Native American Labor

Upon the arrival of Europeans in 1492, millions of Native American lives were lost due to violence, disease, and brutal enslavement. Labor was forced upon the people of the New World in categories that ranged from mining to housework, to agriculture, and even to sexual slavery. Between the colonialist hunger for more land and their pro-racial notion of European superiority, many Natives never stood a chance against the unwelcomed settlers.

About Native American Labor

Though Native peoples had practiced a form of slavery before the arrival of the European settlers, it was based upon a much different set of beliefs than those of the colonialists. What the Natives practiced was culturally bound, whereas what the Europeans did can be more closely compared to that of modern-day human trafficking. For example, if two tribes were to become violent with one another, the winner would take the same number of enslaved people as those lost to the battle. In contrast, Europeans enslaved whoever they deemed to be useful and "below them," a level of superiority they brought with them across the Atlantic.

Despite the uprising of allied tribes against European settlers during the "King Phillips War" (1675-1676), 2 - 2.5 million Natives were enslaved between Columbus' arrival in 1492 to the year 1880. Many Native tribes attempted to surrender to the English in hopes that they would come to a level of mercy, neutrality, and understanding. Some Native chiefs even offered their work and services in exchange for the well-being of the men, women, and children of their tribes. Unfortunately, the colonialists could not imagine a life where Natives could simply walk free, so they were forced into servitude in English homes, sold into slavery overseas, or asked to pay five shillings per man every year.

The Capture of King Philip's FortEngraving from 1857

Issues and Challenges of Native American Labor

Columbus faced many challenges upon arriving in the New World, one of the most problematic was that the riches of Asia were nowhere to be found on the North American continent. In order to cover the costs of more fleets arriving from the Old World, he had to come up with a plan. As payment for these mounting debts, Columbus and New England settlers decided that they would send Native Americans back to the Old World as slaves.

However, unlike the enslavement of African peoples, Native American enslavement became illegal very early on, forcing the colonialists to find loopholes. The most effective way to do so was to claim debt, that Native people had something they needed to repay to them.

Another issue was the presence of European diseases that Native bodies could not handle. Often, Native people would die due to the presence of diseases they were not familiar with. This meant that the settlers needed to create and/or find more slaves, which often resulted in Native women and children being sexually abused and assaulted. The need for more laborers also enhanced the slave trade from Africa, bringing in millions of African people to the New World to replace the dwindling number of Natives.

As the settlers began to move into the West, they faced violence from tribes that refused to leave their lands. Because Native weapons were no match for European firearms, it often resulted in the mass murder and relocation of the Native people who were left.

Divisions of Native American Labor

Before Columbus and his men had stepped foot on the North American continent, Native American labor, economy, and social hierarchy had been much different. Many Native tribes had their women in high-standing positions, as they were deeply valued for their hard work in the fields and raising the children while men were away hunting. This was a stark contrast to the complete male superiority that the Europeans would bring.

After being displaced from their homelands and enslaved in new territories, Native people struggled with learning how to work in the new environments to grow crops and hunt. Labor could become much more exhausting and time- consuming due to weather changes and unknown movements of the area's wildlife (moving from North to South for agriculture or East to West for mining).

Because the Europeans found men to be stronger than women, they saw Native men as much more useful in the mines of California, forcefully having to aid the settlers in their search for gold. The women on the other hand were still kept to the fields and occasionally within the settlers' households. But the most important members of the tribes were the children; Europeans knew that young children learned new languages and adapted to their environments much faster than adults. This fact made them extremely valuable to the settlers. Heartbreakingly, this often meant that they were sent away to distant countries because it would be easier to train them than their parents.

The Outcome of Native American Labor

Despite teaching the colonialists how to survive in the New World and giving them access to new foods and materials, millions of Native Americans died due to European violence, enslavement, displacement, and disease. Native people can be credited with the success of the colonies as well as events such as the Gold Rush of 1848-1855. Their forced labor and enslavement are often glossed over by history, being replaced with stories of African slavery (also often re-written by those who perpetrated it) due to the high fatality rate of Natives coming into contact with Europeans. Despite this, Native American labor can be remembered through shipping records, court documents, town records, and colonial correspondence.