Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish Regulation of Slavery in Louisiana, 1763-1803 (review)

Gilbert Din's new book examines the Spaniards' policies concerning slavery in Louisiana. Din primarily uses The Papeles Procedentes de la Isla de Cuba to uncover the changes that the Spaniards imposed or failed to impose upon its new colony in 1763. The focus of this book is "how the Spanish government dealt with this institution and how governors responded to laws and policies that originated in Spain and to local forces that were often in opposition to their implementation" (p. xii). As Din admits, he examines the governors more than any other group tied to slavery. He does look at the slaveholders because one of his primary arguments is that Spanish officials changed slave laws from the French ones in Louisiana "despite planter resistance" (p. xii). The least examined people in the book are the slaves themselves. Nonetheless, this book makes a contribution to the historiography of Spanish Louisiana and slavery.

Din begins with an overview of the French system of slavery in Louisiana with an introduction to the Code Noir. He then traces the various Spanish Governors of Louisiana to see how their policies changed and how the French slaveholders influenced them. For example, Din finds that Governor Francisco Luis Héctor, Barón de Carondelet often compromised with the large slaveholders, yet he supported the fair treatment of slaves and free blacks. Thus, Din concludes that the Spanish governors generally enforced Spanish laws concerning slavery. The main differences between the French and Spanish laws were that the Spanish continued coartación which allowed slaves to purchase their freedom, supported the forced sale of slaves from cruel masters, allowed masters to free slaves if they so chose, and did not reenslave free blacks. Additionally, French officials tended to support slaveholders, while Spanish officials did so less frequently. These were the official changes, but as Din admits the actual changes are difficult to determine because enforcement on plantations generally depended upon the slaveholders.

Another major theme in the book is the issue of runaway slaves, which was a major problem throughout the Spanish period. The various governors had to deal with the constant issue, and one solution that continued to surface was the creation of a fund to reimburse slaveholders whose fugitive slaves were killed or executed. Slaveholders would pay a small tax to fill the fund, but the plan foundered because small slaveholders and those who did not have problems with runaways often did not want to participate. Here, Din provides a glimpse into the interesting social structure and regional differences between slaveholders in Louisiana. The examination of runaways in the book is also the main examination of slaves themselves. Din does not look at slave culture.

Din participates in a historiographical debate with Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's work Africans in Colonial Louisiana (1992). Din disagrees with Hall's interpretation of the runaway slave San Malo's capture and treatment, the Pointe-Coupée conspiracy, and Spanish slave policy in general. Din provides strong documentation in support of his arguments, and the historiographical conversation does much to invigorate the study of slavery in Louisiana.

Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves is an important book that provides evidence of the transformations in slave policy from the French rulers to the Spanish in Louisiana. Now that Din has examined policy at the level of the governors, he should explore the slaves' lives on the plantations to see if the Spanish changes did effect most slaves. In the conclusion, Din notes that maybe 1,333 slaves were freed through coartación from 1770 to 1803, so possibly the Spanish laws did actually alter slaves' lives.