In one version of US history, California is a place where slavery has been outlawed since its founding, in the 1849 state constitutionand where that prohibition was confirmed by the federal ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. According to one account, it was a place that had ended the practice some 30 years earlier – when it was part of Mexico.
Despite being on the edge of the Spanish and Mexican empires before becoming part of the United States, California had an important place in the great struggle of enslaved people for their freedom. California connects Mexican and US history while serving as a reminder that there are few corners of the Western Hemisphere untouched by the legacy of slavery.
The story of the rise and fall of African slavery is often presented as a national issue in the United States – and especially in the South – rather than the hemispheric phenomenon it was. Enslaved Africans were found as far south as Chile and Argentina as far south as Canada. Likewise, the end of slavery was not only brought about by the Civil War in the US, but also by centuries of resistance through rebellions, wars, destruction and self-emancipation, throughout the Americas. This, too, was part of the California story.
After the Spanish overthrew the Mexican empire in 1521, they spent little time bringing captive Africans to what they called New Spain – a vast territory that would extend north to include New Mexico and California. In the 1530s there were reports of plots of rebellion, and the establishment of colonies by those who escaped from slavery. The leader of such a community, Gaspar Yanga, forced the Spanish authorities to recognize its independence, after the military failed to defeat him in 1608. This place outside of Veracruz became the first free black town in Mexico, today known as Yanga. It was a remarkable victory at a time when the an estimated 130,000 Africans were brought to New Spainresulting in the highest number of enslaved Africans in 17th century America.
However, by the 18th century the center of slavery had moved north, towards the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, and prices were falling in Mexico. In addition, there were still indigenous workers in Mexico, who were often exploited. This was the case in the lands that would become California, and New Mexico, where the indigenous peoples were independent and often “dispossessed”, known as genizaros, they were often forced into slavery which often amounted to slavery.
In 1829, the president of now-independent Mexico, Vicente Guerrero, who was of part African descent, abolished slavery. This caused an immediate outcry in the Texas area, which was filled with immigrants who were slaves from the US In 1836 Texas became independent, and slavery in Mexico was officially abolished the following year. Mexico is now a possible haven for people fleeing slavery in Texas or nearby areas like Louisiana. It was much closer than the Underground Railroad leading to the northern states or Canada. Historian Alice Baumgartner has estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 people were enslaved. fled to Mexico from the US
However, this potential area of freedom was greatly reduced by the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. After that conflict, 51% of Mexico was ceded to the United States. This included New Mexico, which had been part of the Spanish empire since the early 1600s, and California, which had been colonized in 1769. Eventually, this entire area would form the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
People in Mexico’s ceded lands were forced to re-examine the issue of slavery as part of the US gold miners fled to California, while others came from the South, bringing enslaved people to work their claims. By the time of the empire in 1850, according to one estimate, there were 500 to 1,500. enslaved people were brought to Californiatheir status was hidden even after the constitution of the state. Although the shadow of Southern slavery pervades California, some people were able to gain freedom in those early years. However, in 1852, California enacted the Fugitive Slave Law, which applied to people who had been brought before the state and led to many being sent back to plantations in the South. I Utah again In New Mexico territories – which would not become states until 1896 and 1912 – passed slave codes, which allowed slavery and were intended to regulate the treatment of people in slavery or servitude, both black and American.
However, in the far south, most of the new republics of Spanish America had ended their involvement in the slave trade and used emancipation methods gradually since 1811, and after the final abolition in the mid-1850s. If California had remained part of Mexico, it would have been in this great wave of dissolution, rather than seeing the continuation or return of slavery.
Slavery shaped the Americas for four hundred years, damaging the entire hemisphere. The long struggle to dismantle it did not take place only in the US or only in the South; in fact, in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Brazil it continued for decades after the US Civil War. Simple narratives like “California banned slavery at its founding” and “slavery ended in 1865” obscure much of your connection to this larger story. What happened in California shines a light on the inequality of abolition and the many false promises of freedom. It also serves as a reminder of the need for a broader lens when thinking about slavery and freedom across the Americas today.
Carrie Gibson is the author of “Great Resistance: The 400-Year War to End Slavery in the Americas” and “El Norte: The Sweet and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America.”
