The Decline of Slavery in Mexico

The history of African slave societies in the New World can be divided into three distinct phases—formation, maturity and decline. The third, the demise of the slave order, will be the focus of attention in the present discussion. There appear to be three general patterns to the decline of slave societies in the Americas. The first, exemplified by the United States and Haiti, came quickly, but at a time when the slave order was deeply entrenched, engendering profound resistance accompanied by a civil war. In the second, demonstrated by Cuba and Brazil, it occurred over the course of a few decades, involving a more varied combination of international pressure, slave resistance and a transformation of the labor regime utilizing both recently freed slaves and imported foreign workers. Of the third prototype, in which Mexico and Colombia represent cases in point, it was a seemingly undramatic, very slow process encompassing several generations, during which slavery appeared to wither away. This essay will examine the fate of slavery in Mexico, a topic which has been mentioned in various works, but has not been examined in detail. It is important not only for comparative purposes, but also for understanding the social history of late-colonial Mexico.

Three general interpretations of the end of Mexican slavery appear in the historical literature. One is that the nation’s abolition in 1829 was a positive consequence of the social movement originally led by Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos that accompanied the wars for independence. Even though conservatives ultimately determined the fate of the independence movement, many of its progressive concerns, including the abolition of slavery, would be realized during the early years of the Republic.¹ A second interpretation views abolition as the result of conspiracy. It suggests that the Mexican government abolished slavery as a result of a plan to deprive Anglo-Texans of their property and ultimately to dislodge them from Texas. Slavery was the productive base of Anglo-Texan society, and without slavery that society could not thrive. In abolishing slavery Mexico broke a contractual agreement which had allowed the early Anglo settlers to bring slaves into the province.² A final interpretation, never closely examined, focuses on the decline rather than the abolition of slavery. It suggests that at some time between the late-seventeenth and early-nineteenth centuries African slavery outlived its usefulness as an institution.³ During this period slaves became extraneous to the social and productive schema of the Mexican colony and were replaced by mestizos and Indians.⁴ Slavery in Mexico died a gradual death, and by the early nineteenth century few slaves were left. I accept the third interpretation as the most compelling, and in the following essay will discuss the details of the argument and some of its implications for the social history of late-colonial Mexico.

The Role of Slavery in Mexico

African slavery in Mexico peaked between the 1570s and the middle of the seventeenth century, the result of the convergence of demographic, political and economic factors on colonial labor demands. The demographic feature relates to sources of menial labor in the colony, particularly the Indian population. The number of Indians in Mexico declined dramatically from the time of the Spaniards’ arrival in the 1510s until around the third or fourth decade of the seventeenth century.⁵ A particularly crucial moment occurred during the 1570s, when a series of epidemics decimated the native population and initiated what many Mexicanists have labelled the “century of Depression.” The sharp decline of the Indian population during the 1570s, and the resultant end of this abundant source of cheap labor in the colony often is cited as the most important cause of this “depression.”⁶ The other end of the period, the mid-seventeenth century, marks the beginning of the recovery of the native population. There had been another acute demographic crisis during the late-1620s and early-1630s, but afterwards the native population began to increase, meaning that it could again perform the work in which black slaves had been engaged during the...