Negro In The 19th Century

Now, I often have an African American student ask me in Spanish class why Spanish uses the word “negro” for black. The first time this happened I remember the student insisting that “negro” was an English word and was used to identify her and her people, a.k.a African Americans. This was a teachable moment where I explained that during slavery, slave owners chose to identify slaves as separate beings from themselves so they were named "negros” or “darkies”, to identify them as somehow different if not lesser beings. When the Spanish conquered the new world slavery was unacceptable for the Catholic King and Queen of Spain. Queen Isabella did not want slavery to exist in the new world because they were human beings such as herself. The conquistadors wanted slavery and argued they needed to enslave the natives if they were to conquer and profit from the new world. So a compromise came about to enslave those who did not know Christ while ensuring that religious orders were sent to Christianize the people. Once the natives were Christians, they could not be enslaved, theoretically. In fact, Queen Isabella sent several religious orders to the new world. It is …show more content…
In 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) started. So for some and in some areas “colored people” replaced “negros”. As time passed and the Civil Rights era came “blacks” slowly replaced “colored” with expressions of “black pride, black power”. As for “African American” I can only assume the era of “political correctness” in the 1980’s caused the change for “black”. There as some in the "African-American" or "Black" community that do not agree with the term “African American” because as far as they are concern their lineage is very long in the Americas and they are more American, unlike others who can only trace their heritage to Ellis Island in the early