Early society in the colony of Santo Domingo started out very similarly to other colonies in the Americas with a very high rate of enslaved natives, pillaging, murdering from the Spanish followed by a mass importation of Africans of a multitude of ethnicity ranging from inhabitants of the Jollof empire to inhabitants of the Kongo empire.
Santo Domingo which was later to become the Dominican Republic had a majority of enslaved peoples up until the early 1600s, after which time period, a combination of events such sugar cane economy crashing in 1606 and plagues such as measles in 1666, created an environment where free people began to outnumber the enslaved. With an ever-decreasing white-population this also meant that the free population of the island also had less and less vigilance and had more access to social climbing. This of course does not erase the fact that we are not truly free until we are all free, and it was not until Feb. 1822 during Boyer's occupation that we gained freedom for everyone, including some of my own family.
Below are some key points highlighting the aforementioned effects:
- By 1680 the Mayor of Cotui was a free black man
- By the 1720s white-canarians complained of being powerless during their initial arrival because the colony was "Run by mulattos"
- In 1720 The legal proceeding against the white-canarian woman called Estefania Martinez was done by the 'Mulato' land-owner of Montecristi "Juan Del monte", and she served jail time.
- In 1736 Puertoplata was built by the paid labor of free blacks from Cotui and La Vega, as enslaved peoples where scarce in the area at the time, they also abandoned the project in protest of unfair working conditions.
- In 1739 Arzobispo Alvares de Abreu, made a note that the majority of the colony was composed of free-blacks.
- In 1760s. the During the draft of the Black Carolina codes, Joaquin Garcia wanted to regulate the large amount of free-blacks in the island, fearing they had too much freedom in the countryside.
This of course shouldn't be mistaken with the benevolence of the Spanish, as there where black codes (laws to regulate free and enslaved black peoples) emmited in 1522, and the Morenos libres (free blacks) had less weight the law if they lived inland and in the countryside as laws could best be applied in big urban centers like Santo Domingo. This is why an inland city like Cotui had a black mayor in 1680, but not the city of Santo Domingo.
The legal and physical violence against free people would still exist, so this was not a utopia, but in an abandoned and poor colony, the weight that laws and regulations had on these individuals was not very much, this is also why we see morenos become an integral part of Piracy society since the 1600s, working as intermediaries between larger land owners and pirates. This also opened the door to continuous traditions such as Palos which likely stretch to the 1600s, where afro-catholic societies had mentions of drumming.
Summary of the censuses:
Zooming only into the population of color to see the changes of people in bondage vs free.Also keeping in mind that Black vs Mulatto was up to the visual judgement of the census taker, and this is why the two are often hard to distinguish in each census, light skin Africans would often get labeled as mixed, and dark skin mixed folks as Black. So I will combine both into one, as plenty of bi-racial and tri-racial peoples where enslaved and free.
Intra population of ‘color’ in the colony of Santo Domingo: 1500-1819
Impacts on Identity:
I have often blogged about the term "MORENO" and "MORENA" being preferred by Dominicans up until modern day, and much of it is largely due to the process in which a free majority since 1681 up until emancipation 1822 would have cemented the term moreno/morena over negro/negra as the latter "negro" was most often use to describe someone in bondage, this very same person once becoming free would become a moreno/morena. It is also very consistent in colonial documents that when free peoples write about themselves, from their own lens in most Spanish colonies this is the term most often used. As early as 1602 there is a document written by free blacks (morenos) in the Santo Domingo colony, and in their constitution they open with "We the creole morenos , born in this land...."
Census comparisons to other colonies
Comparison to Saint Domingue:
Due to the Haitian revolution happening in 1804, We will instead compare Santo Domingo to Saint Domingue in the late 1789.
Comparison to other Spanish colonies:
Puertorico and Cuba, are OK comparisons as the white population in both Cuba and PR was always much higher then the one in Santo Domingo in percentage.
Comparison to other Caribbean colonies:
Using the table Below I will compare the 1819 time period of the DR to the 1820s and 1830s of the rest of Caribbean, Source: British Slave Emancipation: William A. Green.
DETAILS:
1500s
This time period showed a very high % of the population being enslaved, and very few free blacks (Moren@s) and very few free Mulat@s.
Below is a table created by CUNY in their Juan Rodriguez book, which shows data from multiple censuses that span from the 1500s to the Early 1600s. Because these censuses often measured different aspects such as free vs non free, or in other it went into more details, its tricky to do a proper cross-year comparison.
In the 1500s there is no free people of color counted in the censuses even though we know from genealogical data, and baptisms that this isn't true. See "Black Spaniards in the colony" But it is consistent with the fact that few black or mixed race people where free in this time period.
1600s:
This time period continued on with a lot of what we see in the 1500s, but also presented big change, the begining of the 1600s mirrored the same pattern of a very strong predominance of enslaved black people, and a very minor number of free blacks and free mulatos. After 1606 the island fell into economical misery, with sugar cane crashing and later on a measles epidemic in 1666 would aggravate the issues further and make manumission much more common, so the end of the 1600s (1680) shows a majority free people.
The first 1606 Census was done by Governor Osorio and it is summarized by Carlos Larrabazal Blanco in Los negros y La esclavitud en Sto. Dgo.:
"En 1606, La Isla Tenia 10,807 vecinos .... De los cuales 1169 eran vecinos libres y 9,648 eran esclavos. Entre los libres habia 50 entre negros y mulatos"
The second in 1681 done by Arzobispo Fernandez de Navarrete. Re-printed by Carlos Larrabazal Blanco in Los negros y La esclavitud en Sto. Dgo.:
"6312 habitantes de lso cuales 3835 son negros y mulatos. De Estos 1106 son esclavos y 2,729 son negros y mulatos libres"
1606 Census:
(Enslaved and Free both includes mixed peoples)
Total 1606: ~Rounded
Intra Non-white 1606: ~Rounded
1676 - 1679:
While we don't have censuses from these years there is a reinforcement of free peoples arriving in the island because this is when "San lorenzo de los negros minas" today known as Los Minas in Santo Domingo city was founded , by free blacks (moren@s) of the Mina (Ghanaian) ethnicity but it was composed of many other Africans and creoles proceeding from Saint Domingue.
1681 Census:
Total 1681: ~ Rounded:
Intra Non-white 1681: ~Rounded
1700s:
This time period saw a kick up in slavery, peace between the Spanish and British meant that not only where the Spanish getting Africans from the Portuguese but also the English, and the French, the latter due to the Bourbon dynasty. This pickup in slavery is visible in the census numbers as the enslaved population rises, even with this. In conjunction with this this was the time period to receive the most canarian immigrants in the country so also a bolstering of the white population, and to a smaller extenct the black and multi-racial population as some canarians where not white.
1739: Written by the Arzobispo Alvares de Abreu in "Compediosa Noticia de la isla de Santo Domingo": and re-printed by Carlos Larrabazal Blanco in Los negros y La esclavitud en Sto. Dgo.:
"Cuenta 12,259 habitantes de los cuales a la verdad la mayor parte eran Negros, sobre todo Libres""Recounts 12,259 inhabitants, of which most where blacks, and overall free blacks"
1783: Was a Parroquial census:
Alrededor de 1783 la isla tenia 117,300 almas distribuidas en 18 localidades, 14,000 eran negros esclavos.
1794: Was quoted by Moreau in "HIstoire Physique des Antilles francais, Paris, 1822:
La poblacion de la colonia de Santo Domingo en 1794, estaba distrbuida asi: Blancos 35,000; Libres 38,000; Esclavos 30,000
1739:
The bishop Alvarez de abreu makes it clear the majority of the colony was composed in majority of free blacks. (Morenos) out of a total of 12,259 inhabitants.
1783:
This is another incomplete census where the only two distinctions are Free (mixing whites, mixed and free blacks) vs Enslaved blacks which included anyone of enslaved status, mixed or not. The number here for the enslaved is 14,000 out of a total population of 117,300
Total 1781: ~ Rounded
1794:
This census has a total of 103,000 peoples, distributed the following way:
Total 1794: ~Rounded
Intra Non-white 1794: ~Rounded
1800s:
This time period was strongly affected by the Haitian revolution and was of great benefit to the manumission of our African and Afro-descendant ancestors. The total population drops largely due to fleeing upper class peoples, in majority white Spanish and french in the colony of Santo Domingo, many of them took enslaved peoples with them to other colonies such as Louisiana, Charleston, Cuba, Puertorico, etc. The ones who coulnd't simply fled, guaranteeing instant freedom.
Source: Emilio Cordero Michel: Catedras de Historia Social, Economica, y Politica Dominicana
1812:
Lopez de Villa Nueva, Memoria que comprende la isla de Santo Domingo, en la parte correspondiente a la nacional española, publicada en la P. 72: Del BOletin Archivo General de la nacion No. 26-27
Todas las ciudades y pueblos tenian al año de 1812, 72,000 almas... La mayor parte de esta cantidad son pardos [mulatos] en la proporcion siguiente: 5/8 Pardos, 2/8 Morenos, 1/8 Blanco....
1819:
Vicente Tolentino Rojas, Album estadistico graphico de la Republica Dominicana, P. 4:Mulatos Libres: 40,000,
Negros Esclavos: 12,000Negros Libres: 4,000Blancos: 7,000Total: 63,0000
1812:
1812: ~Rounded Status is not defined, only race:
1819:
1819: ~Rounded, Enslaved black includes mixed.
Intra-non-white 1819: ~Rounded
yo Lemba, come join us on the new forum we have (some of us are old ABF members)
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