Genízaros were usually women and children who had been captured in war by the Spanish or purchased from Indian tribes who had held them captive as slaves.
The support for abolishing slavery increased after José María Morelos officially included it in the Sentimientos de la Nación of 1813.
[9] Genízaros settled in several New Mexican villages, such as Belén, Tomé, Valencia, Carnuel, Los Lentes, Las Trampas, Socorro, and San Miguel del Vado.
Genízaros also lived in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú, and Las Vegas, NM.
The first known use of the word genízaro in New Mexico was in the early 1660s when a politician was accused of mistreating a genízara servant whose father was a Pueblo and whose mother was Apache-Quivira (Wichita).
Genízaro militia and scouts were important in defending New Mexico from raiding Comanche, Apache, and Navajo warriors.
[15] Genízaros were typically indigenous people who had been captured and enslaved by other Indian tribes and whom Franciscan monks were legally obligated to rescue by paying a ransom.
They founded a number of localities, such as Belén, Tomé, Valencia, Carnué, Los Lentes, Las Trampas, Socorro and San Miguel del Vado.
There were also genízaros in towns such as Albuquerque, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú and Las Vegas.
The experience of most ransomed Native Americans was "bondage on a continuum that ranged from near slavery to familial incorporation, but few shed the stigma of servility".
These settlements became buffer communities for larger Spanish towns in case of an attack by enemy tribes surrounding the province.
[20] The settlements of Tomé and Belén, just south of Albuquerque, were described by Juan Agustín Morfi as follows in 1778: "In all the Spanish towns of New Mexico there exists a class of Indians called genízaros.
They are forced to live among the Spaniards, without lands or other means to subsist except the bow and arrow which serves them when they go into the back country to hunt deer for food ...
"[21] According to DNA studies, Hispanos of New Mexico have significant proportions of Amerindian genes (between 30 and 40% of the Nuevomexicano genome) due to the interbreeding between Spanish and genízaros.
Genízaros also lived in Albuquerque, Atrisco, Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, Abiquiú, and Las Vegas, NM.