Choosing between Rivals: The Spanish-African Maroon Competition for Captive Indian Labor in the Region of Esmeraldas during the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century

Charles Beatty Medina

This paper, parting from other studies on forced and voluntary Indian migration in Colonial Quito, examines the competition for Indian labor and subsequent tensions that it created between encomendero elites in Quito and the African maroon societies of Esmeraldas. It proposes that maroon societies in this Pacific Coast province can be best understood as competitors to Spanish power in the region. That is, maroon strategy contained larger aims than autonomy from Spanish authorities and release from the state of slavery. What conditioned the goals and competitive outlets for the Esmeraldas maroons was the strategic location of their settlements along the critical seaway linking Panama to Peru and their intermingling with native societies. The maroons, like all enslaved runaways, were a product of the Atlantic trade. However, in Esmeraldas they altered the imbalance of power between native societies and Spanish colonists. This study further suggests that in line with recent writings on the ethno-genesis of new peoples in Esmeraldas, the ethnically mixed formation of the Esmeraldas maroons resulted in the creation of new “colonial tribes” in the region. These “tribal” associations not only were apparent in the kin-network makeup of the maroon societies, but also were formulated in response to the actions of Spanish authorities and elites.

[WP# 04CR023]