O'Reilly's 1769 decree, and the "part-Indian negro" loophole (Spanish Louisiana, December 7, 1769, and the 1773 census)

SUMMARYO'Reilly's 1769 decree, and the "part-Indian negro" loophole (Spanish Louisiana, December 7, 1769, and the 1773 census) [Connections: Gulf, Louisiana, Texas & Mexico, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDGovernor Alejandro O'Reilly "issued a decree on December 7, 1769, which banned the trade of Native American slaves" (Hall 1992, cited by Wikipedia). Its wording "did not require slaveholders to free enslaved Native Americans or their enslaved descendants." By the 1773 census, enslavers "began reporting holding 'part-Indian negro' slaves," which let them keep those people enslaved (Blackbird 2023, William and Mary Quarterly 80:3, pp. 535–537, as cited). Leila K. Blackbird's abstract says Indigenous enslavement continued through a "discursive practice of Indigenous erasure," and that Native people were trafficked across the Gulf South "into the antebellum period."

PATTERNThe ban made Native slavery illegal on paper, so enslavers relabeled Native people as "negro" to keep them. Reclassification was the enslavers' legal workaround

LENS (WW9)When the law said "Indians can't be slaves," the paper said "negro." That is the rename in action

OPENThe full Blackbird article is paywalled. Get the 1773 census entries and the exact decree text (AGI or Louisiana archives)

SOURCEHistory of slavery in Louisiana (Wikipedia); Blackbird, "'It Has Always Been Customary to Make Slaves of Savages'" (abstract, OIEAHC). The quoted title is the source's colonial language, not ours.