Slavery was planned for Florida before it was Florida
The Spaniards decided to do it before they ever got here.
Let me start with this: I came across some lines describing about how the Spaniards planned on enslaving Native Americans before they ever came to the Sunshine State and certainly before they ever called this land “Florida.”
I wasn’t sure whether to post about this here, but I found the topic too interesting, and important, to not bring it up. I hope it might encourage some productive discussions here. If people don’t want me to bring it up, well, that’s ok. I hope people will want to discuss it.
The information I found is in the book Discovering Florida: First-Contact Narratives from Spanish Expeditions along the Lower Gulf Coast edited and translated by John E. Worth. This book has become one of my favorite sources as I research my upcoming novel Calusa Gold. It contains details about Ponce de Leon and how and why the Calusas attacked his men and fatally wounded him with an arrow. The book also covers Spaniard Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his dealings with the Calusas and establishment of Fort St. Anton de Carlos on Mound Key.
I read the following lines in the book: “On February 23, 2012, Juan Ponce de Leon was granted permission to undertake an exploratory expedition in search of the island of Bimini, about which there seems to have been considerable interest, if little clear information, at the time.”
The passage continues: “the contract granted him identical rights to any ‘nearby’ islands or territories, which of course established the foundation for his claim to Florida itself.”
The contract here is between Ponce de Leon and the king of Spain. The use of the word “rights” here is key, and I think it suggests the contract would give ownership of the lands to De Leon. Bimini refers to the islands of the Bahamas.
Another line says these types of contracts, “include the privileges granted to initial participants in these expeditions, such as time-limited tax breaks, titles, and grants of Indian labor (repartimiento), as well as requirements and limitations imposed under crown authority.
Grants of Indian labor. In no place does this mention hiring or paying the Indians, and they wrote all this without ever going to the islands or Florida and without asking the Indians what they thought about this arrangement.
I had to look up the definition of repartimiento: “System followed in the colonization of the Indies since the beginning of the 16th century, in order to provide labor for agricultural and mining operations. A determined number of Indians was distributed among the Spanish colonizers, and the allocation was made in encomienda, that is, in a sponsorship relationship, by which the Indians were left owing obedience to the encomendero (person in charge of the land).”
The contract contains more restrictions on the Indians: “In addition, I will command, and for the present I command, that the Indians that might be on the stated island shall be distributed among the people that there might be…”
Shall be distributed. It sounds like they are talking about a product, but certainly not people.
I think a later passage regarding a supplement to the initial contract hints at potential treatment of the Calusas in Florida: “The new contract extended Ponce’s window of opportunity to implement colonization and specified in explicit terms for the treatment of ‘caciques and Indians’ in the new land, prohibiting their enslavement by anyone operating outside the consent of Ponce himself.”
The Spaniards couldn’t be more blunt in describing their plans for slavery.
The text includes an additional requirement imposed on the Indians that they “should come to an understanding of our holy Catholic faith, and obey and serve as they are obligated,” and continues with, “[a]nd if after the aforementioned requirement, in such a case you may make war against them and imprison them and bring them as slaves, but if they obey, you will give them the best treatment possible, and work as is stated in all ways you can that they should convert to our holy Catholic faith.”
Wow, that is some choice. So much for freedom of religion.
This sounds almost as if the Spaniards felt they were being generous by declaring that they were the only country with the power to make the Indians become slaves.
I wonder how much this approach by the Spaniards led to the instant attack by the Calusas on the Spaniards, and the resulting fatal injury of Ponce de Leon. before invading Florida, the Spaniards had done so throughout the Caribbean, so the Calusas surely had some warning. The proud Calusas were not going to simply give in, and in fact never did comply with the Spaniards.
Please post and discuss this with me and my other readers. I hope you will also share this post and subscribe. Thanks