Posted on 09/16/2020 2:38:14 AM PDT by csvset
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Archaeologists in Mexico said Tuesday they have identified a ship that carried Mayan people into virtual slavery in the 1850s, the first time such a ship has been found.
The wreck of the Cuban-based paddle-wheel steamboat was found in 2017, but wasn’t identified until researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History checked contemporary documents and found evidence it was the ship “La Unión.”
The ship had been used to take Mayas captured during an 1847-1901 rebellion known as “The War of the Castes” to work in sugarcane fields in Cuba.
Slavery was illegal in Mexico at the time, but operators of similar ships had reportedly bought seized captured combatants, or deceived Mayas left landless by the conflict to “sign on” as contract workers, often in Cuba, where they were treated like slaves.
The La Unión was on a trip to Havana in September 1861 when its boilers exploded and it sank off the once-important Yucatan port of Sisal.
(Excerpt) Read more at rochesterfirst.com ...
GGG ping
reparaciones!!!!
Mayan lives matter.
“People of color” involved in enslaving other people of color?! No, say it’s not so...!
“Mayans burn and loot Cuban businesses - Story at eleven!”
False. No one but Americans ever enslaved anyone, and no people were ever slaves except blacks.
If you need “to “sign on” as contract workers” this isn’t even “virtual slavery”. They found a boat that carried employees.
Holy Moses! Oy veh.
Cubans are now privileged, white hispanics.
That is basically true. Sounds like indentured servants, albeit perhaps completely taken advantage of.
I don’t like the paternalistic/racist attitude of treating natives like “children”. They had a decision of what to do and they made one. Choosing to sign on for work in Cuba is on them.
***Slavery was illegal in Mexico at the time,***
Mexico banned slavery in 1829, but for fifty years after, slave catching gangs were raiding the US for Indians to still sell in Mexico as slaves.
Thanks csvset.
Terrible headline writer. I was looking forward to reading about Mayan ships.
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