This document is a research report that compares the conditions of slavery in English colonies to Spanish colonies. It argues that conditions were worse for slaves in English colonies, as they had poorer living conditions, harsher work requirements, and more severe punishments. Slaves in English colonies lived in small huts and slept on straw, while slaves in Spanish colonies had somewhat better housing. English slaves also worked longer hours and faced physical punishment for failing to meet quotas, unlike Spanish slaves who had protected rights under law. Overall, the report concludes life was harder for slaves in the English American colonies than for slaves in the Spanish colonies.

1. Slavery Research Report
Were conditions of slavery worse in the English colonies than in the Spanish colonies?
Ben Smith
Corning
U.S. History Period 5
19 January 2011
1026 Words

2. Smith 1
Many U.S. citizens know Christopher Columbus as the man who discovered America,
but what they don’t know is that by doing so, Columbus ultimately condemned millions of
Africans into slavery for the next 400 years by finding a land mass that could support the
farming necessary to build a new nation. During the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the
Spanish were settling land in the Americas and they needed a source of forced labor to work
their fields. Also, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the English set out on the same
mission in North America. Both the English and Spanish utilized African slave labor while
building their new nations in the Americas, but the conditions for slaves in the English
colonies were much worse than in the Spanish colonies. The living condition of the slaves in
English colonies was much poorer, the working conditions were much harder, and the
punishments were much more severe than for the slaves in the Spanish colonies.
The English and Spanish colonies both utilized many African slaves, however, the
living conditions for the slaves in the English colonies were worse than those of the slaves of
the Spanish colonies. English slaves had miserable lives in which they “lodged in log huts on
the bare ground. Wooden floors were an unknown luxury. In a single room were huddled,
like cattle, ten or a dozen persons, men, women and children” (Lester 64). Even worse were
the beds on which the slaves were forced to sleep, which were nothing but meager piles of
straw and old rags, with a coarse blanket to keep them warm. The slaves in Spanish colonies
had far from substantial living conditions, but Kajrtan Sveinsson states that “not to say that a
slave’s life in Colombia was a good one, but slaves appear to have enjoyed more freedom
than their counterparts up north” reinforcing the fact that English slaves had living conditions
that were much worse than those of the Spanish slaves.
Although the nights were tough for slaves in both Spanish and English colonies,
daytime was when some slaves encountered their worst experiences. In the urban areas of the
English colonies of North America, most of the slaves worked less and had easier jobs; most

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“performed comparatively less arduous physical labor -- in shipyards, brickyards, cotton
presses and warehouses. Many were apprentices to tailors, saddle makers, butchers and
masons” (Boston). However, in rural areas of the English colonies the slaves worked from
sunrise to sunset laboring in the fields with only one fifteen minute break at noon for lunch
(Lester 71). Also in the Southern English colonies, “Each slave was expected to pick at least
two hundred pounds of cotton a day”, and if they did not complete this amount they were
punished harshly (Lester 71). As a result of the terrible working conditions of slaves in the
English colonies, some slaves escaped and fled to Spanish controlled Florida because “once
they made it to Florida, were given freedom after they converted to Roman Catholicism”
(Slavery). Everyday life for slaves in Spanish colonies however, was much less arduous than
the English slaves because “The daily labor of the slave in Puerto Rico was conducted in such
a way as to remind one of the European peasantry. However, there is one marked difference.
The slave worked much less than the peasant and had fewer cares to press on his mind at the
hour of rest” (Martinez). The Spanish slaves usually worked only nine hours a day and had at
least two breaks between breakfast and sunset and they also enjoyed rest days every Sunday
and on holy days (Martinez). It is fair to say that the slaves in the English colonies were
forced to work under extreme conditions while the slaves in the Spanish colonies worked
under less harsh circumstances.
The severity of the working conditions for the African slaves in the English colonies
was small in comparison to the punishments that they endured for failing to do their work
properly. This contrasted directly with the Spanish methods of light punishment. In an
English colony, “Slaves were whipped for the most trifling incidents”, which shows just how
eager to punish the English slave owners really were (Lester 32). The whippings that the
English slaves received consisted of between 25 to 100 lashes based upon the severity of the
misbehavior (Lester 72). In the Spanish colonies, the slaves were treated much more

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humanely, because “masters who treated their slaves cruelly were liable for punishment. In
Colombia, a slave was equal in the eyes of god, therefore equal under the law, and “the black
man had a legal personality which enabled him to bring charges against his master for overly
cruel treatment, or testify against his master in certain circumstances. Clearly he was not a
piece of property as was established in North America” (Martinez). The reason slaves in most
Spanish colonies were allowed to testify in court is because the government allowed the
slaves to be protected by law, for example, “Colombian authorities and slave owners were
more ready to accept slaves as human beings with – albeit not equal – at least some basic
rights” (Sveinsson).Not only were the English slaves forced to work under terrible conditions,
they were also punished severely for doing poor work, which was quite different from the
Spanish slaves who had better working conditions and virtually no punishments.
In large measure, the African people enslaved in both English and Spanish colonies
had miserable lives. The slaves in Spanish colonies endured much less suffering and as a
result enjoyed better living and working conditions and fewer punishments primarily because
of the heavily rooted Christian influence on the Spanish governments. The Spanish colonists
were more focused on the quality of forced labor that the slaves could provide, while the
English were more focused on the quantity, squeezing every last drop of work out of their
slaves and punishing them harshly for failure to work hard. In conclusion, the life of a slave
in an English colony was much worse than that of a slave in a Spanish colony during the 17th,
18th and 19th centuries.

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Works Cited
Boston, Nicholas. "The slave experience: Living conditions”. Slavery And The Making of
America. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. 2004. Web. 17 November 2010
Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: Dial, 1968. Print.
Martinez, Dr. Robert A. “African Aspects of the Puerto Rican Personality”. IPOAA
Magazine.Web. 24 November 2010.
"Slavery in the Spanish New World Colonies." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 1 Jan.
2011.Web. 19 Jan. 2011.
Sveinsson, Kjartan. “Topic of the Month - Slavery in Latin America”. The Real Histories
Directory. Runnymede Trust. Web. 17 November 2010.