Untitled - African American History

NEGRO SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. CXXXV11
same spirit is breathed in all the early instructions of the
government to Columbus. The prime object is to bring
all the dwellers in the Indies to a knowledge of the
sacred Catholic faith, and to that end he is charged to
deal lovingly with the Indians. 1 The Admiral, fully ap-
preciating his instructions, in 1494,
sent home some
Indians, " as slaves, to be taught Castilian, and to serve
afterwards as interpreters, so that the work of conversion
may go on." 3 It was not a difficult task for the Spaniards
to convince themselves, that in enslaving the Indians
they were doing God's service ; and hence, we find their
captives first, and afterwards the unoffending neighboring
natives, 3
by thousands, reduced to the most abject
slavery. The fields and the mines of their conquerors
were soon filled to overflowing with these easily acquired
laborers ; and so different a life was this from the indo-
lent habits of a people, whose generous land had ever
supplied their scanty wants without toil or care, that it
is not strange that we should hear piteous tales of their
sufferings under their new masters. It would be aside
from our subject to give a minute detailed account of
St. Peter, and thence to the reigning Pope. It then recited the grant of
the Indies, by the Pope, to the sovereigns of Castile ; and after urging
the Indians to acknowledge their
fealty
to these it sovereigns, threatened
them with war and slavery if they refused. The historian adds
"
: We may
fancy what ideas the reading of the document conveyed to a number of
Indians sitting in a circle, squatting on their hams." The Conquerors, &c.,
vol. ii, 117.
The question of the legality of the Indian enslavement was frequently
discussed in Spain, and submitted by the King to both learned lawyers
and divines. Their various opinions, and the reasons given for them,
are curious and amusing. See Conquerors of the New World and their
Bondsmen, vol. i, passim.
1 The Conquerors, &c., i, pp. 118, 119.
2 Ibid. 121.
3 Isabella seems, at first, to have been much horrified at the enslave-
ment of Indians not captives in war, and has been much applauded for
proclamations she caused to be made, ordering all such to be restored to
freedom. Herrera, Dec. I, Lib. IV, cap. vii ; quoted in The Conquerors,
&c., i, 155.