The first records of the slave trade in Cuba--so far as the eastern part
of the island is concerned--were in 1521. Curiously enough it was begun
by Portuguese rather than Spanish settlers. It was a well recognized
institution, licensed by the government. The first license was held by
one Gasper Peralta, and covered the trade with the entire Spanish
America. Later French traders visited Havana and took tobacco in trade
for their slaves. The English, during their possession of the island,
far from frowning on the traffic, encouraged it; yet in the latter part
of the eighteenth century the number of slaves in Cuba was estimated not
to exceed 32,000. This was previous to 1790. Of these 32,000, 25,000
were in the district of Havana.
Baron Humboldt is authority for some interesting figures on the traffic.
"The number of Africans imported from 1521 to 1763 was probably 60,000,
whose descendants exist" (he writes in 1856) "among the free mulattoes,
the greater part of which inhabit the eastern part of the island. From
1763 to 1790 when the trade in negroes was thrown open, Havana received
24,875 (by the Tobacco Company, 4,957 from 1763 to 1766; by the contract
with the Marquis de Casa Enrile, 14,132, from 1773 to 1779; by the
contract with Baker and Dawson, 5,786 from 1786 to 1789). If we estimate
the importation of slaves in the eastern part of the island during these
twenty-seven years (1763 to 1790) at 6,000, we have a total importation
of 80,875 from the time of the discovery of Cuba, or more properly
speaking, from 1521 to 1790."
It was in the period of which we are writing, particularly in the very
early years of the nineteenth century, that the slave trade most
flourished in Cuba. It is estimated that more slaves were bought and
sold from 1790 to 1820 than in all the preceding history of the Spanish
possession of the island.
England, possibly seeing what an enormous power for developing the
natural wealth of the island an influx of free labor would give to
Spain, entered into an arrangement with Ferdinand VII.--whose sole
animating motive in dealing with his foreign possessions seems to have
been to grab the reward in hand and let the future take care of
itself--whereby, upon the payment by England to the king of four hundred
thousand pounds sterling, to compensate for the estimated loss which the
cessation of the slave trade would mean to the colonies, Ferdinand
agreed that the slave trade north of the equator should be restricted
from November 22, 1817, and totally abolished on May 30, 1820. Ferdinand
accepted the money, but as we have seen he did not fulfil his contract
and winked at the continuation of the importation of labor from Africa.
The following table shows an importation into the district of Havana
alone, for a period of 31 years, of 225,574 Africans:
1790 2,534 1806 4,395
1791 8,498 1807 2,565
1792 8,528 1808 1,607
1793 3,777 1809 1,152
1794 4,164 1810 6,672
1795 5,832 1811 6,349
1796 5,711 1812 6,081
1797 4,552 1813 4,770
1798 2,001 1814 4,321
1799 4,919 1815 9,111
1800 4,145 1816 17,737
1801 1,659 1817 25,841
1802 13,832 1818 19,902
1803 9,671 1819 17,194
1804 8,923 1820 4,122
1805 4,999 -------
Total 225,574
But Havana was not the only port through which slaves entered Cuba, and
the recognized channels were not the only ones through which they came.
Therefore, to provide for the illicit importations and those made at
Trinidad and Santiago these figures should be increased by at least one
fourth to cover the importations for the whole island. This gives us the
following results:
From 1521 to 1763 60,000
1764 33,409
Havana
From 1791 to 1805 91,211
1806 to 1820 131,829
Secret trade and trade in other parts of the island 56,000
-------
372,499
As we have seen, the trade did not stop when it was made illegal. We
have the authority of one of the British commissioners at Havana that in
1821 twenty-six vessels engaged in the slave trade landed 6,415 slaves;
and this gentleman also states that only about fifty per cent. of such
arrivals ever reached the attention of the commissioners, so that to
this number an equal amount should be added to provide for the slaves
imported by "underground" methods.
The yearly reports of these British commissioners furnish some food for
thought on this subject. They report the following data:
1822, 10 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--3,000 slaves
1823, 4 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--1,200 "
1824, 17 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--5,100 "
1825, 14 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--4,200 "
1826, 11 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--3,000 "
1827, 10 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--3,500 "
1828, 28 vessels arrived, bringing--estimated--7,000 "
--------
27,000 "
Adding the estimated one half for the number
not reported 13,500 "
-------
40,500 "
In 1838, the British consul at Havana reported to the foreign office in
London, regarding slave importations into Cuba for the previous nine
years:
1829 8,600
1830 9,800
1831 10,400
1832 8,200
1833 9,000
1834 11,400
1835 14,800
1836 14,200
1837 15,200
-------
Total 101,600
Add 1/5 20,320
-------
121,920
It will be observed that the consulate adds only one fifth to cover the
secret importations during this period.
From 1838 to 1853 the importations, according to records laid before
the British House of Commons, were as follows:
1838 10,495 1846 419
1839 10,995 1847 1,450
1840 10,104 1848 1,500
1841 8,893 1849 8,700
1842 3,630 1850 3,500
1843 8,000 1851 5,000
1844 10,000 1852 7,924
1845 1,300 1st half 1853 7,329
------
99,239
During the early years of the slave trade, the Spanish masters treated
their slaves not so well as they treated their work animals. But
gradually they began to realize that after all it was cheaper to keep
the slaves that they had in good physical condition than to be
continually buying new ones, especially when the trade had fallen off
because of legal restrictions.
A greater number of colored women were imported; the moral condition of
the negroes, especially as to marriage, became a subject of greater
interest to the plantation owners; the negroes were encouraged to marry,
and wives were recruited from among the mulattoes as well as those of
pure black blood. Some efforts were made for better sanitary conditions
toward the middle of the century, and persons were employed on the
estates whose business it was to look after the sick slaves and nurse
them. In the last analysis, however, the conditions under which the
slaves lived on each plantation rested entirely--as it did in the United
States--on the kind of overseers under whom they were employed.
There are many touching stories of the devotion of the slaves to their
master. This was quite as great as among the old southern families in
the United States. The Cuban was naturally a kind master--we wish the
Spanish-born planter might always be as well spoken of--and he inspired
in his slaves a feeling of real affection. This often developed into a
single hearted devotion so great that the slave grew to count his
master's enemies as his own.
This is not extraordinary when we consider that the African, torn from
his own home and family ties and transported to a strange country, among
a strange people, took the name of his master and became a part of the
big household, identified not only with the working life but also with
the social life of the little community represented by the plantation.
Fierce as he may have been in his native surroundings, he was naturally
affectionate and clung eagerly to the one who, holding the slave's whole
destiny in his hand, yet was kind to him. The women slaves, especially
those of mixed blood, were bound to their masters often by ties of
consanguinity. They attended the master's wife when her children were
born, nursed the babies at their own breasts, and served and waited upon
the second generation as foster mothers. They were like grown up
children. The places where they lived, the food that they ate and the
clothing that they wore were all under the control of the one whom they
served. When he fell ill, they were devoted nurses, and when he died,
they buried him, and manifested their grief in their own primitive
fashion.
The slave owner who treated his slaves well, until other factors began
to enter the situation, had little to fear from them. But masters were
not always kindly. There were as many different varieties of human
disposition in those days as in these. The negro can hate as fiercely as
he can love, and gradually, as he acquired more knowledge and
understanding, on the estates where kindness was not the law, there grew
up mutterings of discontent and hatred, and hints of possible uprisings.
It was the excessive mortality among the black population which first,
perhaps, influenced their owners to favor better laws and more natural
and healthful conditions for them. Curiously enough, up to the opening
of the nineteenth century there were "religious scruples" against the
introduction of female slaves on the plantations, although the colored
women were much less expensive to purchase than the men. The colored men
were condemned to celibacy, as Baron Humboldt told us, "under the
pretext that vicious habits were thus avoided." They were worked in the
day time, and locked in at night to avoid their having any chance for
female companionship. And yet, in spite of the fact that these
"scruples" were "religious," we find the paradoxical situation that the
Jesuit and Bethlehemite friars were the only planters who encouraged the
importation of women slaves.
Don Francisco de Arango, being a clear sighted man, endeavored to bring
about the imposition of a tax upon such plantations as did not have at
least one third as many women as men among their slaves. He also tried
to have a duty of $6 levied upon every male negro imported from Africa.
In both of these efforts he was defeated, but they had the excellent
effect of stirring public opinion. While the juntas were opposed, as
always, to enacting any such drastic measures, yet there began to be a
disposition to encourage the mating of the slaves, to increase the
number of marriages, to give each negro a little cabin of his own that
he might call home, and, when children came, to see that they were
properly cared for. Then, too, efforts were made to insure lighter work
for the women during pregnancy, with a total relief as the time for the
birth of the coming child grew nearer.
How much of this came about because the slave owners were forced to see
that a continuation of the early conditions would compass their own
ruin, and how much because they were naturally inclined to be humane
when their duty was brought home to them, it is difficult to determine;
but judging from the Cuban's naturally kindly disposition, we are
inclined to believe that in many instances the master was glad to treat
his slaves as well as he could, when he began to realize that after all
they were not merely property--cheap labor--but human beings with
emotions and longings very much like his own. Under these bettered
conditions the rate of negro mortality fell as low as from eight to six
per cent. on the best plantations.
Another element, however, which was not conducive to the betterment of
the conditions of the negroes was the introduction of thousands of
Chinese laborers. They contracted to work for a number of years at
prices far below those usually estimated as fair, on the island. They
were the very lowest type of Chinese, and brought with them many vicious
influences and practices. No Chinese women were imported, and the
Chinese men mingled freely with the negro women. The very worst kind of
miscegenation was thus promoted, and the effect on the morals of the
negroes on the estates where these Chinese were employed was very bad
indeed.
In no other of the foreign colonies in America did the free negro so
predominate as in Cuba. It was not at all a difficult matter for a black
to gain freedom, since almost no real obstacles were placed in his way.
Every slave who did not like his "condition of servitude" had a right
to seek a new master, or to purchase his liberty, on payment only of the
price paid for him.
Then, too, the religious education of the slaves came to be recognized
as a matter of great importance. Religion played an important part in
the life of the Spanish colonies in general. It was therefore only
natural that they should employ every available means to convert the
African slave from his "false heathen superstitions" to their own "true
faith." Besides, it had long been the theory of tyrants that if men were
imbued with religious fervor and taught self-immolation, they were thus
rendered more docile under oppression. The slave code accordingly
required every master to instruct his slaves in religion.
One of the first and most marked results of this encouragement of
religious feeling was quite different from what had been expected or
intended. That was, to arouse a strong and increasing repugnance to the
legal continuance of the institution of slavery. This prevailed among
the better class of owners as well as among the slaves themselves. More
and more frequent became the custom of providing by will for the
emancipation of slaves at the death of their masters. The natural
affection, also, to which we have referred, which arose between slaves
who acted as domestic or body servants and the owners who enjoyed such
faithful service, conduced to the same end. The natural inclination of
the humane master was to grant such servitors their freedom.
Despite these palliating circumstances, slavery was odious, and
persistent negro insurrections began to cause serious concern to the
white population. In hope of checking them by kindness, new laws were
enacted. Legal restrictions were placed upon the hours of labor. It was
decreed that except under certain stated conditions a master should not
work his slaves more than nine or ten hours a day. When the exigencies
of the season required greater efforts, sixteen hours were prescribed as
the extreme limit, and the master was required to give extra pay for the
extra time. But these regulations were difficult if not impossible to
enforce. Indeed, we must assume that they were not meant to be enforced.
They were for show and nothing more; and they remained practically a
dead letter.
Religious scruples could not and of course did not prevent the
performance of much labor on Sundays, and the needs of agriculture often
made work necessary on holidays. There were routine duties to be
performed every day. For these, two hours were regarded as sufficient,
and to such time the code restricted the labor of Sundays and holidays.
There was also a general provision under which slaves were granted the
right to labor on their own account, paying a certain part of their
wages to the masters and retaining the remainder from which they might,
if they desired, create a fund looking toward their own eventual
freedom.
One cannot escape the conclusion that during the periods of slavery,
either in the United States or the Spanish colonies, the African negro
was never really regarded--no matter how close and friendly his
relations with his master--in the last analysis, as anything more than a
sort of higher animal or at best a child. Men do not thrash their
employes for disobedience, when there is any pretence of equality
between master and servant. Animals are whipped to teach them obedience,
and a child is chastised when he is naughty. The last was ever the
corrective which the white master wielded against his disobedient or
lazy slaves. It is true that nominally the laws of Cuba did not permit
its brutal misuse. The slave code limited the amount of punishment for
any offense to twenty-five lashes. Any more severe measures, if known,
were the subject of careful judicial investigation, and the penalty for
them on conviction was a fine of from $20 to $200. Unfortunately,
however, these laws were not effective. It is obvious that a strong man
can do much damage to a human being with 25 lashes. Infractions of the
law were seldom reported. The frightened African, subject to his master,
feared the results of reporting a violation of the law. He would have to
stand trial before a jury, not of his peers but of white men, one of
whose number was the aggressor. The other slaves--his witnesses--were
far too afraid of what might befall them if they upheld the testimony of
the complainant. Even the sluggish brain of the slave could picture,
with dreadful anticipation, the anger of the master, and the subsequent
retribution, much more severe than the original beating, should by any
extraordinary chance the slave be triumphant and his master be compelled
to pay a fine.
And so, in spite of the fact that in none of the colonies was the
condition of the black freedman better than in Cuba,--far better than in
Martinique, where free negroes were prohibited from receiving gifts from
white people, and where they might be apprehended and returned to
servitude if they could be convicted of the very natural act of aiding
any of their less fortunate brothers to escape--and in spite of the laws
which might, if not dead letters, have safeguarded the interests of the
slaves, a feeling of dissatisfaction and unrest among the blacks was
seething beneath the surface. The more knowledge they gained, and,
curiously enough, the more concessions there were granted them, the
stronger it grew, breeding trouble and bad blood between the white
owners and the blacks, both enslaved and free, destroying mutual
confidence and engendering a spirit of fear and distrust which was
presently to break forth into open revolt.
The negroes hated the Spanish authorities, too, because they recognized
them to be cowards and hypocrites, pretending one thing and doing
another; oppressing the weak for their own gain, and siding with the
powerful because it served their interests to do so. In such
circumstances the drift toward slave insurrections was inevitable.