Indian Slavery in Mexican California

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Indian Slavery in Mexican California
The Mexican rule began in California in 1821 and ended in 1846, giving rise to the state's economy. The Mexican ranchos hired the native labor force raising the economic prosperity and providing consistency to native Indian slavery, which Spaniards had already begun or even the rulers before, and continued to the era of the Gold Rush. However, different researchers indicate that Indian slavery during the Mexican period was not as severe as before and after; instead, the Mexican government launched slavery reforms, allowing enslaved people to claim better civil rights. Before this, the Spanish rule did not allow them as much social and economic freedom, similar to the Gold rush that began after the Mexican government and was the darkest age of slavery with brutal genocide, physical and sexual abuse, and child labor. The Mexican age was also not without Indian labor, but it had a milder environment for the natives to conduct their lives through a modification in law. However, slavery continued because no government could run the Californian economy without native labor. Thus they changed the names of rules and activities, and ranchos used their authority to exploit the aboriginal Indians unofficially. The Mexican California marks an age of slavery with unofficial exploitation because they were primitive according to Mexicans; this slavery was a refined form of slavery as compared with other eras of native Indian slavery in California, and it gave rise to the state's economy as a positive economic strategy as approved by the current historians.
After a series of revolts, California won to get freedom from Spanish rule. In 1821, it was a Mexican state. The mission system created so much trouble for the inhabitants that they were not ready to accept its negative impacts, like a vast reduction in the Indian population. Thereby, they rebelled and handed over their state to Mexico. The beginning of Mexican rule modified rules and regulations through secularization. Through this method, the government aimed to provide land grants to the villagers to encourage agriculture and the state's economic growth. The wealthy landowners purchased most of the property and became historically known as ranchos, who raised the castle. The ranchos of the Mexican age mainly were Mexicans who hired the natives to work on their lands because the aboriginal Indians were already an essential part of the economy through labor (Rawls 13). Their cultivation made them wealthier, leaving the native Indians and non-Indians below the poverty line. However, the native labor was vital to the state's prosperity as it has always been a part of the economic support. The masters were obliged to conduct slavery under specific rules. It is undeniable that it brought inequality in the society and began a dark age of slavery at the end of the Mexican government in 1846
. California Indians experienced slavery from their aboriginal mistreatment and Spanish mission to the end of the Gold Rush. During all these years, the rulers discovered indigenous Indians useful for labor and slavery to be productive. The Mexican age brought emancipation for native Indians and decreed several laws in favor of the enslaved people, but the illegal process of slavery continued for the years. Still, this kind of slavery has fewer records of inhuman treatment of enslaved Indians because the two ages of genocides are not from Mexican rule to California. Instead, it was Spaniards who began killing the native Indians and non-Indians from 1769 to 1834. Another age of genocide records the years of the Gold Rush; the era started after California's independence from Mexico. In that age, the miners marked history with the most brutal killings, rape, and harassment of the native Indians. The research shows that before and after the Mexican rule, more Californian Indians died of hunger, epidemics, psychological traumas, and deliberate murders (Ulrich 111). It does not mean that the Indians did not suffer during the Mexican period, when the rancheros unofficially made the natives indentured servants, whom they set on labor, sold, and mistreated. However, slavery before and after the occupation of the estate by Mexico exposes severer mistreatment of the natives. They experienced the inhuman behavior of colonists, worked hard for their masters on a poor diet, and became victims of genocides.
The American colonists considered the Californian Indians to be aboriginally exploitable from the beginning of their colonization. The era of slavery during the age of coastal missions was founded on the notion that the natives were aboriginally primitive with their backward civilization, which can be helpful in labor. These enslaved people have always served as a vital labor force for the state's economy. The Spaniards even declared them unable to claim liberty for their inherent primitivism. With a similar outlook, the Mexican rancheros occupied the lands granted to the natives by the government of Mexico and hired the Indians to work on them. They also benefited from their aboriginal way of living that fitted them to labor. With the ending of Mexican rule and the beginning of the Gold Rush, the aggressions further grew, making their aboriginal way of living a threat to the whites resulting in one of the worst genocides ever (Rawls 13). It means that the Indian slavery during the Mexican government resulted from the pre-set definitions of the primitivism of the native Indians. The enslaved people during the Mexican period were a series of already prevailing slavery. Their particular lifestyle and backward social traditions have already made them "readily exploitable" for the colonists (Rawls 14). It is because, despite the federal decree providing civil rights to the native Indians, the rancheros occupied the villagers' lands and used the Indians as a labor force for higher productivity. The law also deliberately exploited them for their inherent capability to work hard and live backwardly. Therefore, their declared primitivism continued the physical and mental exploitation of men, women, and children at the hands of missionaries, ranchos, and miners in the end.
Although Indian slavery during the Mexican period was less prominent than during Spanish rule and the Gold Rush age, the natives endured many officials and unofficial abuse. They went through several hours of labor; women and children also had to work with men. Bidding enslaved people created great social injustice for the different nations in the state. The physical exploitation of women and children was a matter of every day. The enslavement law passed by the government had imposed seve...