PEONAGE. A term loosely used to denote the system of labor formerly prevalent in Span ish America. and especially in Mexico. The sys tem originated in the desire of the Spanish Gov ernment to protect the natives from the rapacity of their conquerors. In Mexico the Indians were early given all the privileges of minors, and as such were exempt from compulsory military service. the payment of tithes. aside from a mod crate annual tribute, and certain ecclesiastical and legal restrictions, and the royal officials were especially charged with their protection. These privileges and exemptions, however, served equal ly well as a mark of inferiority, and their natu ral protectors often took advantage of their help less political and social condition to force them into virtual slavery. The labor required of the proses, as these Indians were called, was of two kinds; the free labor (aim jes) - a system under which the laborer served by definite contract, with the days of service, tasks, compensation, etc., strictly regulated by the laws of the Indies; and forced labor, as punishment for crime or debt. With time administration of the law in the hands of corrupt officials. it was comparatively easy to extend almost. indefinitely the number of the second class, and with the requirement that each lnNsut must perform a certain number of days' work each year. the condition of laborers of the first class was far from being one of free contract. During the latter period of the Span ish rule many restrictions were adopted to prevent the Indians from falling into debt, and the conduct of employers was so strictly regulated that the condition of the natives was much better than during the first years of Mexican inde pendence.
The principal evils of the system arose from the strict segregation in separate villages of the Indians, which kept from them any opportuni ties to advance by more intimate contact with a superior race, and which speedily nullified the first feeble efforts to educate them; and from the feeling of race contempt which their isolated and defenseless condition engendered in their masters. Though in a legal sense the institution itself long since disappeared, the name peon is still used to designate the laborer of native or mixed blood. and through his ignorance and credulity many of the worst features of the system are yet fastened him. The system as then preyai1 in. in Mexico %survived in New Mexico and Arizona a few years after the annexation of the Southwest to the United States, but was re moved by national enactment March 2, 1867. Recent revelations have shown that the worst features of the convict labor system of the South. especially as applied to negro prisoners, closely parallel some of the most flagrant evils of early Spanish-American peonage. and consequently that term has been used. though not with strict accu racy, to designate the condition of these convicts.