It's all in the details

In a nutshell, during this month I’m attempting to gather sufficient primary material to allow for solid reconstruction of Spanish colonial economic and political structures in order to understand the interaction between those structures and the individuals that maintained and changed those structures. Doing so should allow for evaluation of maintenance/creation of tradition.

A variety of sections in the AGN offer useful material, but so far the only sections with extensive details that have not been studied by UWF scholars are Archivo Historico de Hacienda and Historia. In other words, these two have been studied to some extent, and I’ve gathered new material in other sections, but my contribution to understanding of Spanish Pensacola will largely come from these two sections.

Archivo Historico de Hacienda contains financial details. Unless otherwise noted, page counts and dates refer to Windward-specific material: 424 pages of 1734-1735, 134 pages of 1763 New Spain’s Cargo and Datta, 20 pages of 1702, 258 pages of 1730s-1740s, 193 pages of Windward Fleet 1640s-1720s, 29 pages 1703-1722 Extraordinario funds to Windward fleet, 710 pages 1726-1761, 163 pages 1753-1763, and 308 pages 1717-1721. Thus 1702, 1717-1721, and 1734-1735 are gloriously accounted for, but there don’t seem to be any obvious holes in the coverage (total: 2105 pages), but I’ll definitely scan other Royal Caja material to lead to 1763 (another 134 pages).

Historia material I have so far, which includes but not limited to Pensacola: Volume 298 offers 531 pages 1689-1778, Volume 486 includes 787 pages 1752-1755, and Volume 571 has 933 pages 1756-1764. Clear gap here is everything up to 1752, though Volume 298 focuses heavily on seventeenth century, so finding more volumes of 1698-1751 is my #2 priority after finishing 50 volumes of other sections.

Accessing Mexico's National Archives

Mexico’s National Archive is conveniently located a few blocks from the TAPO bus station (which has a metro stop) and on a corner that intersects a variety of bus routes.

Odd security measures restrict access. As with any Mexican federal building, Merely getting into the building requires a Photo ID, signature, and stashing anything you can’t fit in a pocket/purse in a locker. You can carry a laptop in (as well as power cord and a few sheets of paper), but have to register it and show that form to compare with the serial number. To access documents, you need a referral letter from your University. There seem to be exceptions, and they didn’t even really look at mine, but that’s the official stance. You also fill out a form about your topic, contact info, and sign your understanding of federal laws without a discussion of what those laws are. Finally, the AGN reserves the right to two copies of anything you publish using their material. The National Library has essentially the same practice for their Special Collections, and to access anything there you have to fill out a form and provide a photo ID.

I asked about copying material to microfilm and was told that copying required a few days worth of permission and effort, so they discouraged requests. Before I could look too disappointed, the official said that non-flash photos of the documents were perfectly acceptable. I’ve averaged between 800 and 900 a day, and several other researchers seem to fit a similar range, so I really can’t figure out what they gain by this.

Laminating your ID card is a good idea, and can be done for a few pesos at certain Papelerias that are easy enough to find. One across from the Archive’s entrance sells batteries and cloth gloves ($20 pesos) as well as latex ($8 pesos). If your camera doesn’t recharge, get rechargeable batteries (a few hundred pesos, depending), as batteries are more expensive here.

The online guide to the AGN provides citation information and summaries for the majority of holdings, and several sections are scanned. The card catalog only serves a few sections-- Cedulas Reales Duplicadas y Originales, Correspondencia Virreyes, and isolated Indios and General de Parte. You can only request documents based on citation information. Archivists will help you find information but they’re often overwhelmed by requests. Various guides were published in the 1950s, but there is not much demand for them so they aren’t sold in the AGN. I tracked a few down in the National Library at UNAM, but they weren’t too helpful. Others are held at other libraries but full sets are rare.

The archivists prefer a few requests at once from you because it saves them plenty of time, but don’t request more than 5 at once, as they’ll simply not get more for you. If you only know the volume number, specify either “all expedientes” or simply “todo,” as several Archivo Historico de Hacienda volumes are split up based on expedientes. Occasionally there will be two volumes in that section with the same number—specify you’re not sure and want all of them. Turn in a slip of paper with your Archive ID badge for a request, and remember to turn material in and ask for your id back if you need to leave the room. Small bathrooms are in each document room, as are computers with access to the online guide, but you can’t use the internet in the document rooms. Within the building are little outdoor areas you can take a quick break, and there’s a gift shop that connects to an area where free wireless is provided. Mexico City itself is largely wireless now, too.

The building houses an interesting exhibit about Mexican Independence, and seems to be starting the renovating process. Guards are scattered throughout the Archive, including one for each document room to make sure everyone is a recognized researcher.

That said, I have returned from lunch without showing my id and a VIP tour went through the Colonial Documents room and even filmed storage areas. Also, a stray cat more than once has made it to the entrance of his choice of rooms.

5 days of research

I’m making plenty of progress with my list of Pensacola-related material—latest count is 4200 scans of 22 volumes, plus another 20+ skimmed.

Archivo Historico de Hacienda offers glorious financial details. For example, one volume is about 500 pages of 4 years of Windward Fleet finances. I went through Volumes 472, 967, 1117, (an expediente from 1118), 1184, 1306, 1318, 1738, 1739, and 1749, often photographing entire volumes. Between these and other sources, including French documents, Pensacola's economic status can be more accurately summarized, compared to other areas, and evaluated in the context of particular events.

I went through all Correspondencia de Virreyes volumes, stopping at those that date to mid 1770s. Because this section started in the 1750s, that’s only a few. These volumes include Viceroy letters to the Council of the Indies, in which the Viceroy offers detailed summaries about the goings-on. I haven’t found too much here that wasn’t covered in more detail in other material, but using it as a springboard for more details is certainly possible.

Tierras 911 and 1085 describe land granted to the Pensacola Indians in Veracruz, Mexico from the 1760s to 1780s. I photographed all of both of them, and read a few other Tierra volumes. Indiferente de Guerra 260B is critical— it details the military status of Pensacola and Havana in the few years before 1763. Another full volume on the flash drive!

Reales Cedulas Originales are likely largely available in Seville’s Archive of the Indies. It’s a good place to start, as Royal Orders serve as good critiques of goings-on. This section and General de Parte are...well…general, so I’m doing other material first. For that reason, I’ve only gone through volumes 38 and 40 of Reales Cedulas Originales because each of those hinted at material of the Native American chiefs setting out from Pensacola to visit the Viceroy and receive titles. There’s also Reales Cedulas Duplicadas, only one volume of which turned up Pensacola-related material in an internet search.

Historia is an interesting section that offers detailed insight and summaries of various events deemed important. Sort of like Barcia’s Chronological History of the Continent of Florida, except more detailed and with appended documents rather than merely summaries. For example, volume 298 contains extensive primary material (Royal Orders and such) about the response to La Salle’s efforts, because that’s the time period covered by that volume. That volume alone proves that France and Spain were at each other's throats, constantly and frequently, even in the 1710s before war was declared in 1719. Hopefully I'll turn that into an article or presentation. I finished volume 298, started 436, and will finish that as well as volumes 1 and 571.

After those, I will go through the next detailed section—Correspondencia de Diversas Autoridades Volumes 2-10 and 20 have great Pensacola-related material. Volumes in Reales Cedulas Originales (23, 24, 26-29, 31, 32, 34, 41-43, 45, 47, D47, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56-59, 61, 68, 69, 77-84, 89, 93, 100, 106, 117, and 234) and General de Parte (20, 21, 26, 30, 33, 37-39, 41-44, 47, and 70) won’t take more than a few days because each volume has a useful index to make double-checking the internet searches easy. 17 other volumes-- a few each in Indios, Jesuitas, Provincias Internas, Templos y Conventos, Carceles y Presidios, Bandos, Caminos y Calzadas, and Casas de Moneda-- will take another few days. Inquisition, Indiferente Virreinal, and Marina are scanned online, but some of those scans are useless so I’ll double check and photograph as needed.

Tomorrow, though, I’m going to libraries to consult (probably photograph) guides of various AGN sections. This, coupled with the 100ish volumes I’m going through personally thanks to internet searches and previous research, should offer a reasonable guarantee of everything essential to First Spanish Pensacola. I should have 5-7 days to track down various people, go through the Maps section, and otherwise see what else I can accomplish.

Progress After Three Days

Before I left for Mexico, I searched through the AGN site for material that UWF did not possess. At the National Archive I’ve been going through every volume that popped up either in the search or in our collection. After that's done, I'll probably look at AGN guides in the National Library in central Mexico City and plug in every name and date I have into the AGN guide's search engine.

2 “series” exist for Correspondencia de Virreyes which isn’t listed either in Coker’s notes or anywhere I noticed on the AGN site so I was a little confused and annoyed when the archivist asked me “Which series?” All volumes are the Viceroy writing or forwarding material to the King, the Council of the Indies, or a Minister directly. Some of this material is probably in Spain’s Archive of the Indies (AGI). In UWF collections of AGI documents, I found a letter or two that responded to letters I found in Coker’s small collection of documents from this volume.
The first Viceregal series is vaguely schizophrenic: Volume 1 1755-1759, Volume 2 1664-1665, Volume 3 1758, Volume 4 1766-1771, Volume 5 October 1771 to end of 1773, and Volume 6 1771-1773. I photographed expedients in Volumes 1, 3, and 4; found nothing of interest in volumes 5-6; and stopped there. Series 2 was more lucrative, I photographed material in Volumes 2 (1757), 4 (1759), and 5. Volume 3 seemed to have started to burn before someone doused in with water-- the resulting damage made it a little uncertain as to whether or not anything relevant is there.

Material in Tierras details San Carlos on the Chachalacas River near La Antigua Veracruz, where the Apalachee and Yamassee settled after they left Pensacola due to the 1763 Treaty of Paris. I photographed everything to that end from Volumes 911, 1085, and 2780 for a total of 349 pages. Nothing interesting was in volume 466 or 690. I got caught up in material in 3543 dating from 1769-1776s describes the foundation of a new town by blacks that worked as slaves at San Juan de Ulua. Going through that and other volumes won't be directly relevant but will evidence interesting changing class and status issues in New Spain.

Archivo Historico de Hacienda has lots of great financial details. I started to go through volume 472 which so far has a a few pages about St. Augustine. I photographed part of Volume 967 which has Windward Fleet financial details from 1734-1735 and also grabbed Volume 1117's summary of New Spain's status in 1763 (finances for every Real Caja, status of each mission and presidio, a very informative read). I also photographed the entirety of volume 1306 that is Windward Fleet from 1650s to 1719-ish. A few more volumes in this section left to go.

I started Reales Cedulas Originales by photographing relevant material from Volume 38 and went through the online index of Volume 40. Tomorrow I should finish Archivo Historico de Hacienda and start with Reales Cedulas Originales—next week is General de Parte and other sections I haven’t started looking at yet.

Beginnings

Culture shock during the first weekend wasn´t terribly bad, but I´m glad I planned on flying in to give me time to adjust before heading to the Archive. My host family is awesome. A friend of mine I met in Xalapa, Veracruz recommended I stay with his friend, who has interests similar to mine (Firefly, Halo, etc) and speaks a little English. His cousin works at the airport, speaks English rather well, and gave us a ride to the house on Friday, before we headed to a pub crawl birthday party. I managed to keep up with conversations until we got to the louder, second bar.

Today my new friend went with me to the Archive to make sure I figured out the bus system and paperwork okay. Registering prompted him to say "It´s still pretty much a prison!" I had to sign a few forms, sit at a computer to make sure the forms were entered correctly, and be photgraphed and fingerprinted. I set off the metal detector and no one cared, though, so who knows. Got a lecture about making copies, which worried me for a minute until I realized it amounted to needing to ask for permission and wait several days for copies or microfilm to be made. Ideally I can still request several microfilms worth of material.

Either the flight or Windows Update damaged my computer´s hard drive, but an extended family member here is a computer engineer and should have it fixed soon. Instead of continuing at the Archive during the afternoon without my computer I went to the center of Mexico City to see if I could snag any good books on Calle Donceles, a colonial street right behind the Aztec Templo Mayor. Wandering around on my own was great; I never get lost, I only go exploring.

I was surprised to see a reasonably-priced hardcover Juan Pardo Expeditions (for $300 pesos, with I think another 20% discount) tucked between various editions of Bartholeme de las Casas and Cabeza de Vaca. In another store I bought an edited volume about 18th century blacks in Mexico which confirms, in some cases with particularly convincing statistics, the idea that the caste system was never more than a guideline. Various authors use local archives to paint the picture of societies in Veracruz, Oaxaca, and other cities, very similar to Shannon Lee Dawdy´s use of the Louisiana Superior Council records. Carrying a book about African Mexicans while playing "spot another gringo" was mildly entertaining, but the book will surely help my interpretations of Pensacola as an extension of Mexican society and follow Dawdy´s idea of "rogue colonialism." Tucked away in the AGN somewhere should be documentation at a level corresponding to this and other research into societies at the local level.

I´ll update with a few photos, hopefully from my own computer. I have the most important files on my flash drive, so either way I´ll finally sit down tomorrow with the original colonial documents.

Introduction

During the month of October I'm going through Mexico's National Archives (AGN) in Mexico City to recover original Spanish documents not possessed by UWF, in particular those relevant to my thesis research into frontier manifestations and negotiations of Spanish, French, and Apalachee identity. Specifically, I hope to identify exactly how French and Spanish colonial societies differed and how those differences affected groups of Apalachee Indians allied with French Mobile and Spanish Pensacola.

The AGN to me seems an under-utilized resource for my and other projects relating to Spanish Pensacola. Historians, with some exceptions, focus their work on the Archive of the Indies (AGI), where extensive summaries and occasionally copies of material relating to all Spanish colonies ended up. The AGN instead only possesses material generated in or sent to New Spain, but the actual documents rather than summaries, so any non-religious correspondence relating to Pensacola should be there. St. Augustine had closer ties to Cuba, which also headed Franciscan efforts in Spanish Florida.

British-sponsored attacks on Florida destroyed the Apalachee province in 1704-- these Indians fled to Pensacola, St. Augustine, the Creek Indians, or French Mobile. After that point, Spaniards attempted to reconnect St. Augustine and Pensacola with very limited success. People moved between the two towns, but military personnel in Pensacola had more in common with the Presidio of Carmen in Campeche, Mexico after that garrison's 1717 reestablishment. A large group of Apalachee felt safer being among a dozen French-allied Native American groups but those that settled near Pensacola were tempted by Spanish rations, gifts, titles, and Catholicism.

Check back for updates regarding my research, as well as posts about Mexico City archaeology, history, and anything that strikes me as interesting.