General Geronimo Valdez, who succeeded the Prince de Aglona as
Captain-General in 1840, probably endeavored to rule wisely, since he
was by nature a rather gentle and just man; but he had absolutely no
chance with the power of Spain against him. It was during his incumbency
that the first of the alarming slave uprisings occurred, and the Spanish
officials were so frightened that they counseled the most violent
methods of subduing the offenders, to which as we shall see General
Valdez at least shut his eyes. For he was weak and indecisive, and had
not the power to rule insurgents or to keep his Spanish colleagues
within bounds.
The British consul, David Turnbull, of whom we shall hear more later,
was unpopular with the planters, who accused him of inciting their
slaves to rebellion. Certainly he was an ardent advocate of
emancipation, and a book which he wrote about this period was filled
with denunciations of slavery. Valdez tried to placate both him and the
planters, and between the two promptly fell down and won the enmity of
both. His numerous grants of freedom to negroes were another cause for
complaint. The planters combined and caused his downfall, and he yielded
his office to one better suited to Spanish standards. Some years later
they secured the recall of Turnbull. It is said of Valdez that he
departed from Cuba no richer than when he had come, and if this is
true,--it sounds almost impossible,--then he stands unique in an
assembly of "grafters."
In 1843 George Leopold O'Donnell took office as Captain-General. No
despot who had preceded him surpassed him in cruelty. He turned every
possible happening to his personal advantage, and lined his pockets with
Cuban money. It was during his tenure of office that the most
wide-spread and most dangerous of the insurrections among the slaves
happened. Of the methods used in subduing this we shall write in another
chapter, but they were the most disgraceful that have blotted the pages
of the history of any nation. General O'Donnell himself, his wife and
daughter were said to have profited by the slave trade. The wife of the
Captain-General, by the way, seems to have had a painfully itching palm.
It is told of her that she had a number of loaves of bread left after a
reception, and that she sent for the baker at three o'clock in the
morning, to require him to take back the surplus. When he demurred, that
he could only sell it for stale bread, and would thus lose money on it,
she said: "Oh, I sent for you early because now you can mix it with the
other bread, and sell it to the masses, and no one will know the
difference." She is accused of having been engaged in all kinds of
schemes by which she profited in an illegitimate way. She dabbled in the
letting of contracts for the cleansing of sewers and for the removal of
dirt and manure from the city streets, demanding her bonus from the one
who secured the contract, and these municipal operations stained her
hands with illgotten gains. It is said that O'Donnell, who had a large
interest in marble quarries in the Isle of Pines, had his agents select
able bodied laborers, and trump up charges of treason against them. They
were then sentenced to deportation to work in the Captain-General's
stone quarries, and thus solved the problem of low priced labor.
O'Donnell was fertile also in inventing new taxes and new methods of
extorting money, which of course brought him into high favor at court.
So pleasing was his rule to his masters and to his aides that he was
allowed to stay in office longer than usual, and was not succeeded until
1848.
One of the most ridiculous figures in Cuban history came next, in the
person of General Frederico Roncali. Some 400 Americans had taken up
their abode on an island far distant from Cuba. Rumors reached General
Roncali that they intended to free Cuba from Spanish rule. He promptly
marched 4,000 picked soldiers to garrisons in Cuba, and promised them
double pay if they would fight bravely when the enemy landed. Of course,
the enemy never came, and General Roncali presented a foolish figure.
But after all there was a portent in this of the fear which the
Spaniards were beginning to entertain, that the end of their rule in
Cuba was at hand.
While the slave trade had been made illegal in 1820, it flourished with
more or less vigor until the end of the Ten Years' War in the latter
part of the century. Spain officially frowned upon it, but unofficially
the Spanish crown is said to have been financially interested in the
slave trading companies, and to have shared largely in their profits. To
add to this incentive for the continuance of the trade, the
Captain-General had his own reasons for not suppressing it. He was paid
a fixed bonus for every slave imported. Indeed, the post of
Captain-General of Cuba was one not to be despised by any soldier of
fortune. The perquisites of the office are said to have been--of course,
not from the slave trade alone--close to $500,000 a year. The
Captain-General is said to have received "half an ounce of gold" for
every "sack of charcoal," as they facetiously dubbed the negro, allowed
to pass into the country.
Although no excuse of expediency can be urged for the enslavement of
human beings, no matter what their color or race, it remains a fact that
the sugar plantations of Cuba required laborers in great numbers for
their development, and the easiest and most profitable way to obtain
that labor was through the employment of black slaves. It would probably
have been impossible to obtain a sufficient number of white men at that
time to do the work required, especially since when an attempt was made
to import white men for work on the plantations, the owners who were of
Spanish birth brought every influence possible to bear on the government
to make such laws and regulations for that kind of labor that, if it
could be procured, its retention was well nigh impossible.
The blacks were naturally not satisfied with slavery. In their
association with their masters they acquired just enough information and
knowledge to make them dangerous. And at this time the blacks, free and
slave, were a large majority of the population. The negro race in
captivity was always difficult to manage. They were affectionate and
responsive to good treatment but when their rage was aroused by hard and
unjust treatment they reverted to habits of the jungle. The Spanish
planters believed that the way to keep the negroes quiet was to keep
them under with a strong hand and consequently overseers were frequently
brutal.
There began to be a strong undercurrent of unrest among the negro
population, and an equally strong fear of them among the whites.
Sporadic uprisings occurred, which were like the overflowing of a
boiling caldron, not organized, and not well prepared, and therefore
easily put down by the authorities. A description of a typical uprising
of this character is contained in a work called "The Slaves in the
Spanish Colonies" by the Countess Merlin, published about 1840. It
relates the experiences of one Don Rafael with a mutiny of his slaves.
"The slaves lately imported from Africa were mostly of the Luccommee
tribe, and therefore excellent workmen, but of a violent and unwieldly
temper, and always ready to hang themselves at the slightest opposition
to their way.
"It was just after the bell had struck five, and the dawn of morning was
scarcely visible. Don Rafael had gone over to another of his estates,
within half an hour before, leaving behind him, and still in tranquil
slumbers, his four children and his wife, who was in a state of
pregnancy. Of a sudden the latter awaked, terrified by hideous cries and
the sound of hurried steps. She jumped affrighted from her bed, and
observed that all the negroes of the estate were making their way to the
house. She was instantly surrounded by her children, weeping and crying
at her side. Being attended solely by slaves, she thought herself
inevitably lost; but scarcely had she time to canvass these ideas in her
distracted mind, when one of her negro girls came in, saying, 'Child,
your bounty need have no fears; we have fastened all the doors, and
Michael is gone for the master.' Her companions placed themselves on all
sides of their female owners, while the rebels advanced, tossing from
hand to hand among themselves a bloody corpse, with cries as awful as
the hissing of a serpent. The negro girls exclaimed, 'That's the
overseer's body!' The rebels were already at the door, when Pepilla
(this is the name of the lady) saw the carriage of her husband coming at
full speed. That sweet soul, who, until that moment, had valiantly
awaited death, was now overpowered at the sight of her husband coming
unarmed toward the infuriated mob, and she fainted. In the mean time,
Rafael descended from the vehicle, placed himself in front of them, and
with only one severe look, and a single sign of the hand, designated the
purging house for them to go to. The slaves suddenly became silent,
abandoned the dead body of their overseer, and, with downcast faces,
still holding their field-swords in their hands, they turned round and
entered where they had been ordered. Well might it be said, that they
beheld in the man who stood before them the exterminating angel.
"Although the movement had for a moment subsided, Rafael, who was not
aware of its cause, and feared the results, selected the opportunity to
hurry his family away from the danger. The _quitrin_ or vehicle of the
country could not hold more than two persons, and it would have been
imprudent to wait till more conveyances were in readiness. Pepilla and
the children were placed in it in the best possible manner; and they
were on the point of starting, when a man, covered with wounds, with a
haggard, deathlike look, approached the wheels of the _quitrin_, as if
he meant to climb in by them. In his pale face the marks of despair and
the symptoms of death could be traced, and fear and bitter anguish were
the feelings which agitated his soul in the last moments of his life. He
was the white accountant, who had been nearly murdered by the blacks,
and having escaped from their ferocious hold, was making the last
efforts to save a mere breath of life. His cries, his prayers, were
calculated to make the heart faint. Rafael found himself in the cruel
alternative of being deaf to the request of a dying man, or throwing his
bloody and expiring corpse over his children: his pity conquered; the
accountant was placed in the carriage as well as might be, and it moved
away from the spot.
"While this was passing on the estate of Rafael, the Marquis of
Cardenas, Pepilla's brother, whose plantations were two leagues off, who
had been apprised through a slave of the danger with which his sister
was threatened, hastened to her aid. On reaching the spot, he noticed a
number of rebels who, impelled by a remnant of rage, or fear of
punishment, were directing their course to the Savannas--large open
plains, the last abodes resorted to by runaway slaves. The Marquis of
Cardenas, whose sense of the danger of his sister had induced him to fly
to her, had brought with him, in the hurry of the moment, no one to
guard his person except a single slave. Scarcely had the fugitive band
perceived a white man, when they went towards him. The marquis stopped
his course and prepared to meet them; it was useless temerity in him
against such odds. Turning his master's horse by the bridle, his own
slave addressed him thus: 'My master, let your bounty get away from
here; let me come to an understanding with them.' And he then whipped
his master's horse, which went off at a gallop.
"The valiant José, for his name is worthy of being remembered as that of
a hero, went on toward the savage mob, so as to gain time for his master
to fly, and fell a victim to his devotedness, after receiving thirty-six
sword-blows. This rising, which had not been premediated, had no other
consequences. It had originated in a severe chastisement inflicted by
the overseer, which had prompted the rebels to march toward the owner's
dwelling to expound their complaint. They begged Rafael's pardon, which
was granted, with the exception of two or three, who were delivered
over to the tribunals."
This specimen of the fine writing of the period has hidden within it two
truths which stand out in the history of the difficulties between the
blacks and the whites on the island of Cuba. First, although we must
discount a bit the Countess's account of Rafael's valor, and the ease
with which he subdued the uprising, by taking into account the fact that
he was her cousin, and that therefore she naturally looked at him with
over-favorable eyes, nevertheless the fact remains that the blacks were
usually amenable to the commands of their owners, unless aroused to an
unusual pitch of ferocity, and were, through fear or respect, not
difficult to reduce to control.
In the second place, it has been the history of the relations between
the blacks and whites in every country that with anything like fair
treatment those who worked about the house, or acted as body servants,
became personally attached to their masters--to whom it is true there
was often a tie of consanguinity--and showed the same spirit of loyalty
which was displayed by Pepilla's women slaves.
Shortly after this insurrection, reported by the Countess Merlin, there
was another near Aguacate, which was more formidable and more difficult
to subdue. Meanwhile, the government was handling the matter of slave
insurrections in a vacillating manner. Laws were made which granted the
slaves a right to assemble and to establish societies, even to form
military bodies for the public defense; actually giving them greater
rights than white laborers; and this went hand in hand with such cruel
injustice as public whipping posts. The white population, on the other
hand, even in localities where there was a great preponderance of
blacks, could not form a militia.
Turnbull, the English consul, fancied that he saw in these slave
insurrections a chance to advance the interests of his country. It is
claimed that he also had visions of a republic in which the blacks ruled
with himself as president. He was _persona non grata_ with the
aristocracy of the island, and is supposed to have been actuated in part
by a desire to avenge social slights. He was charged with planning to
effect a huge black uprising, to seize and execute enough of the white
population to cow the rest and then to set up his black republic. But it
is impossible to determine the truth or falsity of these accusations.
Turnbull had many enemies who were only too glad to charge him with any
crime.
In 1842 there was an insurrection in Martiaro, and it was with
difficulty suppressed. Then evidence began to be seen everywhere of a
systematic propaganda among the slaves on plantations scattered in
widely separated parts of the island. A negro mason accidentally dropped
an incendiary proclamation from his pocket, and it finally reached the
hands of the captain of the district. The negro was tortured, but would
not divulge the source of the paper. An itinerant monk went through the
country ostensibly begging alms for the church, but in reality
prophesying to the blacks that in July, 1842, they would, on St. John's
Day, rise and obtain their freedom. The wholesale insurrection did not
occur, but there were uprisings in July in various parts of the island,
and the slaves of an estate near Bemba murdered their master and a
neighbor, and were only subdued when the militia had been called. In
January, 1843, an official of the government was murdered by the blacks.
A colored man secretly gave evidence against the slayers and in some
manner fell under their suspicion, and soon after was assassinated by
one of his own people, who afterward was tried for the crime, but
committed suicide in jail, before he could pay the death penalty. In
March, 1843, near Bemba five hundred negroes rose against their white
masters, and it was only after considerable bloodshed that they were
subdued. No sooner was this trouble quieted than there was another
uprising on a plantation in the neighborhood, and still a third one the
same year, the exact details of which are lacking. Then followed, at the
close of 1843, the most serious trouble of all, when, in November, the
negroes near Matanzas revolted and went on an orgy of murder and rape,
ravishing and killing women, and murdering white men. Turnbull was
accused of being the brains behind these troubles, but it was impossible
to fix the guilt on him. If he was guilty he was not a good organizer,
for none of the revolts had any national effect. They were all local in
character, and all unsuccessful in attaining any lasting results.
After the insurrection of November, 1843, a meeting of planters was
called in Matanzas, and the government was asked to take steps to make
further revolts impossible. But in 1844, near Matanzas, occurred another
serious insurrection, and it was reported that the negroes on all the
plantations in the neighborhood were organized and were planning a
wholesale revolt, which would bring about the realizations of Turnbull's
dreams. It was then that the government decided to act ruthlessly, and
methods which would have done credit to the old Spanish Inquisition were
promptly introduced.
In March, 1844, the Captain-General, O'Donnell, addressed a letter to
General Salas, who was the head of the military tribunal, in which he
counseled drastic and violent measures against any insurgent blacks. He
suggested that all blacks, slave or free, who were suspected of treason
to their masters, should be apprehended, and if they refused to give
information as to the extent of the organization and their associations,
the knowledge must be wrung from them by torture. The slaves were to be
tried in the district where they were taken. The officer in charge of
each district was promptly given full power to apprehend and punish the
plotters as he saw fit. The Spanish officers were often cruel and brutal
men, who exercised their authority in the most revolting manner. The hue
and cry went from hut to cabin and no black man was safe at his own
hearth. Opportunity was taken in some cases to work out a personal
grudge and gain freedom from an enemy. No one, not even a white man,
dared publicly to raise his voice to expostulate, for he was promptly
dubbed an abolitionist and thrown into prison. If a negro had a little
money saved to buy his freedom, or, if he was a freedman, to obtain a
little business, he stood a better chance of his life. He might buy his
tormentors off, but all too frequently when he had paid, he was murdered
lest he might tell of the man whom he had bribed.
One tender hearted Spanish judge, Don Ramon Gonzales, is reported to
have condemned his victims to be taken to a room, the walls of which
were already dripping with the blood and shredded flesh of previous
victims. There they were tied head down to a ladder, and flogged by two
Africans until they were dead. To make their torture the more
excruciating, the thongs with which they were scourged had on the ends
small buttons made of fine wire, which bit into the flesh. When several
freedmen had been executed in this pleasant fashion, and when public
opinion dared feebly to protest at such atrocities, death certificates
were made out by unscrupulous physicians, reporting death from some
simple disease, and under this authority the murdered negroes were
quickly buried.
A second kind judge seized on some pretext a freeborn negro, an old man,
who was gentle and inoffensive, but who had incurred the judicial
displeasure, and had him tied to the ladder and flogged on three
separate occasions, without even going to the trouble to bring an
indictment against him or divulge the nature of his offense. Another
free negro was taken by this same official, hung by his hands from the
ceiling of the torture chamber, and left there all night, while he was
at intervals whipped. At length this poor victim succumbed to the
treatment and gave information of a comrade, who was promptly taken out
and shot without a trial.
Another officer, Don Juan Costa, had a record of ninety-six negroes
killed by the lash, of whom fifty-four were slaves and forty-two
freedmen. The record shows the following entries, which gives an inkling
of the colored man's powers of endurance and of what each must have
suffered: "Lorenzo Sanchez, imprisoned on the first of April, died on
the fourth. Joseph Cavallero, imprisoned on the fourth, died on the
sixth. John Austin Molino, imprisoned on the ninth, died on the
twelfth." There were similar laconic entries for the whole ninety-six.
Don José del Piso, a fiscal officer, was responsible for the flogging to
death of a negro a hundred and ten years of age, too old and infirm to
be an active conspirator. This was within the walls of the Matanzas
jail. The poor victim was so lacerated that he was hardly recognizable
as a human being. This del Piso had a pleasant form of afternoon sport
which he conducted to the great edification of his brother
inquisitioners. He would have his victims tied to the high limb of a
tree, and then cut the rope and watch them writhe when they fell. Don
Ferdinand Percher fell slightly below the record of his colleague, Don
Juan Costa, for he could boast of only seventy-two deaths to his credit.
Then there occurred to these just men and true a new and exceedingly
fine way of adding to their revenue. Don Miguel Ballo de la Rore
extorted from the negroes on a certain estate, in the absence of their
owners, affidavits accusing their master of treason; and the latter was
notified through his overseer that unless he paid two hundred ounces of
gold forthwith he was a condemned man. However, the correspondence fell
into the hands of General Salas who had the grace to put an end to the
matter.
But not only the blacks were victims. A white man who had incurred the
displeasure of the minions of the government was never safe. One Spanish
officer had a grudge against a young Englishman and accused him of
inciting the negroes on an estate to poison their master; and the
Englishman paid the forfeit of his life for a crime of which he was
entirely guiltless. The fiscal officers ranged the island, looking for
chances to murder, obtaining false testimony, seizing property, cattle,
furniture, horses, the property of freed blacks, which they sold,
converting the proceeds to their own use. This record seems incredible,
but it is vouched for beyond question. Furthermore, at this time no
comely colored woman was safe. If she happened to attract the lustful
eyes of a Spanish general, her husband or father or brothers were
seized, and she herself was delivered up to be ravished and then slain.
One of the episodes of this campaign was a largely attended ball, at
which no white woman was present, and at which all the colored women
were obliged to appear in the garb of Eve before the Fall.
[Illustration: JOSÉ ANTONIO SACO
One of the greatest of Cuban publicists, José Antonio Saco was born at
Bayamo on May 7, 1797; studied philosophy and politics, and succeeded
Varela as Professor of Philosophy at the San Carlos Seminary, Havana. In
1828 he founded in New York the "Mensajero Quincenal," and four years
later in Havana became editor of the _Revista Bimestre Cubana_. Because
of his defense of the Academy of Literature, Captain-General Tacon
banished him to the island of Trinidad. In 1836 he represented Cuba in
the Spanish Cortes, and afterward travelled in Europe. In Paris he
published a treatise of Cuban annexation to the United States, and after
the Lopex expedition he wrote again on the political situation in Cuba.
He was a member of the Junta of Information in 1866, and a Deputy to the
Cortes from Santiago de Cuba. He died at Barcelona, Spain, on September
26, 1879, and his body was returned to Cuba for burial. His greatest
literary work was a monumental "History of Slavery," but he wrote many
others on political, economical, social and literary subjects.]
The fiscal officers were able to carry out these infamies because they
were at once prosecuting attorney, judge and jury. They obtained
testimony, apprehended, imprisoned, condemned and executed. The
testimony which they extorted was taken without witnesses. They
themselves wrote down the declarations, distorting them to suit their
own purposes. The blacks seldom knew how to read or write, and they were
obliged to set their mark to anything which the fiscal officer chose to
record. Not even the notary who swore the witness was allowed to check
up the declaration with his knowledge of the statements. The Spanish
government had for a long time played the most corrupt and petty of
politics in apportioning the smaller offices on the island. Political
hangers-on, with little education, no moral sense and no honor, were
paid for their loyalty to Spain with these positions. The records show
that during this reign of terror one thousand three hundred and
forty-six people were victims of the inquisition.
But Spain in her campaigns of cruelty was only laying up trouble for
herself. She was raising a storm which would never again be completely
quelled until Cuba was free. The abolitionists and the liberals, or
those who longed for freedom from Spanish rule, began joining forces.
The cause of freedom for the slaves, and of separation from Spain, were
curiously interlaced. The country was worn out with turmoil and eager
for peace, but there could be no peace, it was believed, while Spain and
the Spaniards on Cuban soil ruled with such cruel measures.
The problem of how separation might be obtained was capable of either
of two solutions, by annexation to some other country, or by
independence. The cause of independence had at this time for its leader
a Cuban of the highest type, José Antonio Saco, who had traveled all
over the world, and was a man of fine education and great culture. The
larger proportion of those Cubans who were intelligent, and who were
thinking out for themselves the problem of the fate of Cuba, accepted
him as their leader. Of course, it is understood that all organization,
all plans and almost all conversation, except in whispers behind closed
doors, or in corners of cafes which seemed safe from surveillance, had
to be secret. To come out openly for the salvation of Cuba from Spanish
rule meant banishment or death.
Saco's ideas were well known to the Spanish governor, for in 1834 he had
been exiled because of them. But he was prudent, and was not disposed to
do anything that would hurl Cuba into the throes of revolution. He felt
that a revolution at this time, with the blacks subdued but not
conquered, might mean a race war which would be the most disastrous
thing that could happen to the island. He also opposed annexation to any
other country, particularly to the United States, because he felt that
Cuba, being in such close proximity to the latter country, would lose
her individuality, be absorbed and become Anglo-Saxon. In 1845 he wrote
on this subject, as follows:
"If the slave trade continues, there will be in Cuba neither peace nor
security. Their risings have occurred at all times; but they have always
been partial, confined to one or two forms, without plan or political
result. Very different is the character of the risings which at brief
intervals have occurred in 1842-43; and the conspiracy last discovered
is the most frightful which has even been planned in Cuba, at once on
account of its vast ramifications among slaves and free negroes, and on
account of its origin and purpose. It is not necessary that the negroes
should rise all at once all over the island; it is not necessary that
its fields should blaze in conflagration from one end to the other in a
single day; partial movements repeated here and there are enough to
destroy faith and confidence. Then emigration will begin, capital will
flee, agriculture and commerce will rapidly diminish, public revenues
will lessen, the poverty of these and the fresh demands imposed by a
continual state of alarm, will cause taxes to rise; and, with expenses
on the one hand increased, but with receipts diminished, the situation
of the island will grow more involved until there comes the most
terrible catastrophe."
[Illustration: GASPAR BETANCOURT
CISNEROS]
Again we find in a letter to a friend, Caspar Betancourt Cisneros,
written a little later than the former communication:
GASPAR BETANCOURT CISNEROS
Scion of a distinguished stock, Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros was born
in Camaguey in 1803 and was educated in the United States. In 1823
he went with other Cubans to Colombia to confer with Bolivar on the
theme of Cuban independence, and remained there for many years. In
1837 he began a notable series of papers in the Cuban press, on
familiar economic and educational topics, signing them El Lugareno;
under which pen name he became famous. He established schools and
agricultural colonies, and built the second railroad in Cuba. In
1846 while he was in Europe he was suspected of revolutionary
conspiracy, and his property was confiscated. He then became a
teacher in the United States, but returned to Cuba in 1861 and
became a journalist. He was too ill to accept election to the Junta
of Information, and died in 1866.
"Let there be neither war nor conspiracies of any kind in Cuba. In our
critical situation either one means the desolation of the country. Let
us bear the yoke of Spain. But let us bear it so as to leave to our
children, if not a country of liberty, at least one peaceful and
hopeful. Let us try with all our energies to put down the infamous
traffic in slaves; let us diminish without violence or injustice the
number of these; let us do what we can to increase the white population;
let us do all which you have always done, giving a good example to our
own fellow countrymen, and Cuba, our beloved Cuba, shall some day be
Cuba indeed!"
On the other hand the Annexationists were waging a vigorous though quiet
campaign. On April 20, 1848, a proclamation urging the Cubans to make
every effort to add their island to the United States appeared. It was
signed simply "Unos Cubanos," and urged opposition to Saco and his
sympathizers and a concerted effort to gain the political and civil
rights which were enjoyed by Americans. "Amalgamation of the races," ran
the proclamation, "would not extinguish Cuban nationality, for every
child born in Cuba would be at once a Cuban and an American. Cuba united
to this strong and respected nation, whose southern interests would be
identified with hers, would be assured quiet and future success; her
wealth would increase, doubling the value of her farms and slaves,
trebling that of her whole territory; liberty would be given to
individual action, and the system of hateful and harmful restrictions
which paralyze commerce and agriculture could be destroyed."
But no matter what the Cubans themselves might dream of or hope for,
Spain had not the slightest intention of surrendering Cuba without a
struggle. No country, not even one more altruistic in its policies, and
more highly civilized than Spain had shown herself to be at this time,
would be eager to relinquish a colony which brought her in a revenue of
three and a half millions clear, and which in the twenty years from 1830
to 1850 had poured over $50,000,000 into her coffers. Spain therefore
cast around for any expedient which would enable her to retain her last
possession in the new world. Roncali during his term as Captain-General
very clearly expressed his views as to where the Spanish interests in
Cuba lay:
"Among the considerable elements of power with which Spain counts in
this island, ought to be mentioned slavery. Permit me, your excellency,
to explain my belief in this regard. The interest in preserving their
fortunes and in developing the rich crops from which they spring causes
all the wealthy inhabitants of the country to fear the first whisper of
conflict which may relax the discipline of the slaves, or threaten
emancipation. From this fact I infer that slavery is the rein which,
through fear and interest, will keep in submission the great majority of
the white population. But if the event should arrive of foreign war and
of inner commotions such as to threaten the dependence of the island,
what should be the conduct of the Captain-General toward slavery? I, my
noble lord, state my solemn belief that this terrible weapon which the
government holds in its hand might in the last extremity prevent the
loss of the island, and that if the inhabitants are persuaded that it
will be used they will trouble and renounce every fond illusion rather
than draw down such an anathema. The chance is remote without doubt, but
that very fact makes me express myself clearly: the liberty of all the
slaves in a day of gravest peril, proclaimed by Her Majesty's
representative in these territories, would re-establish superiority and
even strengthen our power in a very real way, based as it would then be
on that very class which it seems best today to keep submerged. But if
that last resort should prove insufficient, or if it did not suit Spain
afterward to retain her hold, it may always be brought about that the
conquerors shall acquire Hayti instead of the rich and prosperous Cuba
and that the bastard sons who have brought down that calamity by their
rebellion shall meet in their complete ruin, punishment and
disillusionment. A principle of retributive justice or of harmony with
the maxims of modern civilization, to which it is so customary now to
appeal, would also call for general emancipation, at the moment when,
for whatever reason, Spain should decide to renounce the island.... So
far this trans-Atlantic province is still strongly attached to the
mother land, and thanks to the wisdom and material solicitude of Her
Majesty, I believe that the bonds of union will be still more
strengthened; but if the fate of nations brings to this land a day
pregnant with such circumstances as to threaten its loss, their national
honor and interest alike would demand that every recourse and means be
exhausted, without saving anything. If, even then, fortune should
abandon us, we should at least leave it written in history that our
departure from America corresponded to the heroic story of its
acquisition."