Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico
From Chinos to Indians

This book is a history of Asian slaves in colonial Mexico and their journey from bondage to freedom.

Tatiana Seijas (Author)

9781107063129, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 June 2014

300 pages, 9 b/w illus. 3 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.61 kg

'Seijas has provided an illuminating history from below of worldwide slavery and the Mexican caste system. The extensive archival research undergirding her study both strengthens its arguments and makes for a compelling read … This monograph is exemplary for anyone seeking to examine a regional issue within a wider historical context, for it shows early modern Mexico as the global crossroad that it was.' Ronald J. Morgan, Hispanic American Historical Review

During the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, countless slaves from culturally diverse communities in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia journeyed to Mexico on the ships of the Manila Galleon. Upon arrival in Mexico, they were grouped together and categorized as chinos. Their experience illustrates the interconnectedness of Spain's colonies and the reach of the crown, which brought people together from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe in a historically unprecedented way. In time, chinos in Mexico came to be treated under the law as Indians, becoming indigenous vassals of the Spanish crown after 1672. The implications of this legal change were enormous: as Indians, rather than chinos, they could no longer be held as slaves. Tatiana Seijas tracks chinos' complex journey from the slave market in Manila to the streets of Mexico City, and from bondage to liberty. In doing so, she challenges commonly held assumptions about the uniformity of the slave experience in the Americas.

Introduction
1. Catarina de San Juan: China slave and popular saint
2. The diversity and reach of the Manila slave market
3. The rise and fall of the transpacific slave trade
4. Chinos in Mexico City: slave labor and liberty
5. Joining the republic of Indians: free Filipinos and freed chinos
6. The Church on chino slaves versus Indian chinos
7. The end of chino slavery
Final conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], History of the Americas [HBJK], History [HB]