Introduction and Origin of Africans During Colonization
As part of the process of conquest, the economic regimes of the European colonies in America developed various forms of forced labor exploitation of the American aboriginals. However, the relatively low population density of some of the South American territories, resistance from some Aboriginal groups to the acculturation and especially the high rate of mortality of the submission, the type of work and diseases introduced by Europeans resulted in the decline of the native population, led them to supplement the manpower that they provided with slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. Mexico and Peru alone lost nearly 90-percent of their indigenous population in the first 50 years after the Conquest.
Well into the 19th century, mining and agriculture accounted for the bulk of economic activity in America. Africans offered to the conquerors the advantage of having already been exposed by their geographical proximity to European diseases, and at the same time adjusted to the tropical climate of the colonies. In the case of Argentina, the influx of African slaves began in the colonies of the Rio de la Plata in 1588, although these early arrivals were largely the work of smuggling. Trafficking flourished through the port of Buenos Aires when the city granted the British the privilege of importing a share of slaves through it. To provide slaves to the East Indies, the Spanish crown granted contracts known as Asientos to various companies from other countries, mainly Portuguese, British, Dutch and French. In 1713 England, victorious in the War of Spanish Succession, had the monopoly on this trade. The last Asiento was drawn up with the Royal Society of the Philippines in 1787. Until the 1784 ban, blacks were measured and then branded.
Before the 16th century slaves had arrived in relatively small numbers from the Cape Verde islands. Thereafter the majority of Africans introduced to Argentina were from ethnic groups speaking Bantu languages, from the territories now comprising Angola, The Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Guinea and the Republic of the Congo. The immigration of Yoruba and Ewe was more limited in Argentina; larger numbers of these groups were taken to Brazil
It is estimated that 30 million Africans were shipped to the Americas, and the 6 million who survived the journey entered mainly through the ports of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Valparaiso and Rio de Janeiro.
The slaves were forced to work in agriculture, livestock, domestic work and to a lesser extent crafts. In urban areas, many slaves made handicrafts for sale, whose revenues went to their masters. The Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo and Montserrat housed a large quantity of slaves, although most were to sent to the interior provinces. The 1778 census conducted by Juan José Salcedo of Vértiz showed very high concentration of Africans in provinces where agricultural production was greatest: 54% in Santiago del Estero Province, 52% in Catamarca Province, 46% in Salta province, 44% in Córdoba Province, 64% in the Tucuman Province, 24% in Mendoza Province, 20% in La Rioja Province, 16% in San Juan Province, 13% in Jujuy Province and 9% in San Luis Province. An important part of the African population also inhabited other provinces. Today one of the slums of the city of Corrientes is still known as Camba Cuá, from the Guarani kamba kua, meaning "cave of the Blacks".
In 1806-1807 the city of Buenos Aires had 15,708 Europeans, 347 indigenous and mestizos, and 6,650 Africans and mulattoes, while in 1810 there were 22,793 whites, 9,615 Africans and mulattoes, and only 150 indigenous. The area most densely populated by Africans was located in the neighborhood of Montserrat, also known as Barrio del Tambor (Drumtown), just a few blocks from the current Congress.
Read more about this topic: Afro Argentine
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