Mercury mines at Almadén, gitanos, forzados and slaves (part 2 or 3)

Since mining mercury was so dangerous, why was anyone willing to engage in it?

That's a simple one to answer.  In the 16th through the 19th century, all the most dangerous work was done by prisoners - called "forzados" - and slaves.  This meant that the ordinary, free, miner might survive the experience.  In addition, free miners could stop work for a while if they noticed signs of mercury poisoning, which allowed the mercury to be expelled from their bodies.  Prisoners and slaves could not.

By the end of the 19th century, advancing knowledge about what caused and how to avoid mercury poisoning made the mining much safer.  In addition, there was no more slavery, and prisoners were no longer condemned to the mines.

Ruins of prison cells today, seen from above.  They were very small.

The mines were extremely important to the Spanish crown.  Spain was involved in almost constant warfare during this period and the wars were paid for from loans advanced by a wealthy German aristocratic family.  The product of the mines of Almadén were dedicated to paying off these loans, or at least the interest on them.

The slaves used in the mining were people sent there by their masters as punishment.  The prisoners were just ordinary people caught up in the law.  Starting in the 18th century and perhaps before, gitanos were sent to the mines on 20 year sentences simply for saying they were gitano, or for speaking their Romani language.  There were enough of them so that one section of the older part of the mine is named "the gitano shaft."

A model of the prison.

Other people were condemned to work in the mines for having committed crimes - sometimes petty crimes such as stealing a loaf of bread, and sometimes serious crimes, such as murdering their neighbor.

There was a large prison complex to house these unfortunate people.  They wore chains day and night.  They were chained inside their cells when in the prison and for most of this period, they went from the prison to the mines by way of a tunnel, so that they never saw the light of day.

Inside a cell, with an iron ring for attaching to the prisoner's chain.

Inside the mines and the refinery, they were sometimes chained to their tasks, especially if the work were really dangerous.

And for gitanos sentenced to those 20 years of hard labor, when the 20 years were up, they were not released because they were considered homeless vagabonds, and you could only be released if you could prove that you had a fixed home to return to.

NEXT EPISODE to appear on Sept. 27.

_______________________
We are working on a documentary (Flamenco:  la tierra está viva (Flamenco:  the Land Is Still Fertile) in which we plan to film a scene down in these mines.   Keep up with our progress by going to this LINK.