Andres Resendez features the history of Indian enslavement in South America and describes how the national identities of the United States and Mexico were built upon the dependence of indigenous people. Slavery in the Spanish colony was a social and economic institution. It was a pervasive institution in India with unfree labor who had fewer rights and the Spanish used three methods of free and enslaved labor to excavate silver.
“The other slavery” is one of the methods of free and enslaved labor used by the Spanish to excavate silver from Mexican mines and some South American parts. This method had no legal foundation hence was never abolished in a formal way. This method allowed the masters to misuse the slaves without any fear because there were no rules against such. Most of these slaves died from diseases since they did not have immunity against such. In this method, the slogan “no harm no foul” was highly regarded. Resendez noted that the Spanish were aware of smallpox but would do nothing to stop the slaves from dying, just because they were slaves. The other method is the “horse empires” whereby the slaves were under those mastered the horse and expanded their territory and control over them. The “old slavery” was described by having legal ownership by specific racial groups. The discovery of silver contributed to tremendous business opportunities for the Indians hence a need for more labors for mining. In this regard, the institution of Indian slavery was expanded as the need for more slaves arose. While some labor needed to extract silver from the mines, the silver would also be transported to various destinations and this necessitated the need for more workers, hence expanding the institution.