Peasants and Peons in New Mexico AND the United States in the Mid 1800's

The first image is a photo titled "peon". And the second image is of a peasant, click on them to make them larger.

The early history of New Mexico's people dealing with "Americans" begins just prior to the Spanish being expelled from New Mexico by the new rulers of the soon to be named "Mexico". So in reality New Mexico was here before the country of Mexico came into being. Mexico came into being in the early 1800 as it aquired it's independance from Spain and New Mexico was already New Mexico in the mid to late 1500's. Anyway, just prior to the overthrow of the Spanish New Mexico had begun to see "Americans". They came first as trappers and then as traders on the Santa Fe Trail.

And make no mistake about it, the traders, in particular, were spies first and traders second. They were carrying back to the "States" stories of the wealth, or lack therof, in New Mexico. New Mexico's strengths and weaknesses. They tended to refer to the people here, my ancestors, as peasants or peons. They used these words in pejorative terms. Wikepedia defines this as "Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. The adjective pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous. When used as a noun, pejorative means "a belittling or disparaging word or expression".

I have always wondered if there were any peasants in Kearney's Army of the West?  Were there any peons in Kearney's Army of the West? Were there any pesants or peons back in the "states"? Anyway, do a search on Google and you will soon see that there were indeed both peasants and peons in the "states" back in the mid 1800's. A lot more than in New Mexico as the population of the "States", as compared to New Mexico, was huge. Huge! But they did not refer to them as such. Only Mexicans were pesants and peons.

Anyway, I never heard the term pesant when I was growing up. But I did hear the term peon. And it was not a bad word. It was used to describe a worker. And not someone held against their will. My grandfather would sometimes refer to us as his peon's. Always with affection. But it goes to show how the word can be used by different folks and give it a completely different meaning. But I will have to admit that using the dictionary meaning for the terms, a lot of my ancestors were, in non-pejorative terms, pesants and peons.