Slavery In The Territories and Today's Slaves
Gary Ayres-Staff

6 February 2004

Arizona saw little action during the War Between the States. Arizona furnished few men to either side. This was not unusual since there were no more than a handful of white settlers in the entire territory.

Remember that Arizona was part of the New Mexico territory and the southern portion of Arizona, known as the Gadsden Purchase, which was created into a territory of the Confederacy.

In 1857, the New Mexico territory had passed a law prohibiting free negroes within its boundaries. Also in 1859 it passed a law protecting "slave property".

These laws were repealed in 1865, 66 and 67. Bear in mind that the US was losing the war and made slavery the issue to boost its war effort. During all this time they promoted slavery, even admitted a new slave state into the Union. But there was another kind of slavery continuing in this territory and continued into the 20th century.

This other type of slavery was with the Mexican peons. Now according to law, the peons were not slaves, but in actuality they were by a simple practice forced upon them. This simple practice was that a man would sell his services to his master for debt and could not leave his service as long as in debt. When looked into, about the only difference between the negro slave and the peon was that the negro slave was bought and sold on the open market. It has been said the negro slave had it better than the peon because the master of the slave had to feed and cloth him, even after he was too old to work. This has been said by ex-slaves themselves.

You may ask why I say the Mexican peons were in fact slaves? The law in New Mexico concerning contracts between the master and servants was one thing, but in practice it was far from a good thing. The peon received just a few dollars a month. Out of these few dollars he had to buy his and his family's clothing, food, and pay for rent and medicines. Many of these "masters" kept stores on their property where the servants or peons could buy anything they needed for their families. It was not unusual for the "masters" to charge a much higher price than market value. So, the peon, getting such little pay for his work, and his family not being able to live, was forced into debt and remained there until his death. Many times the peon's children were sold into servitude to help pay the debts and the whole circle was repeated. It must be remembered that the "master" did not have to maintain the peon or his family as the "master" did his negro slaves as they grew old. The old peon was just cast out.

Also remember this is the way it was before, during, and after the War Between the States. Remember also this was done under the U. S. government and was a factor in keeping New Mexico with the Union and not casting itself with the newly formed government of the Confederacy.

Stop and think -- is this happening today? The answer is yes! We buy products every day that are produced by child and slave labor. U. S. companies, wanting a bigger profit have gone to foreign countries for the cheap labor. In some cases the products are cheaper, but less jobs here, because the US companies have moved out of country. So in essence, slavery, servitude, peonage or whatever name you want to put on it, the system continues. We are the "masters" of cheap foreign labor, while being slaves of big business and this government.

Mr. Ayres is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Military Order of Stars & Bars. Gary is a 13th generation American of Scotch, French and Swedish decent. He has been married ( 1 time) 27 years with two daughters and three grandchildren.