Economic need for labor outweighed the crown’s fears of black rebellion

Evidence

The Queen of Castile, however, had provided only a short relief for ladino workers. She died in 1504 and the colonies that had previously been exclusively administered by Castile now came under the direction of her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon. Ferdinand, who at some point became convinced that “one black could do the work of four Indians,” informed Ovando that the threat of Black rebellion was offset by the need of Black labor in the mines and plantations. From 1505 until 1522, ladino slaves increasingly replaced the native work force as the latter was decimated by the discipline of the encomienda, disease, and demoralization. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 638