Country: Argentina

Group: Afro-Argentines

Date finalized: 11/05/2020

Team: Vianney Mancilla (lead), Zeenat Hammond, Rebekah Kamer

The Afro-Argentinian were subjected to forced labor. The data quality for the evidence found would be rated a 2-for the lack of information, especially journal articles.

            After Spanish colonization in the 16th century, many African slaves were brought to Argentina as slaves and represent the Afro-Argentinian’s earliest descendants (Andrews, 1980). The Spanish monarchs issued dozens of slave permits every couple of years to maintain the slavery and slave trade of the Afro-Argentinians (Andrews 1980). With the illegal slave trade and contraband, it is difficult to provide an accurate estimate of the number of slaves that entered Buenos Aires, Argentina (Andrews, 1980). Between 1595-1680, approximately 22,892 African slaves were registered (Andrews, 1980). However, Andrews points out that this number falls very short of the truth given that between 1606 to 1625, only 288 of the 12,778 African slaves entering Buenos Aires were recorded (1980). The slaves in Buenos Aires primarily worked on large haciendas and in the domestic sector where advertisements called for certain housekeeping skills such as cooking, laundering, ironing, and sewing (Ackerman, 2012; Andrews, 1980). Later, in 1822, slaves had to carry around registration papers with the names of their owners as proof that they were not freed slaves (Andrews, 1980). As a freed Afro-Argentinan, many still struggled with employment in occupations outside of the domestic and forced-labor sector (Andrews 1980). Slavery in Argentina was abolished in 1853 (Ackerman, 2012). 

Sources

  1. Ackerman, R. (2012). Blacks in Argentina — officially a few, but maybe a million. Retrieved from https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Blacks-in-Argentina-officially-a-few-but-2559399.php
  2. Andrews, George Reid (1980) The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin. Retrieved from http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21145