Melungeon-L Archives

Archiver > Melungeon > 2005-12 > 1134563731


From: "Dennis Maggard" <>
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] Spanish Presence in North America
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:35:31 -0500
References: <000601c6006f$eb76a930$6401a8c0@charlie1>


From: "ljcrain" <>

> I don't think Helen's statement "Thousands and thousands of Spanish" is an
exaggeration. One Spanish colony alone had almost 4,000 mixed blood people.
>
> Janet Crain

Quite right you are, Janet. I found the following demographic data for New
Spain, which is to say Spanish North America:

Demography: New Spain, 1570-1793

1570 1646 1742
1793

Amerindians 3,336,860 1,269,607 1 ,540,256 2,319,741

Born in Spain 6,644 13,780 9,814 7,904

Criollos 11,067 168,586 391,512 677,458

Mestizos 2,437 109,042 249,368 418,568

Blacks 20,569 35,089 20,131 6,100

Mulattos 2,435 116,529 266,196 369,790

Total 3,380,012 1,712,615 2,477,277 3,799,561


Important note: Criollos were people of Spanish descent born in the New
World. Thus by 1793 we not only have an influx of colonists from Spain
which certainly ran well into the tens of thousands but also many hundreds
of thousands of native born Spaniards.

Closer to the American Southeast, St. Augustine, Florida was found in 1565
with an initial population of 1,500 and was continuously occupied
thereafter; and although eventually abandoned, the Spanish colony of Santa
Elena in South Carolina had a population of 400 in 1580. The Spanish were
also spread across north Florida and maintained a presence in the interior
of the Southeast, and the Spanish navy regularly patrolled the coastal
waters as far north as Chesapeake Bay.

Dennis


This thread: