continued, though more and more with mestizos, particularly with those who had grown white. While the intermarriage with darker mestizos came to be more and more discountenanced by the higher classes, alliances with negro admixtures actually received a check from the law itself.[1] This open stigma cast upon a race numbering nearly half a million, and that as late as 1805, was hardly a judicious measure. The negro classes for that matter had ever been subject to limitations as degrading as those applying to Indians. Even the sacred profession was wholly closed to them; they must reside with recognized employers under penalty of being consigned to mines or contractors; and the women could not wear silks, gold, and similar articles unless allied to whites. Yet this population ranked among the most useful in the country for its strength and energy. Aware of their superiority, they looked down on the Indians, and were not a little encouraged in this respect by the evident preference accorded them by female aborigines, who were allured also by their greater vivacity.[2] Slaveholders no doubt favored an inclination that increased their chattels with such vigorous specimens, superior also in certain moral traits, for the latter possessed greater boldness, or rather audacity, zambos being more vicious than mulattoes.
The creoles in particular were anxious to keep back intruders from the lower ranks, and to maintain the restrictions even against fairer mestizos, on the ground that their vindictiveness and arrogance might imperil the safety of Spaniards and the authority of the crown; not considering that as much or more peril lay in fostering the ignorance, misery, and hatred of an able and powerful class, ever growing stronger. The government nevertheless found it necessary to make certain concessions to the latter; yet these were not
