“Slavery In The Dominican Republic and How It Affected the Natives Racial Identity”
By definition the Dominican Republic is a Caribbean Hispaniola Island that is shared with Haiti to the West. The Dominican Republic today is a major tourist destination and has become a major source of sugar, coffee, and other exports. But the Dominican Republic had to suffer a lot in order to prevail the way they did, undergoing being enslaved by the Spaniards while on the other side of the island the Haitians were enslaved by the french hence the obvious difference in languages and cultures. The main difference is that the Dominican Republic lost their racial identity and until the present day are unaware of their true racial identity. Slavery affects every country and person differently but in the Dominican Republic, slavery took away the nation’s identity.
The Dominican Republic was colonized by Christoper Columbus who was a Spaniard and named the island “La Hispaniola” or little Spain on his first voyage in 1492. The Dominican Republic subsequently became “The first of Spain’s New World colonies” (Levine 1) according to Edwin A. Levine in “The Seed of Slavery in the New World: An Examination of the Factors Leading to the Impressment of the Indian Labor in Hispaniola”. Slavery as most people know it is the being restricted of freedom because of race or skin color. The state of being an enslaved human being is something that the average person today could simply not grasp completely,
Before the Spaniards colonized Dominican Republic it was called “Hispaniola”, named by Christopher Columbus. While Christopher Columbus was out exploring the world he sight saw the island. When he landed the land it was filled with “Taino Indians” (Arawaks). Taino meant good and noble just like Christopher Columbus described them. The Taino Indians were all friendly towards all of Christopher Columbus crew members when they first arrived in the land.
Lorgia García-Peña, through her book, The Borders of Dominicanidad, has inquired for readers to think of dominicanidad through dictions, word choices/phrases, actions, descriptions etc., to understand its underlying truth. These dictions can often have political agenda and are often politically constructed. She mentions the contradictions that challenge these “truths” in regards to dominicanidad and the bordering of Dominican racialized groups. These contradictions can either reaffirm or question these borders in regards to belonging or not to a nation focusing on identity. In both of Chapter 1, The Galindo Virgins, and Chapter 4, Rayano Consciousness, illustrates dictions and contradictions that influence and affect the borders of dominicanidad.
Saint Domingue was one of the richest colonies of the Americas during the late eighteenth century. Its extravagance resulted from their large production of highly demanded coffee, cotton, and sugar, which heavily depended on strict slave regime. Slaves, many whom were African born, made up the vast majority of the population and suffered poor working and living conditions. The anger of slaves caused the Haitian Revolution, which would lead to Haiti freeing itself from its oppressor and becoming an independent republic in the Caribbean. The Haitian Revolution created a profound effect not only the former French colony, but also acted as a leader for reformation around the world.
The New World was built on the backs of slaves who would do different jobs for small rewards or otherwise be punished or sentenced to death. This new territory was inhabited by several different European peoples including the Spanish Empire in Hispaniola and English immigrants at Chesapeake Bay, their roles in slavery differed in terms of who they acquired to work and the type of work they assigned to their help. In the 1500’s, the Spanish people had several sugar mills in the Caribbean land they named Hispaniola. Because of diseases brought over by the Spanish people, the indigenous population of this land was wiping out and therefor they needed to bring over more people to work for them.
This began the colonization of the Dominican Republic from the Spanish Empire. However, the western half remained property of France and was known as Haiti. When Columbus claimed this island Spain renamed it to Santo Domingo. Dominicans wanted their independence. They fought to gain their independence in 1821 but were unfortunately conquered and taken over by Haiti for the following twenty-two years.
The impact of slavery on the Old South is a difficult measure to establish because slavery was the Old South. While the popular adage was “Cotton is King,” it was simply a microcosm of the delusion of the day. Truly, slavery was king. Slavery was the growing tension of the time, political catalyst and ironically crux of American power. To the masses, slavery was a social defining stance; the “peculiar institution” to some and a defining moral line to others, American life was changed depending on what view you took of slavery.
From 1811 to 1830, Latin American colonies began to announce their independence from Spain. A group called the Creoles, who were Spanish blood born in the Americas, led this fight for independence. They were the second highest social class. Creoles led the fight for independence so they could gain power. They did this by striving to improve the economic and political situation.
Chapter 1: Cultural Analysis: The chapter focuses and is centralize on the cultural environment and phenomena of Dominican Republic. We have tried to study and determine the cultural factors on how and what our service will be. Along the run our introduction will tell us the main points in Dominican Republic’s Cultural Analysis. I. INTRODUCTION: “Dios, Patria, Libertad”
After three centuries of colonial rule, Spanish and Portuguese America got independence. Between 1808 and 1826 all of Latin America except the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule. This was the result of a combination of long-building tensions in colonial rule and a series of external events. The reforms imposed by the Spanish in the 18th century provoked great instability in the relations between the rulers and their colonial subjects in the Americas. Many Creoles felt Bourbon policy to be an unfair attack on their wealth, political power, and social status.
The Spanish exploration and colonisation made both a positive and negative impact on Latin America. The arrival of the Spanish explorers to the new world made a big change and they are the reason Latin America looks the way it does today. However these people were ruthless and were the tyrants of the new world. One of Spain’s major foreign policy objectives since the advent of democracy has been to increase its influence in Latin America. Spain has had interest in this area due to historical ties and a common linguistic, cultural and religious heritage (Countrystudies.us, 2017).
Slavery, the War on Black Family While slavery in America was an institution that was started over 400 years ago, the affects were so horrific that it is still felt today by modern day African Americans. Many families had to deal with the constant stress of being sold which made it difficult to have a normal family life. Slaves were sold to pay off debts, an owner dying and his slaves were sold in an estate sale, or when an owner’s children would leave the home to begin a life of their own, they would take slaves with them. Often times, children were not raised by their parents, other family members of someone designated to watch the children because the mother and father had to work long hours and the children were too young to join them.
In Latin American Revolution before the revolution there were four main social classes; on the bottom there were the slaves and the Indians, then there were the Mulattoes (who were of African and Spanish descent) and the Mestizos (who were of Spanish and Native American descent), then the Creoles (who were of pure Spanish blood, but were born in America), and at the very top there were the Peninsulares (they were of pure Spanish descent and were born in Spain). The Creoles lead the fight against Spain because they wanted higher social status within their own lives, more political control over their own lives, and they were tired of Spain having total control over their economy. The Creoles weren 't allowed to do many things simply because they were born in America and not Spain, it didn’t matter that they were of pure European descent. Creoles were not allowed to hold political positions, only the Peninsulares were able to. For example, in 1807 only 12 of the 199 judgeships were held by Creoles, the rest were held by Peninsulares.
At the beginning, most of the slaves were indentured servants, who chose free labour in the colonies for several years over a death penalty. Those were mostly European, but in the seventeenth century, Africans were sent to Virginia to work as indentured servants. While some were able to gain freedom, others fell into permanent servitude, and by 1661, all black people in Virginia were considered slaves, and their numbers raised significantly. Nonetheless, slavery started as early as the 1530s in Meso-American colonies, as their aims with agriculture were much larger, and they had difficulty employing natives outside the areas where there had been large empires, such as Peru and Mexico. It can be argued that slavery in Latin America was not only more common; but also more brutal.
Details and examples III. Conclusion a. Summary of main points Living in Dominican Republic vs living in Haiti Important researches about the history of the Caribbean shows significant geographical information about the second largest island in the Caribbean also known as the Hispaniola, which contains two separate countries; Dominican Republic and Haiti. This two countries are similar in several ways; for example, both share an impressive history about their colonialism and slavery. Even
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade impacted and changed the world by misplacing and separating thousands of individuals from their families and homes. Thousands of people lost their lives when they were abducted and forced into slavery. Many did not survive the ship rides to the Americas. Many were murdered and tortured. Some were thrown of boats and died from diseases caught on the ship.