PPT Slide

    The rapid destruction of the Arawakan-speaking

    Taino Indians of Santo Domingo had left

    too little

    man power even for the gold mines,

    let alone

    for the experimental sugar plantations.

    The first African slaves were imported

    before 1503

    and in spite of local fears of depredations by

    slave runaways (cimarrones),

    the importations continued.

    By 1509,

    enslaved Africans were being imported

    to work the royal mines; others soon

    followed to power

    the sugar industry.

    Sidney W. Mintz, 1985

    Reliquary bust of St. Maurice

    Aschaffenburg, 1527

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