For a correct understanding of the internal dissensions and uprisings
which played so large a part in the history of Cuba during the greater
part of the nineteenth century, it is necessary to have clearly in mind
an idea of the number, nature and distribution of her population during
this period.
The first record of anything like a satisfactory enumeration of the
people of the island is that of the census of 1775. It was known as that
of the Abbe Raynal, and was taken under the direction and by order of
the Marquis de la Torre. It was so far from being accurate and complete
that it can hardly be regarded as much more than a fair estimate.
Indeed, most authorities are of the opinion that its figures are far
below the actual facts. It showed a population of 170,370, for the
entire island, with 75,604 of this number residing in the district of
Havana.
The population of Cuba at that time was made up almost entirely of two
races, the whites and the blacks, the native Indians having long ago
practically disappeared. The following table gives a brief resumé of the
result of the census of 1775:
_Men_ _Women_
Whites 54,555 40,864
Free colored 15,980 14,635
Slaves 28,774 15,562
-------- -------
99,309 71,061
Total 170,370
The spirit in which this census was taken was admirable. It sought not
only to present statistics as to the age, race, sex and social condition
of the population, but also, so far as possible, to indicate something
of its distribution. It is not difficult to imagine, however, what a
momentous undertaking such a work must have been with the meagre
facilities then in the hands of the authorities, and it is not
astonishing that the results left much to be desired. The failure was
not one of intent but of the means by which the information might be
acquired.
In 1791 a second attempt to enumerate and classify the population of
Cuba was made by order of Don Luis de las Casas. This showed a
population of 272,141. This apparently great increase, however, is to be
attributed to a more accurate compilation, rather than to any unusual
immigration to Cuba during this period. Indeed careful statisticians,
notably Baron Humboldt, have reached the conclusion that even these
figures fell far below the truth, and that in reality the population of
the island at this period numbered at least 362,700 adult persons.
Humboldt's conclusions merit quotation. He says:
"In 1804 I discussed the census of Don Luis de las Casas with persons
who possessed great knowledge of the locality. Examining the proportions
of the numbers omitted in the partial comparisons, it seemed to us that
the population of the island, in 1791, could not have been less than
362,700 souls. This has been augmented, during the years between 1791
and 1804, by the number of African negroes imported, which, according to
the custom-house returns for that period, amounted to 60,393; by the
immigration from Europe and St. Domingo (5,000); and by the excess of
births over deaths, which, in truth, is indeed small in a country where
one-fourth or one-fifth of the entire population is condemned to live in
celibacy. The result of these three causes of increase was reckoned to
be 60,000, estimating an annual loss of seven per cent, on the newly
imported negroes; this gives approximately, for the year 1804, a minimum
of 432,080 inhabitants. I estimated this number for the year 1804, to
comprise, whites, 234,000, free-colored, 90,000, slaves, 180,000. I
estimated the slave population, graduating the production of sugar at 80
to 100 arrobas for each negro on the sugar plantations, and 82 slaves as
the mean population of each plantation. There were then, 250 of these.
In the seven parishes, Guanajay, Managua, Batabano, Guines, Cano,
Bejucal, and Guanabacoa, there were found, by an exact census, 15,130
slaves on 183 sugar plantations."
After expatiating on the difficulty of ascertaining with absolute
accuracy the ratio of the production of sugar to the number of negroes
employed on the different estates, Humboldt continues:
"The number of whites can be estimated by the rolls of the militia, of
which, in 1804, there were 2,680 disciplined, and 27,000 rural,
notwithstanding the great facilities for avoiding the service, and
innumerable exemptions granted to lawyers, physicians, apothecaries,
notaries, clergy and church servants, schoolmasters, overseers, traders
and all who are styled noble."
Accepting, however, for the moment the figures of the census of 1791,
merely for the sake of future comparison, let us see how the population
of the island was distributed at this period. Of the 272,141 inhabitants
shown by the census over half, or 137,800, were in the district of
Havana, and almost one third of the latter number in the city itself.
These were divided as follows:
Whites, both sexes 73,000
Free colored, both sexes 27,600
Slaves, both sexes 37,200
-------
137,800
One of the best reasons for believing that this 1791 census does not
tell the whole story is that the proportion of white persons to the
black slaves is practically two to one, while as a matter of fact the
most eminent authorities are agreed that during the first half of the
nineteenth century, and for some years previous, it was about 100 to 83,
a matter which, as we shall see, was of grave concern to the Spanish
colonists.
It should be noted in passing that the greediness with which the Spanish
conquerors regarded their possessions in the New World had marked effect
on the difficulties of numbering the people. For too well the plantation
owners had learned that a record of an increase in their possessions, an
added number of slaves or signs of growing prosperity, meant that the
long arm of the crown would stretch out to despoil by further taxation,
added to the already heavy toll. It is no wonder, therefore, that the
efforts of the census takers were impeded rather than furthered.
In 1811, when the slave trade and the consequent increase of the black
population was giving great concern to the more intelligent and
far-seeing of the Cuban patriots, pressure was brought to bear on the
Spanish government and on March 26 of that year, Señors Alcocer and
Arguelles made a motion in the Spanish Cortes against the African
slave-trade and the continuation of slavery in the Spanish colonies. A
little later in the same year Don Francisco de Arango, an exceedingly
erudite statesman, also made a remonstrance to the Cortes upon the same
subject. This was in the name of the Ayuntamiento, the Consulado and the
Patriotic Society of Havana. The text of this representation or
remonstrance may be found in the "_Documents relative to the
slave-trade, 1814_."
Unfortunately in compiling the tables which were published in 1811 no
new census was taken, and the increases in population from 1791 to 1811
were merely estimated. These estimates show a population of 600,000--a
greater number, it is interesting to note, by many thousands than was
shown by the census of 1817, with which we shall deal later. This
population was distributed as follows:
_Western Part of the_ _Free_
_Island_. _Whites_ _Colored_ _Slaves_ _Total_
Surrounding Country 118,000 15,000 119,000 252,000
Havana and Suburbs 43,000 27,000 28,000 98,000
------- ------ ------- -------
161,000 42,000 147,000 350,000
_Eastern Part of the Island_.
Santiago de Cuba 40,000 38,000 32,000 110,000
Puerto Principe 38,000 14,000 18,000 70,000
Cinco Villas 35,000 20,000 15,000 70,000
------- ------ ------ -------
113,000 72,000 65,000 250,000
------- ------- ------- -------
Totals 274,000 114,000 212,000 600,000
From the above we can see that at this time there were only 62,000 more
white people in Cuba than there were slaves, and if we take into
consideration the free blacks, then the negroes exceeded the white
population by 52,000. This was perhaps inevitable when we consider that
there must be labor to develop the plantations and that that labor was
almost entirely provided by the slave trade. Nevertheless, the white
population of Cuba lived in somewhat the same state of subconscious
terror of the possibilities of a black uprising which tormented the
planters in portions of the United States. But "that is another story"
of which we shall hear more later.
In 1813 the Spanish Cortes passed certain measures, which, together with
the necessity for as accurate as possible an enumeration of the
population of the island for the purpose of an equitable establishment
of electoral juntas of provinces, partidas and parishes, made a new
census obligatory. This was taken in 1817. The results of this new
census were as follows:
_Districts_ _White_ _Free colored_ _Slaves_
_Western Department:_
Havana 135,177 40,419 112,122
Matanzas 10,617 1,675 9,594
Trinidad (with
Sancti Spiritus,
Remedios, and
Villa Clara) 51,864 16,411 14,497
_Eastern Department:_
Santiago (with
Bayamo, Holguin,
and Baracoa) 33,733 50,230 46,500
Puerto Principe 25,989 6,955 16,579
------- ------- -------
257,380 115,691 199,292
Total 572,363
The census of 1817 was without doubt the most perfect which had up to
that time been taken; but, for the reasons before given, it was far from
being an accurate enumeration. To these figures, before transmitting
them to Spain, the Provincial Deputation added 32,641 transients of
various kinds, and 25,967 negroes imported during the year in which the
census was taken. These additions made the report read as follows:
Whites 290,021
Free Colored 115,691
Slaves 225,259
-------
Total 630,971
It would seem that these various censuses and the estimate of 1811 show
great discrepancies, but on this point we have the sage observations of
no less an authority than Baron Humboldt to guide us. He says:
"We shall not be surprised at the partial contradiction found in the
tables of population when we taken into consideration all the
difficulties that have been encountered in the centres of European
civilization, England and France, whenever the great operation of a
general census is attempted. No one is ignorant, for example, of the
fact that the population of Paris, in 1820, was 714,000, and from the
number of deaths, and supposed proportion of births to the total
population, it is believed to have been 520,000, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century; yet during the administration of M. Necker, the
ascertained population was one-sixth less than this number."
The process of census taking even in this twentieth century is an
enormous undertaking and not free from error. How much more difficult
must it have been in a country where it was to the interest of the
intelligent to suppress the facts, where a large proportion of the
population was still in slavery, and where means of communication from
place to place were far from adequate!
Baron Humboldt after very careful calculation estimated the population
at the close of 1825 to be as follows:
Whites 325,000
Free colored 130,000
Slaves 260,000
-------
Total 715,000
This was nearly equal to that of the British Antilles, and about twice
that of Jamaica.
During the first half of the nineteenth century three additional
censuses were taken:
_Census of 1827_
_Whites_ _Free Colored_ _Slaves_ _Total_
_Department_ _Male_ _Female_ _Male_ _Female_ _Male_ _Female_
Western 89,526 75,532 21,235 24,829 125,388 72,027 408,537
Central 53,447 44,776 13,296 10,950 28,398 13,630 164,497
Eastern 25,680 22,090 17,431 18,753 29,504 17,995 131,353
------- ------- ------ ------ ------- ------- -------
Total 168,653 142,398 51,962 54,532 183,290 103,652 704,487
_Census of 1841_
_Whites_ _Free Colored_ _Slaves_ _Total_
_Department_ _Male_ _Female_ _Male_ _Female_ _Male_ _Female_
Western 135,079 108,944 32,726 33,737 207,954 113,320 631,760
Central 60,035 53,838 15,525 16,054 34,939 15,217 195,608
Eastern 32,030 28,365 27,452 27,344 38,357 25,708 180,256
------- ------- ------ ------ ------- ------- ---------
Total 227,144 191,147 75,703 77,135 281,250 155,245 1,007,624
_Census for 1846_
_Whites_ _Free Colored_ _Slaves_ _Total_
_Department_ _Male_ _Female_ _Male_ _Female_ _Male_ _Female_
Western 133,968 110,141 28,964 32,730 140,131 87,682 533,617
Central 62,262 52,692 17,041 17,074 32,425 14,560 196,954
Eastern 34,753 31,951 26,646 26,771 28,455 20,506 169,082
------- ------- ------ ------ ------- ------- -------
Total 230,983 194,784 72,651 76,575 201,011 122,748 898,752
J. S. Thrasher, translator of Baron Humboldt's admirable work on Cuba,
and himself an authority of note, offers the following interesting and
suggestive discussion of the census of 1846:
"The slightest examination leads to the belief that there is some error
in the figures of the census of 1846; and we are inclined to doubt its
results, for the following reasons:
"1st--During the period between 1841 and 1846, no great cause, as
epidemic, or emigration on a large scale, existed to check the hitherto
steady increase of the slave population, and cause a decrease of 112,736
in its numbers, being nearly twenty six per cent. of the returns of
1841; which apparent decrease and the annihilation of former rate of
increase (3.7 per cent. yearly), amount together to a loss of 47 per
cent., in six years.
"2d.--During this period the material prosperity of the country
experienced no decrease, except the loss of part of one crop, consequent
upon the hurricane of 1845.
"3d.--During the period from 1842 to 1846, the church returns of
christenings and interments were as follows:
_White_ _Colored_ _Total_
Christenings 87,049 74,302 161,349
Interments 51,456 57,762 109,218
------ ------ -------
Increase 35,591 16,540 52,131
"4th.--And because ... a capitation tax upon house servants was imposed
in 1844, and a very general fear existed that it would be extended to
other classes."
Incorrect as we have seen these various censuses to be, they do furnish
us with very interesting means of analysis. We can see by the foregoing
tables that the free population (black and white) was nearly two thirds
of the entire population of the island; and also that, according to the
last census given above, the blacks on the island exceeded the white
people by many thousands. The balance of power then lay with the free
blacks.
But this was not as dangerous as it may seem--as it often appeared to
the Cubans. At this stage of his history the negro was not even one
generation removed from his native jungle. He was imitating the white
man not so much in his quiet virtues as in his glaring and showy vices.
The negro is naturally sociable and happy-go-lucky. The island of Cuba
has not a climate which is conducive to arduous labors.
The natural tendency of the colored freed man was to gravitate away from
the plantations, into the cities and villages. This made it necessary
constantly to be importing new slaves to take the place of the freed
man. Frequently, however, the latter improved in his new surroundings.
His freedom, his increased obligations, his new sense of self-respect,
made him desire to throw his fortunes, not with his enslaved black
brothers but with the free born white man. This was the more easy of
accomplishment because there is no place in the world where people are
more democratic in matters of race than in Cuba. A free black man who
improved his opportunities was sure of being received as the equal of
the white man in the same station of life. This even extended to
intermarriage with white women. Miscegenation was very common, but
curiously enough, more common in plantation life, on the same basis that
the American planter in the southern part of the United States conducted
his relations with his women slaves. The tendency of the free colored
man, in spite of his new opportunities, was to marry one of his own
race.
In 1820 the slave-trade with Africa was legally abolished, and
undoubtedly if this law had been enforced the negro population would
have diminished rapidly, because the mortality of the negro race in
slavery is very high. Even in Cuba, a land where the climate is more
similar to that of his own country than that of any part of the United
States, the negro is all too frequently a victim of tuberculosis.
Indeed, although in the Custom House between 1811 and 1817, 67,000
negroes were registered as imported, and the real number must have been
far greater, in 1817 there were only 13,300 more slaves than in 1811.
Another reason, too, would have contributed very quickly to the
diminishing of the negro population. Spain, always greedy for the main
chance, never far-seeing in her relations with her American possessions,
had urged the importation of male slaves in preference to females. Of
course this meant a preponderance of laborers, but it also militated
against the increase of the race in Cuba by natural means. There was far
from being a sufficient number of young women of child-bearing age. On
the plantations the proportion of women to men was one to four; in the
cities the rate was better, 1 to 1.4; in Havana 1 to 1.2; and in the
island considered as a whole 1 to 1.7. For a normal and proper birth
rate there must be a preponderance of women over men.
But, although the laws forbade the slave traffic, by illicit means it
continued to be carried on. Between 1811 and 1825 no fewer than 185,000
African negroes were imported into Cuba; 60,000 of these subsequent to
the passage of the measure of 1820.
The ratio of population to the square league is a very interesting and
illuminating study. On this point J. S. Thrasher gives us some excellent
deductions:
"Supposing the population to be 715,000 (which I believe to be within
the minimum number) the ratio of population in Cuba, in 1825, was 197
individuals to the square league, and, consequently, nearly twice less
than that of San Domingo, and four times smaller than that of Jamaica.
If Cuba were as well cultivated as the latter island, or, more properly
speaking, if the density of population were the same, it would contain
3,515 x 974, or 3,159,000 inhabitants."
In 1811, at the time the population was estimated, we find the negroes
to have been distributed as follows; the figures indicating percentages:
_Western Department_ _Free_ _Slave_ _Total_
In towns 11 11-1/2 22-1/2
In rural districts 1-1/2 34 35-1/2
_Eastern Department_
In towns 11 9-1/2 20-1/2
In rural districts 11 10-1/2 21-1/2
-------- -------- --------
34-1/2 65-1/2 100
The foregoing indicates that sixty per cent. of the black population at
this period lived in the district of Havana, and that there were about
equal numbers of freedmen and slaves, that the total black population in
that portion of the island was distributed between towns and country in
the ratio of two to three, while in the eastern part of the island the
distribution between towns and country was about equal. We shall find
the foregoing compilations of inestimable value in consideration of the
problem which was such a source of concern to the white population and
which played so large a part in this period of the history of Cuba;
namely, slavery.