JCB Archive of Early American Images, accession number 07385, Têtes de Différentes Castes Sauvages.
This image depicts the heads of different castes in colonial Latin America. It was part of a series of images that represented the various racial mixtures and social hierarchies during that time. The image was created in 1768-1848 during the American Revolutions, abolition of slavery, and formations of New Nations. The image portrays the various racial mixtures of the time. It illustrates families of mixed racial backgrounds, such as mestizos.
In the image, we could see detailed representations of people from different ethnic backgrounds and racial mixtures, such as mestizos, mulattos, zambos, and others/ It reflects the complexities and social divisions of the colonial era.
As we learn in class about the common identities of peninsulares, creoles, Indianos, Africanos, mestizos, pardos, and zambos in colonial Latin America. It represented the diverse racial and social hierarchies of the time, similar to the castes depicted in the images. Each group had its own place in society, reflecting the complexities of colonial society.
There were 7 common identities related to the image. Peninsulares were Spaniards born in Spani who were at the top of the social hierarchy. Creoles were Spaniards born in the Americas, often holding significant social and economic power but considered below peninsulares. Indianos refers to Spaniards who had returned from the Americas. Africans were enslaved people brought from Africa, who were at the bottom of the social hierarchy.. Pardos were people of mixed European, African, and Indigenous ancestry. Zambos were people of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry.
JCB Archive of Early American Images, accession number 69-18, Canne a sucre Saccharum officinarum, L.
This detailed drawing of a sugarcane plant was created by Dutrône de La Couture, a leading expert on sugarcane and French medical doctor associated with the Société royale des Sciences & Arts at Cap François in Saint Domingue (now known as Haiti). Sugarcane was a key crop in the colony’s economy in the 18th century. I find it interesting that someone in medicine took such a significant role in studying sugarcane. Possibly, the purpose was to find ways to genetically modify the sugarcane plant to decrease cost and increase production.
The economic prosperity of the sugar industry in Saint Domingue was at the expense of slave labor. The colony’s shift from indigo to sugar led to a rapid increase in the demand for labor, and with it, a dramatic rise in the enslaved population. In just three decades, the number of enslaved individuals brought from Africa skyrocketed from “…3,000 to well over 47,000…” (Fick, 55). The cultivation of sugarcane was brutal and deadly, with many enslaved workers dying within 3 to 4 years. Low birth rates among enslaved women, combined with the high mortality rates of male slaves, meant a continuous influx of enslaved Africans was needed to sustain the sugarcane industry. This begs the question, was sugar truly worth more than the life of a human being?
As the French Revolution began in 1789, revolutionary ideas of liberty and equality started to spread, including calls to abolish slavery. However, French colonial authorities and plantation owners were determined to keep the sugar economy thriving. This highlights a disconnect between France’s revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality and the continued exploitation of enslaved people in Saint Domingue, who increasingly questioned their oppression and sought their own freedom. What I find even more fascinating is that this image was created around 1790, just before the Haitian Revolution (1791). At that time, France’s reliance on Saint Domingue’s sugar production made the colony one of its most valuable assets, as “…slavery and the colonies were still primary factors in the development of France’s economy” (Fick, 53). For example, the city of Nantes in France benefited immensely from this crop, profiting from the trade of enslaved people and through refining and selling sugar. Thus, the sugarcane plant depicted in the image here symbolizes French wealth.
Remarkably, the revolution in Saint Domingue became the only successful slave revolt in history, ultimately leading to Haiti’s independence in 1804. Even after achieving independence, sugar remained a highly desired commodity, not only by foreign powers but also by the newly independent Haitian leaders like Jean-Jacques Dessalines who sought to revive the sugar industry to stabilize the nation’s economy. By nationalizing the lands Dessalines tried to implement policies that compelled former enslaved people to work on plantations, despite the abolition of slavery. This demonstrated that despite the revolution, the economic necessity of sugarcane in Haiti persisted, even among those who had once been its victims. This raises the question, did the revolution truly succeed in dismantling the structures of exploitation or did they merely change hands?
Work Cited:
Fick, Carolyn. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” In A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, edited by David Barry Gaspar and David Partick Geuggs, 51-75. Indiana University Press, 1997.
JCB Archive of Early American Images, accession number 08378, Cerro de Potosí.
This image depicts Potosí, one of the most important mining centers in colonial Latin America. The archival description of the image indicates that it was created in 1609 during the height of the Andean mining boom. The image depicts several figures working in the mines on the large mountain looming over the city. It is likely that many of these laborers were indigenous subjects serving their required colonial mita. Historian Kris Lane defines the mita as, “an hispanicized revival of the Inka corvee, or mit’a (literally ‘turn’).[1] This mita labor required Spain’s indigenous subjects to provide much of the forced labor that extracted the valuable mineral weath from mines like Potosí.
At the foot of the mountain, we can observe a bustling colonial town. While Spain imposed strict restrictions on where different colonial castas (legal catagories of race) could live, nearly all colonial urban centers were key centers of trade and activity. In his study of Quito, another Andean commercial center, Lane discovered that several legal and economic loopholes in Spanish law permitted indigenous and mestizo women to have more agency than many of their European and North American peers in operating businesses and commercial agencies in urban centers.[2] One can assume that, like in Quito, many of Potosí’s taverns, inns, and markets were owned by women as well.
Several churches are depicted in the drawing of Potosí. This is unsurprising considering the prominent role the Catholic Church had in colonial Latin American society. It is possible that residents and laborers in Potosí relied on the Church and its priests for help and charity under difficult conditions. Manuel Abad y Queipo, a priest in Mexico who composed a detailed description of social conditions there in 1799, describe the Church as a key advocate for the poor against corrupt and abusive colonial officials. Abad y Queipo wrote that, “the parish priests and their deputies…dedicated solely to the spiritual service and temporal support of these wretched people, win [Indian and mestizo] affection, gratitude, and respect by their ministries and works.”[3] However, it is important to note that Church officials could be just as corrupt as their government peers. Charles Walker has noted that conflicts between the interests of colonial official and the Church could also be commonplace and even sometimes set the stage for popular revolt like in the Tupac Amaru Rebellion.[4] It is also likely that many of Potosí’s residents had a more ambivalent relationship to the Church. Historia Matthew Restall argues that, despite converting to Catholicism, most indigenous communities in Spain’s colonies often continued pre-Hispanic traditions or combined their beliefs into Catholic religious practices.[5]
Works Cited:
Abad y Queipo, Manuel. “A Priest Reports on Social Conditions in Mexico.” In, Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Intepretations, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 16-21. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Lane, Kris. “Assessing Indian Labor in Quito.” In Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Intepretations, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 7-12. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Restall, Matthew. “The Myth of Completion.” In, Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Intepretations, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 21-25. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Walker, Charles F. The Tupac Amaru Rebellion. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2014.
