Blacks and Indians in Hispaniola

Whilst perusing Gallica's Collection Moreau Saint-Méry again, we were reminded of a series of French translations and notes on the history of the black race on the island of Hispaniola. Entitled De l'introduction des nègres à Saint-Domingue de leurs révoltes, de leur traitement, etc., it essentially covers 1502 to the early 1700s, including both the Spanish and French colonies. 

Included in it are two laws from 1573 and 1589. Both are intriguing for the tiny glimpses they provide into relations between people of Amerindian and African descent in the colony. Of course, by 1573 and 1589, there likely were not many people on the island counted as "Indian." Presumably, this included remnants of the aboriginal population of the island as well as captives and others from different parts of the Americas. Nonetheless, the 1573 law implies that people of African and indigenous ancestry were having children together, raising questions about the tax responsibility of their progeny. The later law, from 1589, implies that free and enslaved blacks were, at least in some cases, exploiting and treating indigenous women as concubines.