The Complexity Of African Slavery - 2267 Words

The complexity of African slavery has impacted Mexico in ways one may not have imagined. Thousands of Africans were brought to Mexico to become slaves and do manual labor. On average, a slave would cost anywhere between 150 to 400 pesos, and studies show that owning a slave was considered a luxury. Slavery in Mexico had an enormous impact in the social aspect during the colonial period to a large extent. The labor jobs that Africans worked, helped Mexico become the lead in the commercial trade of sugar, silver dyes, and gold in the sixteenth century. Although African slaves were only brought to Mexico to fulfill the labor that Spaniards could not complete, their presence helped construct the birth of Mexico and despite their harsh working†¦show more content†¦(Palmer 1) â€Å"In the sixteenth century, New Spain probably had more Africans than any other colony in the New World.† (Richmond 1). When the blacks were first brought to Mexico, some disembarked on the port o f San Juan de Ulua in Veracruz, where the Spaniards hired surgeons to lick the African’s beards. According to Judith Hernandez-Aranda from the documentary, Black in Latin America – Mexico and Peru: The Black Grandma in the Closet, if the African’s sweat tasted salty it meant that they still had good blood pressure. With all the diseases that the Spaniards carried with them, many indigenous people were infected and millions of them died, making the African slaves an essential necessity for the Spanish colonists when it came to working labor in order to replace the dead. The African presence in Mexico had a huge contribution in Mexico’s colonial evolution through their labor. Africans during the Spanish invasion commonly served as personal attends to their masters, load carriers, and laborers. Along with these tasks Africans encountered harsh working conditions when working as personal attends to their masters, for example, as Javier Villa-Flores states in the article â€Å"To Lose One’s Soul,† â€Å"In his testimony, Juan recounted the events of the previous day: Around 4 PM, his master harshly beat him in the stable of his textile workshop (obraje) because Juan had not ï ¬ nished the work he had been assigned. Unhappy with his