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La Banda Norte: Roots in the colony of Santo Domingo 1492-1606


Most of us hit brick walls before the early 1800s or late 1700s. This has a lot to do with the abandonment of the colony of Santo Domingo, and quite a few natural disasters. For example All records prior to 1805 in La Vega were swallowed by an Earthquake in 1790. The only parts of the island almost unaffected due to much stronger infrastructure and care taking of records are the East and Capital, so Higuey, Hato Mayor, and Distrito Nacional (Santo Domingo).


La Banda Norte, literally meaning the North Band was a group that existed from the beginning of the colony until 1606 specializing in contraband. With how abandoned the island was and the lack of "Rule" it meant that contraband trade with the English/Dutch/French was the best way to make money. The area that it encompassed was much of the north-coast of present day Dominican Republic and Haiti. The grand majority of the inhabitants of the North Band where Blacks, Mulattoes and Mestizos, in other words free people of color. This trade included a variety of commodities and without a doubt the interchange was not limited to other human-beings, many Africans would have entered illegally through the north-band in exchange for products like cow hides. Some of which would have likely joined the free people of color society if not in their generation, in the next.

Here is an example of the demographics of Santiago de los Caballeros in 1680.

".... I could not stop believing that in 1680 there where 30 Blacks for one white (30:1 ratio) and in places like Cotui there was even a Black Mayor due to the fact that there was not a single White man who could or wanted to do this job."



La banda Norte de la Española estaba en esa época habitada mayormente por mestizos, mulatos y negros, dedicados casi todos al tráfico clandestino de cueros con extranjeros.

There was a lot of interaction with the English, Flemish, Dutch and French as a matter of fact more than 200 protestant bibles where found by the Spanish authorities during this time period.

In 1606 with permission of the Spanish crown the towns of Puertoplata, Bajaya, Yaguana, Neiba and San Juan de la maguana were burned and "depopulated" it is said that its inhabitants were relocated to the newly created city of Monteplata and Bayaguana. However not everyone complied and many folks who were in majority Black, Mulatto and Mestizo stayed in nearby areas or went deeper into the country. So for places like Puertoplata, Montecristi, the non-compliant ones would've gone all over the western, central and eastern cibao and at the same time further west into present day north-central Haiti. The non-compliant ones in the southwest towns would've done a similar geographic settlement of the extreme west of the island as well as the modern Dominican southwest.

These Free people of color majority would have as mentioned before not just gone to the destination towns in blue "bayaguana" "monteplata" but it is well documented that many actually escaped into the woods, and into nearby desolated areas. The "guardaraya" dotted lines in the map represent a military protected line that if the people of the banda norte would cross without permission would be sentenced to death, which would force them if they were to escape quietly to escape into the towns of modern Nagua, San Francisco de Macoris, Castillo, Cotui, La vega. While the ones coming from the southern band would have escaped into the mountains of bani, san jose de ocoa and nearby areas. A testimony of this is a Black man name Tomasillo who stayed behind and did not relocate to Monteplata and Bayaguana, instead he "did his contraband in Santiago and Puerto Plata where there where very few slaves, as he would exchange cowhide for enslaved Africans.


La mudanza de los vecinos de la banda norte a a las nuevas poblaciones de Bayaguana y Monte Plata no puso fin a los rescates, pues solo una mínima parte del ganado manso existente en dicha región pudo ser sacado de ella y la gente llana, sobre todo negros y mulatos siguió matando reses para contratar con los extranjeros. Uno de esos negros era un tal tomasillo... Tomasilla actuaba en Santiago, de donde faltaban muchos esclavos, al igual que de Puerto Plata.  


It seems that these free people of color had risen from this persecution and become the elites of most of the Cibao, it is noted when the Canarians arrive in the testimony of a Canarian woman complains in 1787 that she is judged unfairly in a criminal case because all the governors, and mayors of Santiago and Montecristi are mulatto.


Planteó que «uno de los caudillos del partido de los mulatos» levantó contra ella una acusación calumniosa, al suponerla ladrona. La Audiencia, «contra justicia y razón»,sin examinar las causas, revocó la justa sentencia, «calificando ladrona a una infeliz viuda de ochenta años de edad y que jamás ha dado la más leve nota en pueblo».


Also noted in 1776 The General Jose Solano complains about the monpoly of land ownership that the founding families have as "All the founders of Santiago/MonteCristi are mulatos" and that due to their nepotism whites "criollos" are judged and treated unfairly.


El criollo ha visto esta fundación juntamente con desprecio y envidia, con respecto a su calidad. Juzgados por los fundadores que todos son mulatos, que basta ser natural de Santo Domingo para serlo y ésta fue la causa principal porque no se le permitió en esta población el hacer casa ni avecindarse a todos los hacendados


This population that had formed between the 1500s-1680 in the north of the D.R would have a strong lusophone influence but also a lot of international mixes as there were a lot of English ,Welsh, Dutch and French traders who not only traded with the free people of color of the north-band but also intermarried with them. It is worth noting a lot of the recently-arrived Africans in the north-band where of Angolan origin as much of the maroons found during the time period 1500s-1600s where "Angola", of course there were others such as the Biafara, Mandinga and Bran(Bramme), but in the north-band at least around 1606-1630 Angolans seem to be the most numerous.


Here is a list of last names that I have found in books (not a complete list by any means) that are from the pre-canarian period of 1492-1686. Note that some of these surnames are also present in the canarians who came post 1680 in large numbers.

Ceballos
De Jesus
Gomez
Sandoval
Peguero
Del Monte
Torres
Batista
Gasso'
Osorio
Padilla
Del Castro
Alvarez
Nuñez
Caballero
Aragones
Ramirez
Hernandez
Carvajal
Cordero
Berroa
Torres
Indio
Zayas-Bazan
Robles
Preto
Gonzales
Fernandez
Bernal
Leguizamon
Eusebio
Ramos
Lasso

Sources:
Los Guerrilleros Negros - Carlos Esteban Deive
La colonizacion de la frontera - Manuel Hernandez Gonzales

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