"Despite being on the periphery of the Spanish empire and Mexico before becoming part of the United States, California had an important place in the larger struggle by enslaved people for their freedom. California connects Mexican and U.S. history while also serving as a reminder that there are few corners of the Western Hemisphere that are untouched by the legacy of slavery."
"After the Spanish toppled the Mexica empire in 1521, they wasted little time bringing captive Africans to the place they called New Spain - a vast territory that would later expand to the north to include New Mexico and California. By the 1530s there were reports of conspiracies to revolt, as well as the establishment of colonies by escapees from slavery."
California's involvement in slavery spanned Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. sovereignties and linked regional practices to a hemisphere-wide system of enslavement. Enslaved Africans lived across the Americas from Chile and Argentina to Canada, and emancipation emerged from rebellions, wars, sabotage, and self-emancipation over centuries. New Spain imported large numbers of Africans, prompting revolts and the creation of autonomous Maroon communities such as Gaspar Yanga's settlement. California's 1849 prohibition of slavery and later ratification of the 13th Amendment intersected with earlier Mexican-era endings of the practice, illustrating transnational and prolonged struggles against slavery.
#california-history #slavery-in-the-americas #mexican-colonial-history #resistance-and-self-emancipation
Read at Los Angeles Times
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