Keywords
Slave exportation
Zarpes
Ship manifests
Encomiendas
Ship destinations
Exportación de esclavos
Zarpes
Manifiesto de navío
Encomiendas
Destino de navíos
How to Cite
Abstract
Standard view is that Nicaragua´s Indian population severely decreased after the Conquest because of massive slave exportation. A review of existing ship departures, zarpes, for the period of 1539-1542, when slave exportation was occurring large scale, demonstrated that 601 Indians were exported from Nicaragua, that data compiled by a judge of residencia who was looking for violation of laws to prosecute the slave exporters. This studied applied an interplay between the historical data and the archaeological data that offered greater potential for innovative insights than does either discipline individually; as an academic discipline these studies are referred to as “ethnohistory”. Utilizing this approach, the review of the number of ships needed for massive slave exportation disclosed that the required number of vessels was not available at any time during the Colonial period. Finally, the Nicaraguan encomenderos had small encomiendas, which were needed to generate income for the encomenderos, and were unlikely to export their own encomendero Indians when it would severely affect their own incomes.
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