Slavery in colonial Spanish America
Slavery in the Spanish American viceroyalties was an economic and social institution which existed throughout the Spanish Empire including Spain itself. Enslaved Africans were brought over to the continent for their labour, indigenous people were enslaved until the 1543 laws that prohibited it.
Alfonso X of Castile and the Siete Partidas
An Aztec slave
Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Tlaxcalan Indians battle with the Caxcanes in the Mixtón War.
Spanish conquistadors in Mexico led by Hernán Cortés. The Spaniards are accompanied by native porters, La Malinche, and a black man (holding the horse). Codex Azcatitlan.
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person.
Gordon, a slave from Louisiana, in 1863. The scars are the result of a whipping by his overseer.
Flogging a slave fastened to the ground, illustration in an 1853 anti-slavery pamphlet
A poster for a slave auction in Georgia, U.S., 1860
Portrait of an older woman in New Orleans with her enslaved servant girl in the mid-19th century
