ENCYCLOPAEDIA of Rebellions

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Yanga slave rebellion 1570

Synopsis
Gaspar Yanga, an African of presumed royal lineage from Gabon, stands out as the leader of one of the longest and most successful resistance movements against slavery in Spanish America. Brought to colonial Mexico via the transatlantic slave trade during a period of intense growing demand for enslaved labor, Yanga first led a major slave rebellion on the sugar plantations of Veracruz in 1570. Following the uprising, he and a group of escaped slaves fled into the nearby mountains, where they established a self-sufficient maroon community (palenque). For nearly four decades, they resisted Spanish attempts to suppress the settlement while sustaining themselves by farming corn, squash, and tobacco, raising livestock, and raiding Spanish haciendas, farms, and trade caravans. In January 1609, amid rumors of a large-scale slave rebellion, Viceroy Luis de Velasco sent a military expedition under Captain Pedro Gonzalo de Herrera to permanently destroy the palenque. Despite being outnumbered and poorly armed, the maroons, led militarily by Francisco de la Matiza—a former Angolan slave—successfully resisted using guerrilla warfare and superior knowledge of the terrain. After nine years of intermittent conflict, Yanga negotiated peace, demanding freedom for his people, official recognition of their settlement, limited Spanish oversight, and self-governance. The Spanish authorities accepted these terms in 1618, leading to the establishment of San Lorenzo de los Negros de Cerralvo, the first legally recognized free Black town in Mexico.
Additional info

Starting date: . Ending: . Duration: 48 years. Name in sources: Rebelión de los negros cimarrones de Veracruz. Location: Yanga, Cordoba (Veracruz) Country (current): Mexico. Monarchy: Spanish. Main participants: Africans, Enslaved, Maroons. Number of participants: 250-500. Main reasons & motivations: Freedom, Maroon resistance. Leadership: Gaspar Yanga, Francisco de la Matiza. Relevance: high.

Further reading
DAVIDSON, David M. (1966). “Negro Slave Control and Resistance in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1650”. Hispanic American Historical Review, 46 (3): 235–253. LANDERS, Jane (2005). “Leadership and Authority in Maroon Settlements in Spanish America and Brazil”, in J. C. Curto, R. Soulodre-La France, Africa and the Americas. Trenton: Africa World Press, pp. 173-184. TRAVIS, Ryan Hope (2015). “Gaspar Yanga’s Maroon Society, Veracruz, Mexico”, in The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, p. 419-20.
Cite this entry

Serrão, José Vicente (2025). "Yanga slave rebellion 1570", in J. V. Serrão and M. S. Cunha (coord), Rebellions in the Early Modern Iberian World. http://atlas.cidehusdigital.uevora.pt/revolt/yanga-slave-rebellion-1570/ (accessed on 26 Março 2025).