Did Europeans Enslave Native Americans?

December 2nd marks the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, commemorating the 1949 UN Convention against human trafficking. Modern forms of enslavement, including forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking, affect over 40 million people globally, with 62% in forced labor and 38% in forced marriages. The video introduces the concept that modern enslavement is a direct legacy of systems created to enslave Indigenous peoples from the earliest stages of colonialism.

Before 1619 and the arrival of enslaved Africans, enslavement practices existed in various forms across the Americas, Africa, and Europe. Tribal warfare often resulted in the capture of members of conquered tribes for cultural reasons, population augmentation, or sacrificial practices. These pre-colonial forms of enslavement, though brutal, were not inherited by descendants and were geographically limited. Anyone could become an enslaver or enslaved based on circumstance.

European colonization transformed enslavement from happenstance to a profit-driven, commodified system operating on a global scale. Early examples include Christopher Columbus sending 550 enslaved Indigenous peoples to Europe in the late 15th century. This new form of enslavement became less about individual misfortune and more about one's appearance and ethnic background, as European powers like Spain, Portugal, and England began trafficking unwilling individuals as laboring bodies.

Spain implemented the 'encomienda' system in its American colonies and the Philippines, ostensibly to civilize Indigenous peoples and redefine their relationship with colonizers. Encomenderos were granted land and a set number of captured natives, demanding tributes in goods, services, and labor in exchange for 'protection' and 'religious education.' This system quickly devolved into extreme exploitation. Bartholomé de las Casas's 'A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies' exposed these cruelties, leading to the 1542 'New Laws of the Indies' which aimed to free natives and provide fair wages. However, these laws were largely unenforced due to colonial resistance, and the encomienda system continued to decimate Indigenous populations through disease and forced labor.

While Spain exploited Indigenous labor through the encomienda system, the English also enslaved Native American groups. Between 1670 and 1715, more Native Americans were exported to slavery from Charleston, South Carolina, than Africans were imported. However, the more lucrative transatlantic slave trade for African captives eventually superseded Native American enslavement as the primary source of forced labor. The enslavement of Indigenous peoples became more surreptitious and less documented compared to the formalized chattel slavery of Africans, leading to a lack of historical evidence.

European encroachment altered existing power dynamics among Indigenous tribes, incentivizing some to capture people from rival tribes for human trafficking and enslavement. Some tribal leaders participated in chattel slavery of Africans and the enslavement of other tribes to prove their civility, assimilate, or as a means of survival against colonial forces. The 'Five Civilized Tribes' in the Southeast (Seminole, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw) participated in the chattel enslavement of Africans and continued to do so even during their forced removal to Oklahoma in the 1830s. The abolition of slavery for African descendants within these tribes only occurred in 1866 with the Treaties of 1866, a year after the 13th Amendment.

The enslavement of Indigenous peoples is often overlooked due to its coinciding with early colonial endeavors, its quick outlawing (on paper), and the subsequent transition to other forms of involuntary labor for 'civilizing' purposes, which left sparse historical records. Indigenous tribes could be both enslaved and enslavers, with their roles shifting based on circumstances and encounters with European settlers. Recognizing the generational consequences and unimaginable cruelty of these systems is crucial work for historians, emphasizing the need to understand their origins and legacies to work towards universal liberation.