The system of bringing African slaves across the Atlantic to work in European colonies in Central America began in 1509. There was a sense that indigenous American slaves were unsuitable for such work: the new governor of the Spanish colony in Santo Domingo (the modern-day Dominican Republic), Columbus's son Diego Colon, judged them to be insufficiently hard-working. The bishop of Chiapas (in modern-day Mexico), Bartholeme de las Casas, was also uncomfortable with the idea of using the indigenous population as a source of slavery, although for different reasons: he was the first person to hold the official Spanish governmental title, 'Protector of the Indians'. By contrast, however, he saw enslavement of Africans as less problematic, so he recommended that Spanish settlers bring a certain…

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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Slave Trade, beginning of". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1019, accessed 06 May 2024.]