ABSTRACT
The perception held by the Spanish toward the indigenous populations increased into arrogant racism. The Spanish viewed the island’s original occupants as a primary and necessary source of laborers to work the mines, as well as to provide labor for food-crop cultivation. The Spanish successfully convinced themselves that enslavement of these inferior people, or so they were regarded, was essential for the survival of Hispaniola. They provided a guarantee of a readily available labor pool. The subjugated groups were clearly the important link that connected productive efficiency and resultant material wealth. There was hardly the concern that the dwindling native population might pose a threat to the expected continuity of the colony’s economic growth.
