Bearing Arms for His Majesty

by Vinson, Ben, III

• ISBN13: 9780804742290
• ISBN10: 0804742294
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

This study uses the participation of free colored men, whethermulatos,pardos, ormorenos(i.e., Afro-Spaniards, Afro-Indians, or "pure blacks"), in New Spain's militias as a prism for examining race relations, racial identity, racial categorization, and issues of social mobility for racially stigmatized groups in colonial Mexico. By 1793, nearly 10 percent of New Spain's population was made up of people who could trace some African ancestrypeople subject to more legal disabilities and social discrimination thanmestizos, who in turn fell below white creoles, who in turn fell below the Spanish-born, in the stratified and caste-like society of colonial Spanish America. The originality of this study lies in approaching race via a single, important institution, the military, rather than via abstractions or examples taken from particular regions or single runs of legal documents. By exploring the lives of tens of thousands of part-time and full-time free colored soldiers, who served the colony as volunteers or conscripts, and by adopting a multi-regional approach, the author is able not only to show how military institutions evolved with reference to race and vice versa, but to do so in a manner that reveals discontinuities and regional differences as well as historical trends. He also is able to examine black lives beyond the institution of slavery and to achieve a more nuanced impression of the meaning of freedom in colonial times. From the 1550s on, free colored forces figured prominently in the colony's military forces, and units of free colored soldiers evolved with increasing autonomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The author concludes, however, that the Bourbon reforms of the 1760swhich clearly expanded the military establishment and the role of Spanish soldiers born in the New Worldcame at the expense of free colored companies, which experienced a reduction in both numbers and institutional privileges.

Author Biography

Ben Vinson III is Associate Professor of History at Penn State University.

Table of Contents

Text Tables
Population of the Central Coasts in the Eighteenth Century	24	(1)
Militia Units along the Gulf Coast prior to the Bourbon Military Reforms, 1763-66	24	(1)
Militia Units in the Jurisdiction of Veracruz prior to the Bourbon Military Reforms, 1758	24	(1)
Militia Units of New Galicia prior to the Bourbon Military Reforms, 1753-72	25	(1)
Militia Units in the Archdiocese of Puebla prior to the Bourbon Military Reforms, 1758	26	(16)
Militia Units in Tuxtla prior to the Bourbon Military Reforms, 1775	42	(1)
Provincial Militiamen in Tuxtla after the Bourbon Military Reforms of 1775	42	(1)
Provincial Militiamen in Guachinango after the Bourbon Military Reforms of 1781	42	(1)
Militia Units in Guachinango prior to the Bourbon Military Reforms, 1781	43	(1)
Militia Strength of Selected Gulf Coast Sites before and after the Bourbon Military Reforms	43	(15)
Average Number of Years Spent by Free-Colored Officers in the Militia, 1766-84	58	(1)
Military Performance Reviews for Free-Colored Officers in Mexico City, Veracruz, Tuxtla, Tehuantepec, New Galicia, and Michoacan, 1766-84	58	(1)
Average Age of Free-Colored Officers by Rank, 1768-72	59	(1)
Geographical Place of Origin for Free-Colored Officers in New Spain	59	(21)
Monthly Salary of Free-Colored Militiamen and the Veteran Cadre, 1777	80	(8)
Monthly Distribution of Provincial Militiamen in the Pardo Companies of Mexico City and Puebla, 1768-75	88	(10)
Racial Breakdown of the Militiamen in Puebla's Cuerpo de Pardos y Morenos, 1792	98	(1)
Monthly Distribution of Provincial Militiamen in the Pardo Company of Jalapa, 1774	98	(7)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Mexico City, 1767	105	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Men in Mexico City, 1753	105	(3)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Puebla, 1710	108	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Puebla, 1710	109	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Men in Puebla, 1720	110	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Men in Puebla, Tribute Census of 1794	111	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Men in Puebla, Parish Census of 1790-92	112	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Orizaba, 1769	113	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Patzcuaro, 1762	114	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Valladolid, 1762	115	(3)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Men in Igualapa, 1791	118	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Igualapa, 1791	119	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Acayucan, 1793-94	120	(1)
Occupational Structure of the Free-Colored Militiamen in Tampico, 1780	121	(2)
Marriage Structure of Free-Colored Militiamen and Civilians in Puebla, 1720-92	123	(1)
Marriage Structure of Igualapa, 1791	123	(17)
Tribute Revenues Submitted to the Caja de Mexico During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries	140	(60)
Racial References to Free-Colored Militia in Civil Documents, 1703-41	200	(37)
Appendix Tables
A.1 List of Recruits by Race for the Provincial Regiment of Tampico, Panuco, and the Jurisdiction of Huexutla, 1766	231	(1)
A.2 Racial Classification of Officer Corps in the Provinces of Tampico, Panuco, and the Jurisdiction of Huextla, 1766	231	(1)
A.3 Provincial Militia Units in New Spain, 1766	232	(1)
A.4 Provincial Militia Units in New Spain, 1784	232	(1)
A.5 The Militia Forces According to the Crespo Plan	233	(1)
A.6 Militia Units of the Costa Sur, Extending from the Jurisdiction of Acaponeta to Tehuantepec, Proposed Changes in 1793	233	(1)
A.7 Militia Units in Nuevo Santander, Proposed Changes in 1793	234	(1)
A.8 Militia Units in Tabasco, Proposed Changes in 1793	234	(1)
A.9 Militia Units of the Seno Mexicano Extending from Tampico and Panuco to the River of Guazacualco, Proposed Changes in 1793	235	(1)
A.10 Militia Units in the Yucatan, 1778	235	(1)
A.11 The Credit Network of Joseph Escobar the Elder	236	(1)
A.12 Average Age of the Free-Colored Officers by Rank, 1768-72	237