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A Review of The Other Slavery

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A Review of The Other Slavery

‘The Other Slavery’ is one of Resendez’s carefully researched and very informative

works. The book features about 100 endnotes’ pages with the primary source material, broad

background information, as well as a precise description of another slavery. This slavery, which

Andres Resendez calls ‘the other slavery’ refers to the forerunner to current human trafficking.

The story stresses mainly on the Mexican and Spanish element of this slavery. In addition to this,

while the writer is a Mexican historian, only a portion of the story focuses on American people

trafficking or different forms of outright slavery or coerced labor. Therefore, ‘The Other Slavery’

represents a scholarly and very weighty work, not for those without the courage to face

difficulties.

The author’s argument

The author highlights the states in which communities were exposed to enslavement

across America. Upon the united states gaining California as well as various southwestern

communities, in 1848, from Mexico, it likewise obtained many Indian slaves1. This enslavement

ran like the one that Africans endured all-through colonial Latin America. However, the author

contends that the African slavery resulted in a more tragic loss of population. He highlights the

defying customs of the ‘other slavery’ linked to simple definitions. Resendez adds that the other

slavery was so deeply rooted and widespread in the American society and economy that it

existed for a longer time than the African bondage, persevering in the debt peonage guise into

the 20th century2. He stresses the experiences variety of forced labor encountered by people from

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Dunn, Ken. "The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America."

Whispering Wind 44, no. 6 (2016): 36-37.

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populations as geographically separate and culturally diverse as the Maya, the Apache, as well as

indigenous Caribbeans. Thus, the author vibrantly tells the traumatic tale of a past unknown

element of the American slavery history and experiences between invaders and indigenes.

The author’s source work

‘The Other Slavery’ serves as a landmark history. It focuses on the extensive narration of

the dependence of many Indians throughout America, since the conquistador’s era up to the 20th

century. Moreover, since the Columbus time, Indian captivity was prohibited in most parts of the

American region3. Reséndez clarifies that people practiced it for many years as a sweeping

secret4. This implies that no abolitionist movement existed to protect the many victims who the

conquistadors enslaved and kidnapped. The slaves were then compelled to descend into the silver

mines or forced to serve as servants for rich Anglos and Mormon settlers.

Andres Resendez develops the perceptive situation that mass slavery ruined Indian

communities throughout North America. Moreover, new support, comprising of statements of

bold priests, avid merchants, Anglo colonists, and Indian detainees explains also on Indian

reliance of other Indians. It is something that began as a European custom adopted by native

operators, spreading rapidly across American Southwest5. Therefore, this book reveals more than

a significant overlooked part of the history of America. For no less than two centuries people

have struggled over, eradicated, and tried to interpret the African-American oppression.

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Frontiers, Modernity, and Coloniality

While the book’s scope is vast, the author centers several stipulations. The first warning

suggests that the story does not give a running Indian slavery history across the western

hemisphere, because the task would be gargantuan6. The emphasis is on northern Mexico,

Southwest America, and the Caribbean, though the writer offers a short nod to Spanish

antislavery campaigns and Indian slaving that would constitute the Latin Americanists interest.

In the story, he notes that despite efforts to stop the Southern Chile slavery in the mid-17th

century, the act shifted into the areas with non-existing or little imperial control7. Resendez

describes these areas as marked by conventional wars which resulted in a stream of captives. The

Indian Carib supplied slaves in frontiers such as Venezuela and Los Llanos in Colombia8.

Following a command to stop the Indian slavery by the royal monarch, frontier institutions such

catholic missions and the ordinary local Government objected to the rule. They continued their

involvement in slaving acts thereby limiting the monarch powers mainly in far off the lands and

backwaters.

Reséndez ideas in the book involved colonialism, modernity, and the Coloniality. Adding

to this further, contrary to the French and British critics, the Latin American de-colonial thinkers

opposed that modernity began in the 16th century9. Indian slavery represented the present-day

form of oppression established to the epistemic structures that marked human indifferences in

fundamental ways contrary to their previous less and temporal predecessors. Additionally, the

Spaniards laid down models for the empires advocating for modernity. The enlightenment period

went ahead with the legacy and supported the universalist values while carrying out slavery and

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colonialism. Nevertheless, thinkers like Aimé Césaire criticized the authoritarian rules and its

validation. Metropoles developed well in colonial grounds with refrained ethics and laws as well

as in spaces with banned activities and conduct. Reséndez outlined the emergence of Spanish-

American as the referral point to the rise of post-colonial and de-colonial appraisals of European

modernity. Furthermore, he disclosed that Fanon’s ‘zone of nonbeing’ lacked the colonial

outposts despite its success after the colonial and American civil war period.

Author’s structure and style choices

Reflecting on the subject of American slavery often conjures up horrific representations.

For instance, Africans captured from families and homeland, filled in ships’ confined spaces and

persisting extreme treatment and conditions upon reaching their destination. On the same note, it

is a shameful and tragic chapter in history. It is as well a prompt of the dismays that people can

exact on other individuals to demonstrate economic gain and power. According to the writer of

this book, the American slave trade not only involved African victims but also revolved around

indigenous people10. In other words, based on the author’s intent, the ‘other slavery’ never

replaced African slavery, but Resendez notes that it was there from the beginning.

Opening with the Caribbean, ‘The Other Slavery’ advances through portions of North

America and Central America. It demonstrates that although the slavery practice had previously

subsisted between populations in these locations before European interaction, it was the

Europeans’ arrival that resulted in a major revolution in the custom itself. Pursuing this further,

as they dispersed throughout such areas, "the other slavery" was not the only institution. Rather,

it transformed into a "suite of variegated customs suitable to various regions and markets." As

the cover states, what kicked off as a European practice adopted into the indigenous operators’

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hands and dispersed rapidly across massive American Southwest tracts11. This revolution besides

had a great influence on as well as aids to better comprehend the common history of the United

States and Mexico. Resendez’s story is not only, but also it is eye opening. On an emotional

level, the book is difficult to read, but its historical terminology is heavy and accessible.

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Bibliography

Dunn, Ken. "The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America."

Whispering Wind 44, no. 6 (2016): 36-37.