gender, caste, and estate were divided horizontally into upper and lower orders. The distinction was clear: the lower orders, or "gentebaja," did manual labor; the upper orders did not. The Florida captaincy general, faced with a chronic deficit of manual labor, tried to remedy it with laborers of varied origins. Espanoles, who were Spaniards or their accepted descendants, formed the basis of the presidio's gente de mar (sailors) and gente de guerra (soldiers), the latter called "soldados" because they received a sueldo, or regular wage. Nondischargeable servants, who were either deudos (poor relations) or criados (reared in the house), served and guarded the Spanish family of quality. Forzados (convicts) and desterrados (exiles) from other colonies worked out their sentences in the presidio, the forzados at hard labor and the desterrados as aides or clerks, as befit unfortunate gentlemen. Forasteros (outsiders), who had made their entrances as prisoners of war, castaways, or captured corsairs, exercised the arts of cooperage or medicine which had saved them from being executed or condemned to the galleys as chusma (captive rowers). Black slaves, both bozales (African-born) and criollos (American-born), served as cabin boys, military musicians, bodyguards, overseers, nurses, and blacksmiths. ...All of these together could not fill the labor void in St. Augustine. To do so, the espanoles turned to native labor, obtaining it by any means and in any form, with several kinds of compulsory service to shade the area between slave and free. AN78 By the early 1600s they had tried slavery and service towns and discovered the usefulness of client communities. From then on they would channel native labor and products to the presidio through a system of coerced labor, especially galling in its burdening form, and a parallel system of forced sales. With what internal debates, rationalizations, and apprehensions the natives reconciled themselves and each other to the Spanish demands will never be known from Spanish documents. More reliable indicators are the rebellions of provinces, the defections of towns, and the silent drift of individuals out of the provinces. (Bushnell SS)