Unknown Story of European Imposed Slavery In Mexico

Unknown Story of European Imposed Slavery In Mexico

Oct. 10, 2020

Hosted by Ian Punnett

Guests: Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, Robert Gleason

Slavery became illegal in Mexico in 1829, but since the wealthy essentially appointed the judges and law enforcement officials, there were no serious legal objections to the policy and the practice. Author Robert Gleason joined Ian Punnett (Twitter) for the last three hours of the program to discuss Mexican slavery in the 19th century and how the beating of women, young people, and even employees, including child-laborers, was widespread. Gleason began with a history of the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish. The indigenous population was reduced from 30 million to less than 1 million before the Catholic Church intervened and made slavery illegal, in great part he said to "save souls" for Christianity.

Gleason drew distinctions between the Mexican and American systems of slavery, which he called "quite profound," pointing out that the Mexicans would draw from the poor and Native populations for their slave labor, while the Americans imported most of theirs from Africa. The American South's economy in the 19th-century was based in vast part on the cotton crop, which he said enjoyed a "global monopoly." Slave labor, he continued, was "worth more than the steamship lines, the railroad lines, and more than all the factories in the North," and plantation owners would actually apply for loans from New York banks using their slaves as collateral.

Gleason continued with his observation that 19th-century Mexican slave labor was far cheaper than the American system, since the life expectancy of the slaves was shorter and more importantly, not tied to a single commodity like cotton. Also, when the slaves died, the Mexican owners simply forced more native or poor people into servitude. Contributing to this, was the "death cult" of the Aztecs combined with the code of "machismo" imported by the Spanish, which essentially said that "death was your wisest advisor." Gleason emphasized that his new novel is not specifically about the history of Mexican slavery, but that his research revealed much about the history of the founding of that country.

Original: https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2020-10-10-show/