Free from This Tribute: Taxation, Blackness, and Family in New Spain

One of the costs of freedom in the Spanish Americas was a royal tribute tax on families of African descent. Although all free Afrodescendants could be subjected to the tax after 1574, this form of tribute had its greatest fiscal impact in Bourbon New Spain. Genealogy, kinship, appearance, occupation, and social status (calidad) all affected tributary status from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The weight of these factors in determining who would pay tribute depended upon gender and marital status. In response to the burden of royal tribute, petitioners established familial and corporate narratives that emphasized freedom from the tax. Scholars have explored the tax exemptions achieved by militiamen throughout the empire, as well as groups of free Afrodescendant subjects in cities such as Lima and Panamá who resisted taxation. Individuals and families also argued for exemption from the tax on personal grounds. As loyal vassals already free from slavery, petitioners in New Spain frequently sought freedom from the royal tribute tax. Men were more likely to reference their lineage in these petitions, while women of color sought tax relief based on familial relationships (or poverty resulting from a lack of family ties) in the present. Bureaucrats in the royal treasury in Mexico City debated whether to count tributaries based on family units or simply as adult male taxpayers in the eighteenth century. For free men and women of color, the familial and genealogical elements of tributary status remained important tools for achieving exemption.