The French Revolution set the pace for the world's movements in the last
decade of the eighteenth century and spread the seeds of many more in
the century to come. Pamphlets, books and proclamations coming to Spain
from France opened the eyes of the people to evils, which in their
loyalty to the throne and to the traditions of the country they had
never dared to perceive. The corruption of her court, the ruin of her
finances, the incompetency of her statesmen and her generals were
revealed to the population and stirred sullen resentment. Demoralization
seemed to have set in and threatened to dismember the once all-powerful
kingdom. To the profligate Godoy was in a great measure attributed the
degradation of the country and an atmosphere of conspiracy pervaded even
the royal palace, from which patriotic plotters, resentful of Spain's
humiliation, hoped soon to chase the favorite of the queen, who with
supreme unconcern continued to fill his pockets from the royal treasury
and to live in his wonted extravagance and dissipation. The forces of
the French Republic had occupied the frontier forts and seemed to find
little or no resistance. The fate of the royal Bourbons of France struck
terror in the souls of the royal Bourbons of Spain, and the flight of
the king and his family from Madrid was daily expected.
Even to the overseas possessions of France and Spain had the influence
of the liberating movement extended and awakened the indolent and
indifferent creoles to the realization of wrongs they had suffered at
the hands of their mother countries. Moreover, the gospel of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity had reached the ears of those who had for
centuries silently borne oppression and had been made to believe that
serfdom was to be their fate forever. Already in 1791 the news of the
outbreak of the Revolution had been acclaimed by the slaves in Santo
Domingo and followed by revolt and violence against the life and the
property of their masters. When in 1794 the Convention declared the
abolition of slavery in the colonies of the Republic, the floodgates of
insurrection were opened. For Old Hispaniola, divided between two
foreign powers, populated by races antagonistic to one another, was a
fertile soil for any revolutionary propaganda. As early as 1762 there
were three negroes to one Frenchman in the northern part of the island;
and these negroes whom a Jesuit priest of the time declared to be fit
only for slavery, hated all other races and castes: the whites, the free
negroes and the mulattoes.
But even among this ignorant and superstitious race there were
individuals that rose far above the average in intelligence and had by
association with the more advanced and privileged castes and races
acquired certain achievements. They were men who had done some thinking
of their own and perhaps by their relation of servant to master learned
to know the faults and weaknesses of the latter far better than they
knew their own. When these men caught the ring of the magic three words,
a world of possibilities opened before them, and they embraced the
message they conveyed with the eagerness of people desperate from and
resentful of iniquities, real and imaginary. Their brains were afire
with hatred and revenge and it needed only a great leader to organize
this powerful army of malcontents into a horde of fiends. That leader
came to them in the person of the ex-coachman, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a
man of exceptional gifts and abilities, who with the one-track mind of
the idealist-fanatic had but one aim and pursued but one goal: the
liberation of his race.
The war between the French republic and Spain had naturally called forth
hostilities between the two parts of the island inhabited on one side by
French, on the other by Spaniards. The negro insurgents saw their
opportunity and did not let it go by without exploiting it for their
purposes. The unfortunate jealousies between the President and
Captain-General of Santo Domingo and the General of the Navy,
Aristizabel, who had captured Bayaja, had weakened the Spanish forces,
and when they attempted to take Guarico, they had to retire at Yazique
before a force of five hundred undisciplined negroes. This encouraged
the negro commanders and in quick succession they captured San Rafael
and Las Caobas, and had the satisfaction to see San Miguel, Bonica and
Incha evacuated before they even reached these places. Bayaja was
strongly fortified and garrisoned; but the climate of that place being
very unhealthy, the Spanish troops were decimated by sickness, until
they numbered only about four hundred men. The negro general Juan
Francisco on the other hand could increase his troops at will. In order
to enforce the Spanish it was proposed to send them a regiment of white
Frenchmen. Seven legions of these men arrived at Bayaja on the morning
of the seventh of July, 1794. But Juan Francisco surprised the place
half an hour before, and placing artillery in the principal streets and
squares, informed the commandant that all white Frenchmen were to leave
Bayaja before three o'clock that afternoon. When the commandant
remonstrated saying that the time was too short to provide barges for
their transportation, the negro leader left the government house and
gave the signal for the massacre of all Frenchmen in the place. The
terrible slaughter lasted until far into the afternoon, when the
governor and the venerable priest of the place so urgently implored the
negro troops to have mercy, that they moderated their savage rage.
While this wholesale murder, which cost the lives of seven hundred and
forty-two Frenchmen, not counting those who were drowned in flight, was
going on in the streets, military conferences were held at which, after
some irresolute wrangling, it was decided to withdraw to Fuerte Dolfin,
about five hundred varas (rods) distant from Bayaja, in order to save
the garrison from being at the mercy of a negro mob, intoxicated with
the victory won over their adversaries. They succeeded in holding Fuerte
Dolfin, until Bayaja itself was evacuated by Juan Francisco on the
thirteenth of July. The loss of the Spanish troops, including deserters
and those that died from privations, was about three thousand men. The
national treasury suffered during the revolt a defalcation of some fifty
thousand pesos. The negroes were at first charged with the embezzlement
of that sum, but there were rumors to the contrary, which in view of the
only too well-known turpitude of many colonial officials, were quite
plausible.
The peace concluded between Spain and the French republic at Basilea
(Basle) on the twenty-second of July, 1795, and published in Madrid on
the sixth of November, terminated Spanish rule on the island, Spain
ceding her part of Santo Domingo to the French Republic. The people of
Spain welcomed this peace, as they would have hailed any other. To the
part played in the negotiations by Manuel Godoy was due his title
"Prince of Peace." In the elation of the moment the court even
remembered Aranda, Florida Blanca, Cabarrus and Jovellanos, the able
statesmen and faithful patriots who had been imprisoned or exiled, and
granted them full amnesty. Yet this treaty of Basilea was the official
admission of the decline of Spain's power. It heralded the gradual
disintegration of her colonial possessions, where, as some authorities
assert, British intrigue sowed the seeds of discord and discontent. When
two years later, in February, 1797, the Spanish fleet, although superior
in vessels and artillery, was defeated by the British in the battle of
Cape St. Vincent off the south point of Portugal, the ruin of the
kingdom was complete. The total income between 1793 and 1796 was
twenty-four hundred and forty-five millions of reals; the total
expenses, thirty-seven hundred and fourteen millions; the debt amounted
to more than twelve hundred millions. The annual deficit was eight
hundred millions. The paper money in circulation amounted to nineteen
hundred and eighty millions. Such was the financial status of the royal
bankrupt.
If the peace of Basilea had temporarily brought satisfaction and
lightened the burden of anxiety, the defeat at Cape St. Vincent sufficed
once more to cloud the horizon. The capture of Rome by the French in
1798 and the proclamation of a republic in place of the papal
sovereignty, plunged Spain into a state of panic. Cabinet ministers
succeeded one another with bewildering rapidity. Even Jovellanos, who
had been recalled to restore order in the disorganized department of
justice, was unable to cope with the chaotic situation. Enormous sums
were being continually wasted. Of eighteen hundred and thirty-three
millions spent in 1799, the royal court alone had used one hundred and
five, the department of war nine hundred and thirty-five, finance four
hundred and twenty-eight, foreign affairs forty-six, and the department
of justice only seven! Every branch of the administration was filled
with the minions of Godoy, who was now related to the royal house,
having espoused the daughter of the Infante Don Luis. His annual
revenues amounted to one million reals. The elements themselves seemed
to be in conspiracy against what had once been the greatest power in
Europe. The failure of crops, famine, epidemics and earthquakes filled
the minds of the superstitious with vague terrors.
Cuba was at that time too much engrossed in the attempt to continue on
the path of progress to be seriously affected by the fate of Spain. The
insurrection of Santo Domingo had brought the eventuality of internal
trouble so close to her door, that she did not dare to look across the
ocean for more sources of apprehension. Yet the revolt of the
neighboring island had also its advantages for Cuba. At the first
outbreak of hostilities against the French, many French refugees had
fled to Cuba. They were followed by others and after the massacre of
Bayaja even by Spaniards and by colored women. This French element which
settled in Santiago and Havana became a valuable factor in the
population of the island. A French traveler and writer, Vicomte Gustave
d'Hespel d'Harponville, says about it in his book "La Reine des
Antilles":
"They brought to Cuba the remnants of their wealth, some slaves, but
especially their knowledge, their experience and their activity. From
that moment the two great Antilles changed rôles: San Domingo lapsed
into barbarism, Cuba placed her foot in the chariot of fortune."
The French settlers were industrious laborers and skilled artisans and
as such were highly valued by economists who had been anxious to
increase Cuba's insufficient labor supply by the introduction of white
labor. Even the women among them were workers, in strange contrast to
the Cuban women, who were given to tropical indolence. Many of these
French "Dominicans" established themselves as nurses, laundresses and
seamstresses. In education, too, these newcomers were far above the
average Havanese; a difference which foreign travelers were quick to
detect and to comment upon. The French settlements southeast of Havana,
in the environs of Matanzas, Santiago and Baracoa, became such centers
of activity, industrial and otherwise, that the Spanish, who had
persisted in their habitual indolence and indifference, became jealous,
which in time resulted in some friction and unpleasant disturbances.
The definite loss of Santo Domingo to Spain caused also a great change
in ecclesiastical affairs. The archbishopric was removed to Santiago de
Cuba. Havana and Puerto Rico remained "suffragans," i.e. subject to the
other. About that time there was established a territorial tribunal in
Puerto Principe.
[Illustration: TOMAS ROMAY
One of the foremost figures in the great Cuban awakening at the close of
the eighteenth century was Dr. Tomas Romay, physician and scientist, who
was born in Havana on December 21, 1764, and died on March 30, 1849. He
greatly aided the two good Governors, Las Casas and Someruelos, in their
labors for the betterment of Cuba; with the help of Bishop Espada he
introduced vaccination into the island; he was prominent in the Society
of Friends of Peace, and did much for education, agriculture, and other
interests of the Cuban people. Among his writings was a monograph on
yellow fever which attracted world-wide attention. His earnest
patriotism involved him in violent controversies in the troublous times
of 1820-1823, from which he emerged in triumph and in universal honor.]
Everything seemed to combine at that period to promote the growth and
assure the future welfare of Cuba. The government of Las Casas, with its
wonderful awakening among the citizens of a sense of civic
responsibility and opportunity, was one of those epochs which seem to
form a pivot around which past and future revolve. It was impossible to
consider it in its full value and significance without comparing it with
the past out of which it had developed, and taking note of the progress
it signalized. Nor was it possible to forecast the future, without
projecting into it the lines of evolution along which the work of Las
Casas and his associates seemed to have prepared the progress of the
island. Compared with the passive inertia which had all through the
history of the Spanish West Indies retarded individual and communal
advancement, it was like a sudden birth of aspirations and endeavors all
directed towards a lofty goal, perhaps still vague to the multitude, but
clearly and strongly defined in the minds of the men who with a singular
unity of purpose, forgetting for once all the petty jealousies that had
clouded so many big issues in previous periods, combined for concerted
action for the common good.
They were men who had at heart the interests of the island, who had
inquired into the causes for its backwardness and who had thought deeply
about the measures that might provide a means to rouse the whole
population to the realization of the gigantic task before them. They
were men of extraordinary intelligence, of thorough knowledge, of
unblemished character and of wide experience. Never before had Cuba been
able at any one period to point to such a galaxy of names as Las Casas,
Arango, Romay, Montalvo, Pedro Espinola, Caballero, and others. Never
before had it at any one time a like number of men combining all the
qualifications that seemed to destine them to be the leaders in a great
movement of revival and reconstruction. For the task they accomplished
was not only that of rousing the inhabitants, who had lingered for
several generations in apathy and indolence, but to reconstruct the
whole decadent edifice of provincial management, in order to start anew
on a solid foundation.
Individually considered almost every one of those men stood for some
achievement, some work the benefits of which the future was to reap.
Towering above them all, Arango seemed to combine all these efforts,
seemed to be the center from which radiated all the plans that had for
their ultimate aim the happiness of all. As one looks back upon that
brilliant epoch, this man of noble birth, of rare gifts and of
considerable means, seemed to dominate them all. Surely no other could
have accomplished what he did; for his youth, his affability, his
distinguished manners, these invaluable social qualities impressed and
attracted those in the highest positions at the Spanish court and won
for him a hearing, which would have been refused to many others. Once
this was gained, his general learning, and his special knowledge of the
economic and financial problems of his native island, backed by an array
of conclusive statistics and conveyed to his listeners with forcible
logic and convincing oratory, compelled the attention even of the most
recalcitrant conservatives that had steadily opposed reforms in the
colonies. By this rare combination of qualities Arango had succeeded in
obtaining from the royal government greater concessions for Cuba than it
had ever made to any of her colonial possessions. The effect of Arango's
work, though at intervals clouded by periodical relapses of the
government into the old evil ways, was felt during more than a
generation, and his name remained identified in the memory of the people
with the great strides that the island was henceforth to make in
agriculture, industry and commerce, as no less in matters of education.
Among his associates, the name of Dr. D. Thomas Romay was to be
remembered by future generations for the great blessing which his
medical skill and foresight secured for the island. He had been
identified with many measures promoting public health, when Dr. Maria
Bustamente of la Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, brought to Havana the first
consignment of vaccine. Following the example of Dr. Bustamente, who had
vaccinated his little son and two mulatto servants, Dr. Romay at once
introduced vaccination in Havana and gradually checked the ravages
which small-pox epidemics had caused. The Count de Montalvo was forever
to be remembered for his wise and humane adjustment of judicial
conflicts in connection with the tribunal of commerce. Pedro Espinola's
memory was to be cherished by all those concerned with the cause of
education. Nicolas Calvo's efforts at introducing timely innovations in
the sugar industry could never be forgotten in the island. Lastly there
was Governor Las Casas himself, who, had he been a man of smaller
calibre, could have clogged the wheels of progress by administrative red
tape and obfuscated the larger issues of his time by petty official
considerations. But, unlike some of his predecessors, who did not suffer
any citizens in the community to rise to such eminence as to rival them,
he had appreciated the spirit of those men and to further their aims had
brought to bear all the weight of his official position.
Rarely in the history of any country did so many fortuitous
circumstances combine at one and the same period to call out what was
best in the latent forces of the population, as in Cuba during the
administration of Governor Las Casas. The future never seemed to smile
so brightly upon that island, so richly endowed by nature and so long
indifferently treated by men. Setbacks and even relapses into previous
errors might occur, but it seemed unthinkable that the work accomplished
by Las Casas and his associates, individually and collectively, could
ever be undone.
Such periods of extraordinary growth are infallibly followed by a
standstill during which individuals as communities seem to gather
strength for new efforts. Nor is it likely that a country will
successively produce men of such marked individuality and forceful
character. The governor that followed Las Casas could not reasonably be
expected to come up to the high standard of his predecessor. The
Lieutenant-Governor Conde de Santa Clara, who was inaugurated on the
sixteenth of December, 1796, was a man of generous character and
agreeable manners towards all classes of society, but he was not a man
of that broad culture which distinguished Las Casas and his associates
in the famous Sociedad. D. Juan Procopio Barsicourt de Santa Clara was a
native of Barcelona, and had come to Havana at a critical moment. The
colonies of the West Indies and the Gulf coast were deeply worried about
the slave revolt of Santo Domingo. The Cuban forces that had taken part
in the attempt to quell the uprising, and the French and Spanish
immigrants that had fled to Cuba from the terrors of the insurrection
had brought with them tales of the doings of the insurgents which filled
with vague apprehensions all territories that contained a numerous slave
population. Moreover, the favorite of the queen of Spain, Manuel Godoy,
had by his blunders involved Spain in a new war with Great Britain, and
Spanish America was once more threatened by her old enemy.
This menace forced the new Governor to turn his attention first towards
the defenses of the island. He constructed between San Lazaro and la
Chorrera the battery known as Santa Clara, and took other measures for
the protection of Havana as well as Santiago. Among the municipal
improvements which he effected the most important for Havana was his
removal of the principal matadero (slaughterhouse), from the city to a
place outside of its walls. The existence of this establishment had long
been considered a public nuisance; for the foul smells which it spread
in the neighborhood and which the wind sometimes carried over the whole
town were a menace to the health of the inhabitants, and the frequent
commotion caused by bulls that escaped from the enclosures was also a
feature that made a most unfavorable impression. Both the suburb of
Jesus Maria and el Horcon being without any direct water supply, Santa
Clara had a fountain constructed in each place.
Santa Clara was a man of generous instincts. The Casa del Beneficencia,
the fortunes of which had been declining, owed him many a rich supply of
provisions and some large donations. Both he and his wife, who was said
to be a perfect model of womanly virtues, were interested in the
hospital of San Paula. They also gave material aid to the hospital of
San Francisco, which had progressed very slowly since its foundation.
Within one year after Santa Clara's arrival, the number of beds was
raised from thirty-two to seventy-eight. The governor's lady also
succeeded in enlisting the cooperation of the clergy and many other
wealthy and influential people in the San Antonio Hospital, which was
increased to a capacity of one hundred and nine beds. Though the more
ambitious cultural work which had been begun under the previous
administration was not promoted by him, Santa Clara proved himself
possessed of no little executive power and tact.
This last quality was especially needed at the time when Havana was
honored by the visit of three French notables, the Dukes of Orleans and
Montpensier, and Count de Beaujolais. Santa Clara received them most
courteously and an opulent lady of Havana, Doña Leonor Herrera de
Contreras, gave up to them her home, placed at their disposal her
servants and defrayed all their expenses. Refugees from their country,
which was suffering from the terrors of the Revolution, they remained in
Havana and enjoyed this sumptuous hospitality for almost four months,
when even the famous "Prince of Peace," Godoy, in order to avoid
further disagreements with the French Republic, indicated to them the
propriety of removing to other dominions.
In the meantime the British had declared war and made an auspicious
beginning by the capture of Trinidad. They had demanded the surrender of
the vessels commanded by D. Sebastian Ruiz de Apodoca, a high-spirited
mariner, but he preferred reducing them to ashes before giving them up
to the enemy. This first loss was, however, amply retrieved at San Juan
of Porto Rico. The city had been attacked by over ten thousand trained
soldiers under the command of Gen. Abercrombie, but the attack was
repulsed and the British lost over one thousand men and two thousand
prisoners, besides a stock of provisions and equipment. At Santa Cruz de
Teneriffe the Spaniards defeated even the celebrated Nelson and seized a
number of vessels that tried to take other points. But there was more
trouble in sight for the Spanish colonies. For the South American
revolutionist Miranda who had emigrated to London by clever intrigues
induced the British government to stir up insurrections in the
Spanish-American possessions. These intrigues resulted in revolts that
broke out in Puerto Cabello, Caracas, Panama and Maracaibo. Their prompt
suppression was due to the firmness and energy of the Captain-General of
Caracas, D. Manuel de Guevara y Basconcelos.
These disquieting occurrences made the Spanish government fear for the
safety of Cuba and decided the court to give the island a governor more
capable of coping with the eventuality of invasion. The Field Marshal D.
Salvador de Muro y Salazar, Marques de Someruelos was appointed on the
second of March, 1799, and ordered secretly and immediately to repair to
the place of his destination. Accordingly there appeared in Havana on
the thirteenth of May a distinguished stranger who delivered to the
governor important messages from the court and proved to be no less than
the new governor. Santa Clara immediately retired in favor of his
successor and Someruelos entered upon the functions of his office. The
Intendente Valiente was promoted to the position of Counselor of the
Indies and his place was taken by D. Luis Viyuri. Colonel D. Sebastian
de Kindelan was appointed to the governorship of Santiago.
The administration of Someruelos beginning on the threshold of a new
century, it seems meet to cast a backward look upon the condition of the
island and the great changes which had taken place during the hundred
years just closing. The great need for reform was urged upon the
government immediately after the British occupation of Havana, which had
opened the eyes of the authorities to mistakes made not only in the
political and military, but especially in the economic management of the
colony. Revenues had to be created in order to meet the increased
expenses of the administration and defray the cost of much needed
improvements. Hence upon the proposal of Count Ricla the king had
ordered a thorough reorganization of the administration and especially
of the treasury department. In the attempt of solving the problem of
taxation, Spain had followed a suggestion of M. Choiseul, minister of
foreign affairs in France, which was conceived with little knowledge of
colonial conditions and legislation and hastily accepted by the supreme
government. This change in the tax system then in force in the Indies
produced great commotion in the island of Cuba and other Spanish
possessions in America.
Guiteras reports that many real estate owners of Puerto Principe and the
southern territory designated in the island by the name of la Vuelta de
Abajo were especially bitter in complaining against the innovation, but
neither the intendant nor the Brigadier Cisneros could modify
dispositions decreed by the supreme government. Discontent increased and
some men were so exasperated that they preferred to destroy their own
products rather than pay the tax which was to go to the public treasury.
By the influence of D. Pedro Calvo de la Puerta, D. Penalver and other
land-owners, some of the people were pacified, before disorder ensued.
But others rose in open revolt and had to be dispersed by the militia
hastily mobilized for their repression. Although hardly any blood was
shed, the opposition which the authorities had met gave them cause for
anxiety, and upon their urgent appeal the supreme government renounced
the enforcement of the new taxes.
After the establishment of the Intendencia and the creation of a weekly
Junta, D. Juan de Alda drew up a budget of expenditure for the year
1768, which amounted to 1,681,452 pesos. Of this sum the army consumed
only 665,655 pesos. Approved by the supreme government and taken as a
basis for figuring the annual expenditure, 1,200,000 pesos were
consigned to the treasury of Mexico with the assumption that the public
revenues would cover the eventual difference. According to Ramon de la
Sagra, the general revenues of the island from 1764 to 1794 amounted to
20,286,173 pesos, and the sums which besides came to the treasury under
the name of situados (duties assigned upon certain goods or effects) and
other classifications amounted from 1766 to 1788 to 101,735,350 pesos.
The revenues of the island for the same period were, according to
Alcazar, 50,000,000 pesos, but he adds that the decree of the
seventeenth of August, 1790, by which farmers and merchants were allowed
to pay with promissory notes, resulted in some loss to the import
duties. On the other hand, the system of tax collection was open to
dishonest practices, which were checked during the administration of
Someruelos.
The objections which had been raised against the new taxation having
chiefly come from people engaged in agriculture, the government found on
investigation that the existing commercial laws were at fault. Inclined
as was the court of Spain during the rule of Carlos III. to yield in
favor of the people, the new measures only mitigated but did not remove
the evils complained of, which were founded on institutions and
ordinances so thoroughly antiquated as no longer to be of any benefit to
the population. The commerce of Cuba had since the year 1740 been
carried on by the Real Compania of Havana. Although its institution was
based upon the old and faulty principle of monopoly and privilege, and
discriminated against foreign goods that came to Cuba via Spanish ports,
the exportations of the island which at the beginning of the eighteenth
century were confined to timber, hides and a small amount of cattle,
soon began to include other products, such as sugar, honey, brandy and
wax.
After the founding of the Intendencia there was opened by way of
experiment a small commerce with the principal ports of Spain; but the
regulations required the collection in the Peninsula of two custom
duties on manufactures embarked at Cuba and destined for Spain, one
being called entry, the other exit duty, to which was later added a
consumer's duty. These extraordinary charges destroyed the profits hoped
for by the extension of commerce, and were the source of more
discontent, until in the year 1767 the king authorized the abolition of
the Compania of Havana "in case of urgent necessity for Cuba" and at the
same time inaugurated some franchises which tended to relieve the much
restricted commerce of the island. As has been recorded at the time, it
was not until the twelfth of October, 1778, that the king issued an
order calling for free commerce and abolishing the monopolies of the
larger ports.
The effects of this measure made themselves felt in a sudden revival of
commercial activities which led to such an expansion of Cuba's commerce,
that the island was forced to ask concessions and obtained from the
court more favors than any other of Spain's American possessions. When
the War of Independence paralyzed the commerce of the British colonies
with the island, the king granted still greater franchises and a new
decree opened the entry of the Port of Havana to the flags of all
nations, provided their ships introduced provisions only. But while
these new decrees favored the commerce of the colony, they reacted
unfavorably upon the commerce of Spain, the merchant navy of which had
been annihilated during the many wars, until there were not enough
vessels to transport the goods the colonies needed. The imports of
foreign products which the monopoly permitted Spain to make were in
value superior to the exports from America. Direct commerce with
friendly nations was more convenient inasmuch as the foreigners could in
turn export all the fruits of the country. The only remedy for the evils
confronting Spanish commerce would have been the reestablishment of the
merchant fleet; but in their short-sightedness Spanish merchants turned
back to the old monopoly and at the foot of the throne begged for return
to the old system. Under such pressure were exacted from the king the
decrees of the twentieth of January and the fifteenth of April, 1784,
which once more closed the ports of Spanish America to the friendly
nations, carrying the prohibition to the extreme of denying merchant
vessels entry, even if they were foundering!
Owing to this confusing and irritating condition of commercial
legislation the growth and progress of the colonies received another
setback, and probably caused the decrease in population which the
Countess de Merlin mentions. It also seriously affected the agriculture
of the island. For Spain had not enough inhabitants on her own soil to
colonize her vast overseas territories; and even if her legislation in
respect to commerce had been more liberal, her constant opposition to
the admittance of foreigners to her provinces discouraged white
immigration. Even during the reign of Carlos III., which seemed to
inaugurate a new and more enlightened era, the distrust of the
government towards foreigners is manifested in the new and abridged
version of the law of the Indies, published in the year 1778, which
decrees that in no port nor part of the West Indies, either the islands
or the continent to the north and south, shall any kind of traffic with
foreigners be admitted, even by way of barter or any other mode of
commerce, those violating this order being liable to forfeit life and
property.
The slave trade was therefore the means Cuba was forced to adopt to
supply the lack of white laborers and artisans. It was subject to the
same restrictions as all maritime commerce, with the important
difference that it could not be carried on without a special permission
from the king, which usually fixed the number of years in which a
certain number of slaves should be granted certain individuals,
companies or corporations. These permissions were called licenses, later
assientos, and finally contracts and privileges, until in the year 1789
they entirely ceased to exist. A British concern, called the South Sea
Company, had been the first to receive such a privilege, when in 1713 it
was allowed to introduce into the colonies of Latin America, with
absolute exclusion of Spaniards and foreigners, four thousand eight
hundred negroes in the course of thirty years. Next came the permiso
obtained by the Compania Mercantil of Havana in the year 1740, of which
use was made until 1766. Then came the contract concluded with the
Marquis de Casa Enrile, which lasted from 1773 to 1779; and finally the
permission granted in the year 1780 on account of the war with England,
that most Spaniards in America could have recourse to the French
colonies for their supply of slaves.
The manner in which this trade in human flesh was carried on reflects
sadly upon those engaged in this traffic. Loaded into vessels that were
hardly considered fit for carrying freight, thousands were known to have
perished in shipwrecks. Crowded into the dark, unventilated holds of
these rotten hulks, more thousands succumbed to disease and were thrown
overboard. Of the trades associated with cruel exploitation and inhuman
abuses, that of the slavetrader ranked first, for the sufferings to
which the poor victims were subjected in the transit from their native
home to the foreign land defied description. There were captains of
slave ships who loathed their task. One is quoted in a book by the
Jesuit Sandeval as confessing his misgivings about the business; he had
just suffered a shipwreck in which only thirty out of nine hundred on
board escaped!
On their arrival in Cuba the poor wretches who survived the ordeal began
to fare better. E. M. Masse, a French traveler and writer, in his work
"L'Isle de Cuba et la Havane" describes the quarters in which they were
lodged. They were the _baracones_, the famous barracks originally
destined for the troops which were to take Pensacola, and that had cost
four million pesos, though they could have been put up for a few
thousand. At the time of his visit to Havana, some of the contractors
who had made this handsome profit on the buildings were still in jail.
He goes on to say that immediately on landing the negroes were taken to
these barracks, waiting to be sold. They contained one immense room,
covered with straw and divided into three compartments. The first was
for the employees or jailers; the second for the women slaves, the third
for the men. There was a spacious court or yard with a kitchen in one
corner. In this yard they spent their days, shielded from the sun and
the rain by tents. They were permitted to bathe in the sea. The writer
looked at the spectacle with an artist's eye. For he remarks that he had
always considered the pose of the Venus of Milo unnatural, until by
observing these women slaves at their bath in the surf, he found that
the identical pose was frequently assumed by them, and hence must have
been natural. The only garment obligatory as long as a slave was not
sold, was a kerchief; if somebody made them a gift of another kerchief,
they made of it a turban or wore it like a sash.
The freedom which they enjoyed in this brief interval between landing in
Havana and being sold, may in the lives of the majority have been the
only freedom they were to know. Being merchandise, it was of course in
the interest of the slave traders to have them appear well when put on
the market. Hence the food they received was wholesome. They were also
encouraged to indulge in their wonted amusements and could be seen
marching or dancing around in the yard, as they raised their voices in
song. The African who had just arrived and spoke only his native tongue,
was called _bosale_; the slave who was born in Africa, but spoke
Spanish and knew the trade he was destined for, was called _ladino_.
Children of African or European origin born in Spanish America, were
called _criolles_, from which the French derived the term in use today:
creole.
Miscegenation was not favored in Cuba. When the immigration from Santo
Domingo brought into the island a great number of mulattoes, quadroons
and octoroons, the color line was severely drawn. A woman of colored
origin with a perfectly white and very beautiful daughter was known to
have denied her child in order to make it possible for her to marry a
Havanese. Many of these women were far better educated than the native
Cubans; M. Masse says that the art of conversation, unknown in Havana
society, flourished only in their homes. But they were rigidly barred
from the drawing-rooms of the wealthy Havanese.
According to the data available, the number of slaves introduced into
the island from the beginning of its colonization until the year 1789
was probably not below 100,000. It is estimated that in the two hundred
years between 1550 and 1750 the annual importations of the assientists
into Spanish America averaged at least three thousand a year. In the
census taken by Governor la Torre about 1772 Cuba was found to have
45,633 slaves. In 1775 their number had risen to forty-six thousand and
that of free colored people to about thirty thousand. The relaxation of
the commercial restrictions gave a strong impulse to all sorts of
enterprises, mercantile and otherwise, and especially to building, and
the laboring forces employed on all the new constructions were mostly
slaves. By the year 1775 their proportion to the free colored population
was four and sixth tenths to three. As the value of slave labor began to
be recognized in that period of internal improvements and general
progress, the number of slave importations steadily increased. According
to Blanchet, Cuba acquired in the years 1783 and 1784 one thousand and
five hundred negroes through contracts between the government and
various French and Spanish firms, as also the British house of Baker and
Dawson and the private shipowners D. Vicente Espon and Col. D. Gonzalo
O'Farrel. Armas y Cespedes gives the number of slaves for the year 1774
as 44,333; for the year 1792 as 84,590. In the enormous number of
negroes imported between 1791 and 1816 there were counted 132,000
imported legitimately, 168,000 by contraband means.
A more systematized and conclusive estimate of the number of negroes
gradually introduced in Cuba was made by D. Francisco de Arango, the
high-minded patriot of the period of Governor Las Casas. It covers the
time from the beginning of the sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth
century. D. José Antonio Saco, author of "Collecion de papeles
cientifices, historicos, politicos y de etros ramos sobre la isle de
Cuba, ya publicados ya ineditos," and "Historia de la Esclavitud," did
the same for the eastern part of the island from 1764 to 1789. These
estimates furnish the following figures:
Imported on the whole island from 1523 to 1763 60,000
By the Compania de la Habana in 1764, 1765,
1766 4,957
By the Marquis de Casa Enrile from 1773 to
1779 14,132
By the permiso of 1780 authorizing the supply
of negroes from French colonies during the
war ending 1783 6,593
By the house of Baker & Dawson from 1786 to
1789 8,318
From the eastern part of the island, 1764 to
1789 6,000
-------
Total 100,000
Humboldt remarks in his "Personal Narrative of Travels to the
Equinoctial regions of America during the years 1799-1809, "that the
British West Indies then contained seven hundred thousand negroes and
mulattoes, free and slave, while the custom-house registers proved that
from 1680 to 1786 two million one hundred and thirty thousand negroes
had been imported from Africa, which suggests a rather high mortality.
In Cuba the annual death rate of the recently imported negroes was seven
per cent. Hence the current assumption that the African negro was
particularly adapted for and could stand the climate of Cuba, does not
seem to be well founded.
About this time the social conscience of mankind seemed to be suddenly
awakened and philanthropic ideas began to modify the general conception
of slavery. Nations whose political organization made the government
dependent upon public opinion, had already begun to yield to the demand
of abolishing slave trade. The United States had auspiciously
inaugurated that movement. The state of Virginia had closed her ports to
the traffic in 1778; Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and
Massachusetts followed in 1780, 1787 and 1788. The Third Congress of the
American Republic proclaimed negro traffic as contrary to the
civilization of Christian peoples and condemned it before the end of the
eighteenth century. At the same time the Convention of the French
Republic declared its abolition in the colonies of France, and the
events in Santo Domingo, like a seismic disturbance made all
slave-owning nations tremble. Stimulated by the example of America and
stirred by the noble words of her own great humanitarians, Howard and
Wilberforce, England, too, began from 1787 on to discuss that problem.
In the course of the serious debates that took place in the British
parliament in May, 1788, it was said that a decree abolishing the
traffic would in a short time paralyze the commerce carried on by
British merchants with Africa. In her isolation from the current tides
of thought in Europe and other countries, Cuba had so far been untouched
by the humanitarian aspect of the question and looked upon it merely
from her utilitarian viewpoint. Fearing that the house of Baker &
Dawson, which had been her main source of supply for negro labor, would
no longer be able to furnish her the hands she needed in her deserted
fields, she hastened through her representative in the Ayuntamiento to
solicit from the king permission to continue the traffic. Hence on the
twenty-eighth of February, 1788, a royal decree permitted the Spaniards,
and foreigners in general for the term of two years, to introduce
negroes, exempt from duties, in Cuba, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico and
in the province of Caracas.
Guiteras, in his "Historia de la Isla de Cuba" speaks of the slavery
problem with a remarkable display of native fervor. He says:
"The slavery question met with political difficulties of an even graver
character in the rapid progress made by the ideas of the abolitionists,
which inflamed and inspired those foreign nations who had filled their
own colonies with slaves. Imprudent exaltation of the republican ideals
of France finally led the children of Hayti to rise in a horrible
revolution. A race of men that had come to the coasts of America not in
royal vessels and clad in steel to plant standards with the sign of
Redemption, but locked up in the stench of a closed hold, the body naked
and in chains, to irrigate with their sweat and blood the land of
slavery, rose in defence of the natural laws, demolished the banner at
the sight of which the most powerful nations of Europe had trembled, and
conquered the outraged rights of humanity. One should think that the
beam of light which radiated through all the sea of the Antilles would
have dissuaded the Cubans and the government from promoting African
colonization on the island of Cuba; nevertheless a lamentable error,
though based upon the best intentions, caused Cuba to invite that evil
and Spain filled the island with African slaves."
It may seem incongruous that a man of D. Francisco de Arango's liberal
ideas should have been instrumental in securing for Cuba from the court
at Madrid a privilege which the enlightened humane viewpoint of his time
began to consider a disgrace. But as pointed out in a previous chapter,
this measure was resorted to by Arango only as a temporary expediency.
As soon as the immediate shortage of hands was relieved, he himself
recommended the substitution of free white labor for negro slavery. For
the enormous influx of negroes as compared with the very minimum
increase of white inhabitants began even then to fill with vague
apprehensions for the future of Cuba's population those most earnestly
concerned with the welfare of the island. To the Spaniards of Florida
the great percentage of negroes was repulsive. More than five hundred
Floridians, who in 1763 had come to Cuba to escape British rule,
returned to their old home in 1784. When after the reign of terror in
Santo Domingo French refugees settled in Cuba, they, too, were opponents
of the slave traffic and their influence contributed no little towards
changing the attitude of the Spaniards towards negro slavery.
One of the disturbing features in this large negro population was the
small proportion of women. Planters refused to invest in the latter,
because they considered them unfit for the hard labor required. The
result was such a surplus of male slaves that in some communities there
were five hundred men to one negro woman. At first the negro slaves were
employed mostly in the mines, where the native Indians had proved
inefficient. Later they entered also domestic service. But with the
development of agriculture, they began to be largely employed in the
fields and on the plantations. Edward Gaylord Bourne says in his work on
"Spain in America," the third volume in the historical series "The
American Nation," in the chapter on Negro Slaves (p. 272):
"The development of the sugar industry and the growth of slavery were
dependent upon each other, especially after the mines of the Antilles
gave out. Each trapiche, or sugar-mill, run by horses or mules, required
thirty or forty negroes, and each water-mill eight at the least. Had the
commerce of the islands been reasonably free, plantation slavery on a
large scale would have rapidly developed, and the history of Hayti and
the English islands would have been anticipated a century by the
Spaniards."
While Howard, Wilberforce, Judge Sewall and the Quakers are usually
considered the pioneers of the abolition of slavery, the first voice
raised against this institution came from Peru and was that of a Jesuit,
Alfonso Sandoval, a native of Seville, but a resident of Peru, where his
father held an important position in the royal administration. Sandoval
wrote a work on negro slavery entitled "De Instauranda Aethiopum
Salute," which was published in Madrid in 1647 and contains valuable
data concerning the traffic, frequently quoted by historians. Nor can it
be denied that the Spaniards knew better how to treat the negroes than
either the French or the British. Evidences to the contrary suggest that
whatever may have been the wrongs under which the negro slaves of the
Spanish colonies suffered, they were not as much due to the cruelty of
the masters, as to their ignorance and carelessness.
The humane attitude of the Spaniard towards the negro slave made the
Royal Cedula issued by King Carlos III. in 1789 a unique document. For
in this royal decree are set forth the rights of the slaves with a
precision which in an eventual dispute with the masters could admit of
no doubt. By that decree the Spanish king earned for himself a niche in
the gallery of human benefactors. For the individual paragraphs as
compared with the civic code of Spain show little or no discrimination
between the black and the white elements of the colonial population.
These laws agreed perfectly with the spirit of the period which had
produced Howard, Wilberforce, Sewall and others. They were conceived in
a remarkable spirit of equity, whatever violations and abuses may have
occurred in individual practice. According to this cedula, a slave, if
ill-treated, had the right to choose another master, provided he could
induce this new master to buy him. He could buy his liberty at the
lowest market-price. He could buy wife and children and marry the wife
of his choice. If he suffered cruel treatment, he could appeal to the
courts and in some instances might be set free. If negroes were in doubt
about the lawfulness of their enslavement, they also had the right to
bring their case to the notice of the courts. By that same cedula negro
slaves were granted the right to hold property which opened for them
opportunities for eventual emancipation. Moreover that law declared that
fugitive slaves who by righteous means had gained their freedom were not
to be returned to their masters.
In accordance with these humane slave laws, the colored population of
Cuba enjoyed greater latitude than in many other colonies. Although
converted to Catholicism, they were known to revert to their heathen
practices at certain times and to have chanted invocations to the saints
in the African dialect of their forefathers. Numerous clans existed
among them, which were supposed to have for their aim the perpetuation
of their ancestral customs. Among them was the _manigo_, which was
frequently the source of grave apprehension on the part of the
authorities and, surviving in the _cabildos_, societies, which are both
religious and social, had in a later period to be suppressed. The rites
of these organizations were a grotesquely uncanny mixture of Roman
Catholicism and African paganism. One day in the year the negroes of the
island had almost unlimited liberty to celebrate in their barbaric
fashion. It was the sixth of January or All Kings' Day, and was the
occasion for a spectacle as weirdly fascinating as any carnival. That
day belonged to the negroes. Dressed in the gaudiest costumes, carrying
huge poles with mysterious transparencies, they paraded through the
streets to the beat of drums, shouting and gesticulating, or singing as
they went along. At the squares they stopped and indulged in a dance.
Melodious as were their songs, the rhythms betrayed the African origin.
The dances, too, even after several generations, retained their African
characteristics. As the day progressed, hilarity became more and more
boisterous, and the holiday frequently ended in riotous demonstrations
and street brawls. The white population of Havana and other towns, in
which this day was celebrated by the blacks, remained indoors, and even
suspended business for fear of disturbances.
There is no doubt that the important service which negro labor performed
for the agriculture of the country induced the Cubans to allow the
negroes this great amount of freedom. For without them, as D. Francisco
de Arango and others knew only too well, the fields and the plantations
of the island could never have yielded that abundance of products upon
which depended the wealth of Cuba.