[The following is in relation to the Spanish encomienda system, which was, in effect, a series of colonial provinces in the New World which served functions of basic governance and enforced manual labor for the purpose of extracting wealth and materials from the land and native populace.]
Gibson described in detail the conditions on one encomienda, under Gonzalo de Salazar, the factor in the post-conquest administration of Cortés, and a man with whom the Caudillo would eventually quarrel bitterly. Salazar’s encomienda of Tepetlaoztoca, previously under Cortés’ personal control, had been accustomed to the captain-general’s demands for gold, cloth, food, fuel, servants and labour. However, under its new lord the demands intensified and when Salazar made a visit to Spain, hundreds of Tepetlaoztoca’s citizens died carrying the extorted booty to the Mexican port of Vera Cruz. With his eventual return the exploitation increased even further. Salazar seized communal land for his own use and herded his stock on privately owned properties. Traditional Mexican leaders were beaten, or deposed and expelled. He commandeered the inhabitants’ assembly building and converted it to a mill using enforced local labour. He then diverted to it the town’s water supply. By violent intimidation he silenced their legal requests for drought relief and it was not until the 1550s that the town received water, for half a day per week.
Although the encomienda system provided the colonist with easy access to free labour, conventional slavery never completely lost its appeal. Typically, Nuño de Guzman, rather than plough the furrow of long-term extortion like his compatriot Salazar, preferred the benefits of immediate profit, selling outright 10,000 of the 25,000 inhabitants under his control. The standard practice was to burn into the slave’s face the initials of their owner. Often these unfortunates changed hands so regularly that their foreheads and cheeks were transformed into a type of parchment bearing an illegible screed of multiple brand marks.
Source:
Cocker, Mark. “Gold – The Castration of the Sun.” Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples. Grove Press, 2001. 107. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Gibson, The Aztecs, p. 78.
Todorov, The Conquest of America, p. 134-35.
Further Reading:
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca
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