The practice of slavery in present-day Colombia dates back to the pre-Spanish era and persisted until its definitive abolition in 1851. This practice involved the human trafficking of Indigenous individuals, initially among Indigenous groups such as the Chibchas, the Muzos, or the Panches, and later by European traders, particularly the Portuguese, who brought enslaved Africans, to the region. Subsequently, commercial elites of the early Republic of New Granada, what is present-day Colombia, also participated in this trade.
Indigenous slavery The historical enslavement of Indigenous peoples in what is now Colombia predated the arrival of the Spanish. It is documented that the Chibchas, the Muzos, and the Panches engaged in enslavement and cannibalism practices. The Spaniards, upon encountering these customs, were appalled and sought to abolish cannibalism and convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity in an effort to mitigate the brutality and depredation present in the region. As the Spanish conquistadors advanced, Indigenous peoples who opposed and fought against the Viceroyalty of New Granada were subsequently enslaved as prisoners of war, in accordance with Spanish customs. For instance, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada distributed captured prisoners among his captains and soldiers. This practice continued without the knowledge or legal justification of the Spanish crown until the issuance of the Laws of Burgos in 1512, which officially abolished the de jure slavery of Indigenous peoples. The legal status of the conquered American population was subject to further regulations outlined in the New Laws of 1542. These laws sought to afford additional protections to these peoples and notably rendered Indigenous slavery entirely illegal.
The enforcement of the New Laws in the Spanish empire led to the execution of numerous colonists who opposed Indigenous slavery and sought to perpetuate it . These laws were instrumental in establishing a robust defense of the Indigenous population.
By 1545, the New Laws repealed the inheritability of encomiendas, weakening encomenderos by dissolving their grant upon their deaths, again allowing the viceroys and governors to establish new encomiendas. The New laws banned the indigenous slavery and this created a shortage of labour to develop the infrastructures.
African slavery
The Iberian slave trade in Africa began with the Portuguese, who transported prisoners to the Madeira Islands and the Azores. Through the Treaty of Alcáçovas, in 1479 the Kingdom of Castile recognized the Portuguese primacy in the African slave trade, which would make them the main providers of enslaved labor for centuries to come. This reached a new dimension with the colonization of the New World, since the native population slavery was banned from slavery by the spanish authorities. Thus, the massive trafficking of African slaves to the provinces that would be the Viceroyalty of New Granada would begin only after the Indigenous slavery was banned with the New Laws, beginning in the second half of the 16th century. This trafficking occurred through licencias, a kind of contract with the state in which the crown authorized the slave trade to the colonies in exchange for a tax contribution.
The countries that controlled the transatlantic slave market in terms of number of slaves shipped were: United Kingdom, Portugal and France.
The slave trade was morally justified under the idea that the slave received the "invaluable" evangelizing work of his master, and that the Christian principle of equality referred to equality in the hereafter and the superiority of the white man in the present. This did not prevent slaves from being transported in subhuman conditions; the journey from Africa to America lasted about two months and was carried out on disease-ridden ships, with poor or no ventilation, and in overcrowded conditions.
Ethnic origins The first Portuguese conquerors to reach the African coasts had a fairly direct approach to enslaving the natives, relying on war expeditions in which they kidnapped the natives; however the process was cumbersome and difficult, so it was eventually replaced by trading posts, in which manufactured products were exchanged by local leaders in exchange for captured slaves.
The bulk of African slaves arriving in the New World was taken from the West African coasts, understood as the space between the Senegal and Cuanza rivers. Determining the ethnic origin of slaves is complex, since the records of the time come from Europeans interested in identifying the port of origin and not in making any type of ethnographic assessment. Because of this, the various researchers who approach the question of the origins of Afro-Colombian slaves often have no choice but to group their origin into larger regions, often divided into three. Luz Adriana Maya identifies these as: Sudano-Sahelian, the tropical forest and the equatorial rainforest; John Thornton identifies the three regions as: Upper Guinea, Lower Guinea and the Angola region. These regions do not comprise single peoples, and include great diversity among them.
The western Sahel region is home to ethnic groups such as the Fulani, Mande and Songhai. The region was home to the largest empires in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Empire of Ghana, Empire of Mali and Songhai Empire. The latter two would become a direct part of the slave trade and collapse during it. The two later empires would be Muslim, which would influence not only their dominant ethnic groups but other peoples who would arrive in chains at the ports of Cartagena de Indias such as the Balanta, Bijagós, Diola, Nalu and Susu.
In the Gulf of Guinea region, peoples can be divided into two macro-groups, the Kwe peoples and the speakers of Volta-Niger languages. This region was dominated by smaller states like the Ashanti Kingdom as well as the city states of Ife and Benin. It is the origin of peoples such as the Yoruba, Igbo and Ashanti people. This region represents the origin of several Afro-Caribbean religions still practiced in Colombia such as Santeria, which has its origin in the Yoruba religion.
In the southernmost region between the Congo river delta and present-day Angola, the great majority of the peoples were of Bantu origin, mainly Kikongo and Kimbundu speakers. The region included states such as the small Lunda Empire and the great Kingdom of Kongo, whose king Afonso I unsuccessfully attempted to stop the slave trade from his domain by sending correspondence to John III of Portugal speaking of the "corruption and depravity" of European slavers who depopulated their country. He also sent emissaries to deal with the Pope, but these were intercepted by the Portuguese upon landing in Lisbon.
On the Caribbean coast
Cartagena de Indias was the main port of entry of slaves into the country during the colonial period and during its highest boom it turned out to be the most lucrative business in the city. By 1620 the city had 6,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,400 were slaves of African origin, by 1686 the number of slaves had increased to 2,000. In the census carried out between 1778 and 1780 it was determined that the slave population represented 10% of the population in the Santa Marta Province and 8% in the Cartagena Province.
The use of slave labor in Cartagena Province turned out to be essential for the economy of both urban and rural areas. With the death of the vast majority of the native population, the work of the Africans became highly relevant. Although during the seventeenth century slave labor was used in both agriculture and livestock, eventually it became concentrated around only the latter since agriculture is seasonal and therefore less profitable for the slave owner who wanted to minimize the hours in which the slave did not work.
Inside the cities, slavery gained a function not only of production but of status, all the houses of prosperous Spaniards in Cartagena and Mompós were endowed with black servitude, which served as a sign of opulence. These slaves were traded during the 17th century for a value between 200 and 400 silver pesos each.
The system of production with slave labor required a constant influx of new slaves, since the population of African origin had negative growth rates in the New World. This was due to various factors such as the number of men exceeding that of women by a factor of 5 to 1 because they were considered more productive, as well as the high death rate among workers. This required the constant influx of new "Bozales" slaves (born in Africa).
Slavery in the Cartagena province began to decline in the 18th century. During the republican era the institution entered into a true decline, mainly in rural areas where the current system of production ceased to be replaced by cheap mestizo labor. In urban areas slavery managed to maintain its relevance because it was more linked to the exhibition of status than to modes of production, so it continued to be a relevant system until its abolition in the 19th century.
On the Pacific coast The first attempts at mining using slaves of African origin in the Pacific coast of New Granada occurred during the 17th century. However, these attempts were very limited and mostly unsuccessful due to the great difficulties that the Spanish had in subjugating the native populations. Large mining operations, and with them the massive trafficking of African slaves to the west coast, would not begin until the last two decades of the 17th century.
The vast majority of the African slaves that would eventually reach the Pacific entered through the port of Cartagena de Indias; in the Pacific they were marketed for a value of about 300 silver pesos if they were born in Africa, and between 400 and 500 if they were born in the New world. From analysis of documents of the time, it seems that more than half of the slaves who arrived in Chocó were of Kwa origin, mainly from the Akan and Ewe, there were also important minorities of Mandé, Gur speakers and Kru.
The Pacific coast was the colonial area with the highest percentage of slave population in New Granada territory. In the 1778–1780 census it was found that slaves in Chocó constituted 39% of the population, 38% in Iscuandé, 63% in Tumaco, and in Raposo (Modern day Buenaventura), an extraordinary 70%.
These slaves destined for mining production were a vital component in the Pacific Region. Between 1680 and 1700 Popayán was the source of 41% of the gold production in New Granada.
Rebellions
Indigenous rebellions The first to oppose the imposition of forced labor by Europeans were Indigenous peoples. During the 16th century there were rebellions of the Paeces, Muzos, and Yariguis. The Chinantos rebelled against the town of San Cristóbal, while the Tupes did the same in Santa Marta. However, the Pijaos were the most successful in this regard, managing to stop work in the mines of Cartago and Buga, successfully interrupting communication with Popayán and Peru, and killing the Governor of Popayán Vasco de Quiroga. The war waged during the first decade of the 17th century would end with a victory for the Europeans, who would be rewarded for their service in the form of encomiendas.
African rebellions African slaves frequently rebelled against their masters, either through the practice of cimarronaje or through armed rebellion. In Santa Marta in 1530, just five years after the city was built, a slave rebellion destroyed the town. The city would be rebuilt only to suffer a new rebellion in the 1550s.
Although it was certainly possible for an individual slave to flee their masters and go unnoticed among the free black population of a large city, it was a precarious situation in which the fugitive was at constant risk of discovery; therefore it is natural that many acts of flight were organized and directed towards communities of Maroons in which they could find security with those of their own class.