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Social Sciences
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Book Review
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Topic:

Power and Labor in the Encomienda and the Factory.

Book Review Instructions:

Instructions for Paper #2: Power and Labor from Las Casas to Marx
At different points in our course, we’ve observed how the privileges enjoyed by
one group are derived from the labor of another. The architectural and military
achievements that Caesar Augustus boasted of at the end of his life were realizable only
because of the Roman empire’s reliance on slavery. When Europeans in the 18th century
congregated in coffeehouses to debate issues of liberty and the rights of man, they were
sipping a beverage inextricably tied to the slave trade. Put simply, the control of labor is
part of what allows elites to remain elites.
The encomienda system, the plantations on West Indian “sugar isles,” and the
factories of the industrial era produced staggering wealth by controlling the work and
livelihood of a subordinate group. For your second paper in SS103, you will examine
these regimes of labor, their methods for obtaining control, and the ethical debates
surrounding them. Specifically, you will develop an original and cogent
argument that considers the relationship between power and labor within
the context of at least two of the regimes of labor we have seen--the
encomienda, the plantation, and the factory.
This assignment is not a research paper. Rather, it is intended to be a focused
reflection on material that we’ve read and discussed. You are not expected to consult any
sources beyond the readings and lectures from our course. That doesn’t mean that you
are forbidden from looking into matters that you think need looking into, just that it
isn’t a requirement.
Because this paper is a focused reflection—one that asks you to work within a
relatively small field but plough deep—I want to offer three general themes that your
paper could work within.
Theme #1. A line of critique that we see in Las Casas, the abbé Raynal, and Marx
and Engels is that the systems employed to control labor have effects that are
dehumanizing—the physical bodies but also the minds and spirits of workers are
degraded. Your paper might consider the moral objections to regimes of labor
made by different critics from different eras.
Theme #2. The encomienda, the plantation, and the factory had defenders as well
as critics, voices who sought to legitimate the regime of labor and the inequality it
produced. How did the Spanish make use of Aristotle’s theory of “natural” slavery
to justify the encomienda? How did scientific racism in the 18th century serve to
excuse the slave trade? What arguments did 19th century liberals make for why
conditions in British factories reflected “natural” laws of the economy? These
questions and their answers can be brought into your paper topic.
Theme #3. Power over others can be accomplished by several means, and the
works we’ve read catalogue just about all of them. Your paper might consider the
methods used by the Spanish to dominate native peoples in the New World and
the kinds of discipline factory owners employed to regulate the behavior of
workers.
I want to stress that these are merely themes for you to explore, not prompts that you
have to choose from. Feel free to cross between themes when brainstorming and
devising your paper’s argument. I want to make this assignment manageable for you—
which is why I’m pointing you toward the above themes—but I also want you to make
this assignment your own.

 

Specifically, you will develop an original and cogent  argument that considers the relationship between power and labor within  the context of at least two of the regimes of labor we have seen--the  encomienda, the plantation, and the factory.

Book Review Sample Content Preview:
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Power and Labor in the Encomienda and the Factory.
An examination of historical events demonstrates the injustices that have been committed against particular groups. The course materials indicated that the privileges enjoyed by a particular group were often derived from the labor of another. For instance, the enormous achievements of Caesar Augustus that are much celebrated today were because the Roman Empire relied on slave labor. Without the use of slave labor, Caesar Augustus would never have realized the achievements that he boasted about at the end of his life. Similarly, the Encomienda took advantage of labor to oppress indigenous people, while rewarding the colonial masters. Additionally, the factories of the industrial era created wealth for the owners via exerting control over the work and livelihood of a subordinate group. Despite the popularity of the Encomienda and the factory systems, a line of critics emerged. Some of the notable people that were outspoken about the oppression of the people. These individuals were opposed to the use of labor to enrich a few people. They voiced their concerns through writing in an attempt to influence society to realize the need to abandon the oppression of laborers. Both A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas and The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are two documents that present compelling arguments against the dehumanizing of the workers.
Las Casas gives an account of the mistreatments committed against the indigenous people of the Americas during the colonial period. He does this by demonstrating how the arrival of Spaniards into the “new world” has marked the start of an unprecedented collision of cultures. Las Casas considers how the colonialists subdued the natives through torture and brutal murder. After such fights, the colonial masters would take the surviving natives, usually the young boys, women, and children, and share between the victors. The men would then be sent “down the mines, where working conditions were appalling, to dig for gold…” (Las Casas 24). Further, women would be required to work in the estates of the masters, where they would till the soil and raise the crops. The women are forced to undertake jobs that are ordinarily supposed to be done by the strongest men. While the men and women do the jobs, they are ill-fed. The laborers are provided with unnutritional foods like wild grasses to each. Women watch their children die since they cannot breastfeed them properly. As the men die in the mines due to overwork, the same happens to the women in the estate fields.
Since Las Casas has witnessed the atrocities committed against the indigenous people, he demonstrates that the Encomienda system is defective. He demonstrates how the system has allowed the vast accumulation of wealth by the conquistadors and ultimately the Spanish crown. The two have benefited from the discovery of precious minerals like gold and silver. They have taken advantage of the availability of these materials in the “New World” and labor from the indigenous people. Las Casas exposes the view of the Spanish towards the indigenous people. In ...
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