Book Review: The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America

The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, Andres Resendez, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2016.

It seems that at times historians develop a theme, and then paint their story to fit that theme.  In this book the point is that 2.5 million Native Americans in the Americas, North and South, were used as slaves.  Of these 150 to 350 thousand were in the United States or Canada.  He contends that the effect of slavery on the general population was as great as that in Africa.  From Africa there were 5 million slaves, but the Native American slavery represented a larger percentage of the population.  He also argues that over work and poor conditions may have been contributing factors to the sharp population decline of Native Americans. 

This book gets very shady when the author admits that the number provided is not accurate, but a starting point.  Also I fail to recognize exactly what he categorizes as a slave. 

American slavery began in the Caribbean, where Native American of some areas were taken and forced to work in gold mines elsewhere.  He contends Columbus was involved, after failing to realize getting to India.  Initially some were sent to Spain, but the Spanish royalty resisted the slave trade.  They eventually relented for those Native Americans who caused trouble, or were classified as cannibals. 

I am sure he includes the California Mission Native Americans.  In this case Native Americans were brought to the missions and forced to work as part of their being Christianized.  People can argue for or against this policy.  There was a battle resulting from some of them leaving the Mission.   

He talks of the slave trade preceding the Mormons, but when a Mormon was forced to purchase a slave so the child would not be put to death, then the Mormons were complicit.  This seemed to be a standard practice, Native Americans would starve others the captured as slaves, so the Mormons would take pity on them and “rescue” them thus making them slave owners.  However he also talks of Brigham Young fighting against slavery, and Chief Walkara who was big in the slave capture and trade.  Mormons did participate in buying slaves often as a way to “rescue” them.  However they did participate in labor and domestic chores. 

I feel the conclusions of this book are dubious, including the number of slaves.  Sometimes, economic relationships that do not include pay may not be slavery.  It is hard to judge past relationships based on today's standards.  However, granted there was slavery, and often this slavery is ignored or over looked.