To Cuba and Back · Chapter
Slavery explained
The chapter examines the institution of slavery in Cuba, analyzing the number of slaves, the legal framework governing slavery, and the gap between written laws and their enforcement.
What happens
The chapter examines the institution of slavery in Cuba, analyzing the number of slaves, the legal framework governing slavery, and the gap between written laws and their enforcement. It discusses the role of Coolie labor from China, the division of power between Creoles and Spaniards, and the legal rights of slaves, including the right to self-purchase and compulsory sale. The author reflects on the uncertain future of slavery and the labor question in Cuba.
Themes in this chapter
Slavery and Racial Hierarchy
The chapter details the legal status and conditions of slaves and free blacks in Cuba, highlighting the racial hierarchy and the division between Creoles and Spaniards.
Economic Exploitation and Sugar Monoculture
Coolie labor is described as a system of forced labor for sugar estates, with masters motivated only by labor value and neglect after usefulness ends.
Colonial Oppression and Despotism
The Spanish colonial government's laws and enforcement are examined, showing a conflict of interests between the slaveholding Creoles and Spanish authorities.
Uncertain Political Future of Cuba
The labor question and slavery's future are described as a 'black cloud' over the West Indies, with uncertainty about government action and potential insurrection.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator analyzes slavery statistics, laws, and enforcement in Cuba, drawing on personal observation and testimony from others.
- Coolies
Discussed as imported laborers from China, bound by contracts for eight years, kept under strict confinement and forced labor, with uncertain tenure and no family or religious support.
- Cubans
Mentioned as providing estimates of slave and Coolie numbers, and as being taxed for their slaves.
- Spaniards
Described as the ruling class holding civil offices, with laws made in Spain, creating a conflict of interests with Creole slaveholders.
Key passages
“the experiment of free labor be tried? Will the government try the experiment, and if so, on what terms and in what manner? If something is not done by the government, slavery will continue; for a successful insurrection of slaves in Cuba is impossible, and manumissions do not gain upon the births and importations.”
The narrator questions whether the government will attempt free labor, and warns that without intervention, slavery will persist because slave revolts are unlikely and voluntary emancipation cannot keep pace with population growth and imports.
Highlights the uncertainty around the future of labor in Cuba.
“The slave benefits by the division of power and property between the two rival and even hostile races of whites, the Creoles and the Spaniards. Spain is not slave-holding, at home; and so long as the laws are made in Spain, and the civil offices are held by Spaniards only, the slave has at least the advantage of a conflict of interests and principles, between the two classes that are concerned in his bondage.”
The slave gains some protection from the rivalry between Creole planters and Spanish officials, since Spain itself does not practice slavery and controls the laws and civil posts.
Explains how colonial power dynamics affect slave conditions.
“A slave may, on the same process of valuation, compel his master to transfer him to any person who will pay the money. For this purpose, he need establish no cause of complaint. It is enough if he desires to be transferred, and someone is willing to buy him.”
A slave can force his master to sell him to another buyer simply by expressing a wish to be transferred, without needing to prove mistreatment.
Describes the legal right to compulsory sale as a check on masters.