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AP®HistoryCollege BoardUS HistoryExam QuestionsPeriod 1: 1491 - 1607Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System (College Board AP® US History): Exam Questions

6 mins6 questions
11 mark

“Since his accession to the Kongo throne in 1506, Afonso had maintained close ties with the Christian Church on which his legitimacy as ruler largely depended. He had also allowed the trade in slaves to grow as a double royal monopoly, the profits shared between himself and the king of Portugal. However, by the third decade of his reign, he was becoming deeply concerned that the growth of this trade was leading to his own subjects being sold as slaves against the custom of the country. This he feared was severely damaging social and political relations in his kingdom. The king of Portugal’s response showed little understanding of this concern.”

Extracts from a letter of Dom João III to the king of Kongo, 1529. António Brásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana, 1952. Translated by Malyn Newitt.

Which of the following impacts of the slave trade on African Kingdoms is mentioned in the extract?

  • Captured Africans, and their children, were slaves for life, which went against African tradition

  • The removal of rights, as enslaved Africans lost all rights once they became slaves unable to regain them

  • The introduction of manufactured items from Europe undermined the traditional African economy 

  •  The depletion of future strong and capable tribal or village leaders as Africans were being kidnapped

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21 mark

“Since his accession to the Kongo throne in 1506, Afonso had maintained close ties with the Christian Church on which his legitimacy as ruler largely depended. He had also allowed the trade in slaves to grow as a double royal monopoly, the profits shared between himself and the king of Portugal. However, by the third decade of his reign, he was becoming deeply concerned that the growth of this trade was leading to his own subjects being sold as slaves against the custom of the country. This he feared was severely damaging social and political relations in his kingdom. The king of Portugal’s response showed little understanding of this concern.”

Extracts from a letter of Dom João III to the king of Kongo, 1529. António Brásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana, 1952. Translated by Malyn Newitt.

Concerns raised in the extract resulted in which of the following?

  • The Casta system in North America 

  • Cultural resistance which aimed to preserve traditional African cultural traditions

  • Establishment of Arawak communities in the Americas

  • The writings of the priest Bartolomé de Las Casas on enslaved peoples in the New World

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31 mark

“Since his accession to the Kongo throne in 1506, Afonso had maintained close ties with the Christian Church on which his legitimacy as ruler largely depended. He had also allowed the trade in slaves to grow as a double royal monopoly, the profits shared between himself and the king of Portugal. However, by the third decade of his reign, he was becoming deeply concerned that the growth of this trade was leading to his own subjects being sold as slaves against the custom of the country. This he feared was severely damaging social and political relations in his kingdom. The king of Portugal’s response showed little understanding of this concern.”

Extracts from a letter of Dom João III to the king of Kongo, 1529. António Brásio, Monumenta Missionaria Africana, 1952. Translated by Malyn Newitt.

The excerpt suggests that European attitudes towards the African Kingdoms during the slave trade

  • Focused on economic benefits over social and domestic impacts in the African Kingdoms  

  • Concentrated on religious conversion to spread influence 

  • Allowed African kings to become equal benefactors to help economic prosperity in Africa

  • Respected African traditions and culture

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41 mark

“Finally, in one word, their Ambition and Avarice, than which the heart of Man never entertained greater, and the vast Wealth of those Regions; the Humility and Patience of the Inhabitants (which made their approach to these Lands more facil and easie) did much promote the business: Whom they so despicably contemned, that they treated them (I speak of things which I was an Eye Witness of, without the least fallacy) not as Beasts, which I cordially wished they would, but as the most abject dung and filth of the Earth; and so sollicitous they were of their Life and Soul, that the above-mentioned number of People died without understanding the true Faith or Sacraments. And this also is as really true as the praecendent Narration (which the very Tyrants and cruel Murderers cannot deny without the stigma of a lye) that the Spaniards never received any injury from the Indians”

Bartolomé de las Casas, “A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies”, 1552

Which practice in the Spanish New World is Bartolomé de las Casas criticizing in this excerpt?

  • The encomienda system

  • Slavery

  • The casta system

  • Forced conversions

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51 mark

“Finally, in one word, their Ambition and Avarice, than which the heart of Man never entertained greater, and the vast Wealth of those Regions; the Humility and Patience of the Inhabitants (which made their approach to these Lands more facil and easie) did much promote the business: Whom they so despicably contemned, that they treated them (I speak of things which I was an Eye Witness of, without the least fallacy) not as Beasts, which I cordially wished they would, but as the most abject dung and filth of the Earth; and so sollicitous they were of their Life and Soul, that the above-mentioned number of People died without understanding the true Faith or Sacraments. And this also is as really true as the praecendent Narration (which the very Tyrants and cruel Murderers cannot deny without the stigma of a lye) that the Spaniards never received any injury from the Indians”

Bartolomé de las Casas, “A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies”, 1552

The argument put forward by Bartolomé de las Casas about the treatment of Indigenous peoples by conquistadores was heavily contested by

  • Juan de Oñate

  • Hernán Cortés

  • Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda

  • Francisco Pizarro

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61 mark

“Finally, in one word, their Ambition and Avarice, than which the heart of Man never entertained greater, and the vast Wealth of those Regions; the Humility and Patience of the Inhabitants (which made their approach to these Lands more facil and easie) did much promote the business: Whom they so despicably contemned, that they treated them (I speak of things which I was an Eye Witness of, without the least fallacy) not as Beasts, which I cordially wished they would, but as the most abject dung and filth of the Earth; and so sollicitous they were of their Life and Soul, that the above-mentioned number of People died without understanding the true Faith or Sacraments. And this also is as really true as the praecendent Narration (which the very Tyrants and cruel Murderers cannot deny without the stigma of a lye) that the Spaniards never received any injury from the Indians”

Bartolomé de las Casas, “A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies”, 1552

Which of the following movements most closely mirrors the arguments presented in this excerpt by Bartolomé de las Casas?

  • Gender equality

  • Abolitionism

  • Gay liberation

  • Counterculture

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