Indian Slavery in Colonial Times

"Our Puritan forefathers' attempt to enslave the Indian population has been fully told...Indian slaves had a deplorable habit of running away." -The Burlington Free Press, Aug. 1, 1921
"Yes, the enslavement of the Indians...has indeed been a neglected phase of early American history...a great contribution of exceptional value." The Inter Ocean, Aug. 16, 1913
"Connecticut...had its anxieties about the slavery question lest imported Indians should incite their neighbors to revolt." -Hartford Courant, Sept. 23, 1913

Did Native American tribes enslave other members of tribes and were they themselves enslaved and sold by early American colonists?

What was the driving force behind the little-known practice of Indian enslavement during colonial times? Was it the necessity of disposing of war captives, the greed of traders, or the simple demand for labor?

In his 1913 book "Indian Slavery in Colonial Times," Almon Wheeler Lauber broadly defines "slave" as a "prisoner held by his captor as an inferior and forced to labor for him, or sold into servitude or freedom for the financial benefit of his captor." His book describes four kinds of enslavement: (1) by the Indians; (2) by the Spaniards; (3) by the French; (4) by the English.

The various chapters in the book deal with enslavement by the Indians themselves, enslavement by the Spanish and French, the number of Indian slaves, the processes of enslavement, property relations, methods of employment, treatment of slaves, and the decline of Indian slavery. The chapters on enslavement by the Indians themselves and by the Spanish and French are of interest from a western standpoint, the remaining two-thirds of the book being devoted to Indian slavery in the English colonies on the Atlantic coast.

The vast majority of so-called Indian slaves were really prisoners of war, who could not be safely released, and whom it would have been inhuman to kill.

Both Spain and France used Indian slaves as guides, interpreters, camp laborers, cooks, and mistresses. Both nations attempted to educate the Indian through their religious orders. Spain in 1543 enacted a law to end Indian slavery in Spanish America, while France passed laws for manumission and issued decrees against the Indian slave trade. With each nation the enslavement of the Indians was found to be generally unsatisfactory and less profitable than the enslavement of Blacks.

Among the English colonies Indian slavery was general, the Carolinas holding the largest number and New Hampshire but very few. These slaves were obtained in warfare, by kidnapping, by trade, and through punishment for violations of law and order. In both customary and statutory law Indian slavery was recognized: property rights were protected, courts settled disputes as to ownership, and fugitive slave laws were enacted. Throughout the English colonies Indian slaves were employed as hunters, fishermen, guides, domestic servants, soldiers, laborers, and, in some instances as craftsmen. As a rule, however, they were not satisfactory, and as the indentured servants and Negro slaves multiplied, the number of Indian slaves declined.

They were always most numerous in Massachusetts and South Carolina. In 1708, there were in the latter colony fourteen hundred Indian slaves, mostly women and children, but this large number was due to recent captures in invasions of French, Spanish, and Indian territory. It is stated that fteen years later the number of such slaves to be found in the same colony was "very few".

About the author:

Almon Wheeler Lauber (1880-1944) studied Indian slavery as a Ph. D. student.

Dettagli