To Cuba and back. A vacation voyage. |
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| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
 | XXIII. | CHAPTER XXIII. |
| XXIV. |
| XXV. |
 | CHAPTER XXIII. To Cuba and back. |  |
CHAPTER XXIII.
To an American, from the free States, Cuba
presents an object of singular interest. His
mind is occupied and almost oppressed by the
thought of the strange problems that are in
process of solution around him. He is constantly
a critic, and a philosophizer, if not
a philosopher. A despotic civil government,
compulsory religious uniformity, and slavery,
are in full possession of the field. He is always
seeking information as to causes, processes
and effects, and almost as constantly
baffled. There are three classes of persons in
Cuba, from whom he receives contradictory
and irreconcilable statements: the Cubans, the
Spaniards, and foreigners of other nations. By
Cubans, I mean the Criollos (Creoles), or natives
of Cuba. By Spaniards, I mean the
Peninsulares, or natives of Old Spain. In the
French, Germans, and all other foreigners,
except Spaniards, who are residents on the
island, but not natives. This last class is
large, possesses a great deal of wealth, and
includes a great number of merchants, bankers
and other traders.
The Spaniards, or Peninsulares, constitute
the army and navy, the officers of the government
in all departments, judicial, educational,
fiscal and postal, the revenue and the police,
the upper clergy, and a large and wealthy class
of merchants, bankers, shopkeepers, and mechanics.
The higher military and civil officers
are from all parts of Spain; but the Catalans
furnish the great body of the mechanics and
small traders. The Spaniards may be counted
on as opponents of the independence of Cuba,
and especially of her annexation to the United
States. In their political opinions, they vary.
Some belong to the liberal, or Progresista
party, and others are advocates of, or at least
apologists for, the present order of things.
Their force and influence is increased by the
fact that the government encourages its military
terms of service, to remain in the island, still
holding some nominal office, or on the pay of
a retired list.
The foreign residents, not Spaniards, are
chiefly engaged in commerce, banking, or
trade, or are in scientific or mechanic employments.
These do not intend to become
citizens of Cuba. They strike no root into
the soil, but feel that they are only sojourners,
for purposes of their own. Of all classes of
persons, I know of none whose situation is
more unfavorable to the growth and development
of sentiments of patriotism and philanthropy,
and of interest in the future of a race,
than foreigners, temporarily resident, for purposes
of money-making only, in a country with
which they have nothing in common, in the future
or the past. This class is often called impartial.
I do not agree to that use of the term.
They are, indeed, free from the bias of feeling
or sentiment; and from the bias generated by
the combined action of men thinking and feeling
alike, which we call political party. But
they are subject to the attractions of interest;
as feeling. Planted in a soil where
the more tender and delicate fibres can take
no hold, they stand by the strong tap-root of
interest. It is for their immediate advantage
to preserve peace and the existing order of
things; and even if it may be fairly argued
that their ultimate interests would be benefited
by a change, yet the process is hazardous,
and the result not sure; and, at most,
they would do no more than take advantage
of the change, if it occurred. I should say, as
a general thing, that this class is content with
the present order of things. The island is
rich, production is large, commerce flourishes,
life and property are well protected, and if a
man does not concern himself with political or
religious questions, he has nothing to fear. Of
the Americans in this class, many, doubtless,
may be favorably inclined toward annexation,
but they are careful talkers, if they are so; and
the foreigners, not Americans, are of course
earnestly opposed to it, and the pendency of
the question tends to draw them towards the
present government.
It remains only to speak of the Cubans.
They are commonly styled Creoles. But as
that word includes natives of all Spanish
America, it is not quite definite. Of the Cubans;
a few are advocates of the present
government,—but very few. The far greater
part are disaffected. They desire something
approximating to self-government. If that can
be had from Spain, they would prefer it. If
not, there is nothing for them but independence,
or annexation to some other power.
Not one of them thinks of independence; and
if it be annexation, I believe their present impulse
is toward the United States. Yet on
this point, among even the most disaffected
of the Cubans, there is a difference of opinion.
Many of them are sincere emancipationists,
and fear that if they come in at the southern
end of our Union, that question is closed forever.
Others fear that the Anglo-Saxon race
would swallow up the power and property of
the island, as they have done in California
and Texas, and that the Creoles would go to
the wall.
It has been my fortune to see persons of
chief divisions, and from the subdivisions, and
to talk with them freely. From the sum of
their conflicting opinions and conflicting statements,
I have endeavored to settle upon some
things as certain; and, as to other things, to
ascertain how far the debatable ground extends,
and the principles which govern the
debate. From all these sources, and from my
own observations, I will endeavor to set down
what I think to be the present state of Cuba,
in its various interesting features, trusting to
do it as becomes one whose acquaintance with
the island has been so recent and so short.
POLITICAL CONDITION.
When the liberal constitutions were in force
in Spain, in the early part of this century, the
benefits of them extended to Cuba. Something
like a provincial legislature was established;
juntas, or advisory boards and committees,
discussed public questions, and made
recommendations; a militia was organized;
the right to bear arms was recognized; tribunals,
with something of the nature of juries,
free, and Cuba sent delegates to the Spanish
Cortes. This state of things continued, with
but few interruptions or variations, to 1825.
Then was issued the celebrated Royal Order
of May 29, 1825, under which Cuba has been
governed to the present hour. This Royal Order
is the only constitution of Cuba. It was
probably intended merely as a temporary order
to the then Captain-General; but it has been
found convenient to adhere to it. It clothes
the Captain-General with the fullest powers,
the tests and limit of which are as follows:
". . . . . fully investing you with the whole
extent of power which, by the royal ordinances,
is granted to the governors of besieged towns.
In consequence thereof, His Majesty most amply
and unrestrictedly authorizes your Excellency
not only to remove from the island such
persons, holding offices from government or
not, whatever their occupation, rank, class, or
situation in life may be, whose residence there
you may believe prejudicial, or whose public
or private conduct may appear suspicious to
you . . . . ."
So that, since 1825, Cuba has been not only
under martial law, but in a state of siege.
As to the more or less of justice or injustice,
of honesty or peculation, of fidelity or corruption,
of liberality or severity, with which these
powers may have been exercised, a residence
of a few days, the reading of a few books,
and conversations with a few men, though on
both sides, give me no right to pronounce.
Of the probabilities, all can judge; especially
when we remember that these powers are
wielded by natives of one country over natives
of another country.
Into the details and anecdotes, and the controversies
respecting motives, I do not enter.
Certain things we know. Since 1825, there
has been no legislative assembly in Cuba,
either provincial or municipal. The municipal
corporations (ayuntamientos) were formerly
hereditary, the dignity was purchasable, and
no doubt the bodies were corrupt. But they
exercised some control, at least in the levying
and expending of taxes; and, being hereditary,
were somewhat independent, and might have
served, like those of Europe in the middle ages,
the few powers they possessed, and the members
are now mere appointees of the Captain-General.
Since 1836, Cuba has been deprived
of its right to a delegation in the Cortes.
Since 1825, vestiges of anything approaching
to popular assemblies, juntas, a jury, independent
tribunals, a right of voting, or a right
to bear arms, have vanished from the island.
The press is under censorship; and so are the
theatres and operas. When "I Puritani" is
played, the singers are required to substitute
Lealtà for Libertà, and one singer was fined
and imprisoned for recusancy; and Facciolo,
the printer of a secretly circulated newspaper,
advocating the cause of Cuban independence,
was garroted. The power of banishing, without
a charge made, or a trial, or even a record,
but on the mere will of the Captain-General,
persons whose presence he thinks, or professes
to think, prejudicial to the government, whatever
their condition, rank, or office, has been
frequently exercised, and hangs at all hours
over the head of every Cuban. Besides, that
terrible power which is restrained only by the
time called into action. Cubans may be,
and I suppose usually are, regularly charged
and tried before judges, on political accusations;
but this is not their right; and the
judges themselves, even of the highest court,
the Real Audiencia, may be deposed and banished,
at the will of the military chief.
According to the strictness of the written
law, no native Cuban can hold any office of
honor, trust, or emolument in Cuba. The
army and navy are composed of Spaniards,
even to the soldiers in the ranks, and to the
sailors at the guns. It is said by the supporters
of the government that this order is not adhered
to; and they point to a capitan-general,
an intendente, and a chief of the customs, who
were Cubans. Still, such is the written law;
and if a few Cubans are put into office against
the law, those who are so favored are likely to
be the most servile of officers, and the situation
of the rest is only the more degraded. Notwithstanding
the exceptions, it may be said
with substantial truth, that an independent
Cuban has open to him no career, civil or military.
some Cubans are admitted, but they hold their
places at the will of the government; and none
are allowed to join or remain with them unless
they are acceptable to the government.
There are vexatious and mortifying regulations,
too numerous and minute to be complied
with or even remembered, and which put the
people in danger of fines or extortion at every
turn. Take, for instance, the regulation that
no man shall entertain a stranger over night at
his house, without previous notice to the magistrate.
As to the absolute prohibition of concealed
weapons, and of all weapons but the
regulation sword and pistols,—it was no doubt
introduced and enforced by Tacon as a means
of suppressing assassinations, broils and open
violence; and it has made life safer in Havana
than it is in New York; yet it cannot be denied
that it created a serious disability. In
fine, what is the Spanish government in Cuba,
but an armed monarchy, encamped in the
midst of a disarmed and disfranchised people?
The taxes paid by the Cubans on their property,
and the duties levied on their commerce,
than $16,000,000 a year. Cuba pays all the
expenses of its own government, the salaries
of all officers, the entire cost of the army and
navy quartered upon it, the maintenance of
the Roman Catholic religion, and of all the
charitable and benevolent institutions, and
sends an annual remittance to Spain.[1]
The number of Spanish men-of-war stationed
on the coast, varies from twenty-five
to thirty. Of the number of soldiers of the
regular army in Cuba, it is difficult to form an
opinion. The official journal puts them at
30,000. The lowest estimate I heard, was
25,000; and the highest was 40,000. Judging
from the number of sick I saw at the Hospital
Militar, I should not be surprised if the larger
estimate was nearer the truth.
Education is substantially in the hands of
the government. As an instance of their strictness,
no man can take a degree at the University,
unless he makes oath that he does not
belong to, any society not known to and permitted
by the government.
But details are of little importance. The
actual administration may be a little more or
less rigid or lax. In its legal character, the
government is an unmixed despotism of one
nation over another.
Since my return, it has been officially announced that
a commission is to be appointed to revise and reduce the
tariffs of duties.
Religion.
No religion is tolerated but the Roman
Catholic. Formerly the church was wealthy,
authoritative and independent, and checked
the civil and military power by an ecclesiastical
power wielded also by the dominant nation.
But the property of the church has been
sequestrated and confiscated, and the government
now owns all the property once ecclesiastical,
including the church edifices, and appoints
all the clergy, from the bishop to the
humblest country curate. All are salaried officers.
And so powerless is the church, that,
however scandalous may be the life of a parish
priest, the bishop cannot remove him. He can
only institute proceedings against him before
large control, with a certainty of long delays,
and entire uncertainty as to the result. The
bishopric of Havana was formerly one of the
wealthiest sees in Christendom. Now the salary
is hardly sufficient to meet the demands
which custom makes in respect of charity, hospitality
and style of living. It may be said,
I think with truth, that the Roman Catholic
Church has now neither civil nor political
power in Cuba.
That there was a long period of time during
which the morals of the clergy were excessively
corrupt, I think there can be no doubt. Make
every allowance for theological bias, or for
irreligious bias, in the writers and tourists in
Cuba, still, the testimony from Roman Catholics
themselves is irresistible. The details, it
is not worth while to contend about. It is
said that a family of children, with a recognized
relation to its female head, which the
rule of celibacy prevented ever becoming a
marriage, was general with the country priesthood.
A priest who was faithful to that relation,
and kept from cock-fighting and gambling,
the common people. Cuba became a kind
of Botany Bay for the Romish clergy. There
they seem to have been concealed from the eye
of discipline. With this state of things, there
existed, naturally enough, a vast amount of
practical infidelity among the people, and
especially among the men, who, it is said,
scarcely recognized religious obligations at
all.
No one can observe the state of Europe
now, without seeing that the rapidity of communication
by steam and electricity has
tended to add to the efficiency of the central
power of the Roman Catholic Church, and to
the efficacy and extent of its discipline. Cuba
has begun to feel these effects. Whether they
have yet reached the interior, or the towns
generally, I do not know; but the concurrent
testimony of all classes satisfied me that a
considerable change has been effected in Havana.
The instrumentalities which that church
brings to bear in such cases, are in operation
: frequent preaching, and stricter discipline
of confession and communion. The most
men of character and weight, who have become
earnest in the use of these means. Much
of this must be attributed, no doubt, to the
Jesuits; but how long they will be permitted
to remain here, and what will be the permanent
effects of the movement, I cannot, of course,
conjecture.
I do not enter into the old field of contest.
"We care not," says one side," which be
cause and which effect;—whether the people
are Papists, because they are what they are, or
are as they are because they are Papists. It
is enough that the two things coexist." The
other side replies that no Protestant institutions
have ever yet been tried for any length
of time, and to any large extent, with southern
races, in a tropical climate; and the question,
—what would be their influence, and what the
effect of surrounding causes upon them, lies
altogether in the region of conjecture, or, at
best, of faith.
Of the moral habits of the clergy, as of the
people, at the present time, I am entirely unable
to judge. I saw very little that indicated
people. Five minutes of a street view of London
by night, exhibits more vice, to the casual
observer, than all Havana for a year. I do not
mean to say that the social morals of the Cubans
are good, or are bad; I only mean to say
that I am not a judge of the question.
The most striking indication of the want
of religious control, is the disregard of the
Lord's Day. All business seems to go on as
usual, unless it be in the public offices. The
chain-gang works in the streets, under public
officers. House-building and mechanic trades
go on uninterrupted; and the shops are more
active than ever. The churches, to be sure,
are open and well filled in the morning; and
I do not refer to amusements and recreations;
I speak of public, secular labor. The Church
must be held to some responsibility for this.
Granted that Sunday is not the Sabbath.
Yet, it is a day which, by the rule of the Roman
Church, the English Church in England
and America, the Greek Church and other Oriental
Churches,—all claiming to rest the rule
on Apostolic authority, as well as by the usage
whether Lutherans or Calvinists,—is a day of
rest from secular labor, and especially from enforced
labor. Pressing this upon an intelligent
ecclesiastic, his reply to me was that the
Church could not enforce the observance;—
that it must be enforced by the civil authorities;
and the civil authorities fall in with the
selfishness and gratifications of the ruling
classes. And he appealed to the change lately
wrought in Paris, in these respects, as evidence
of the consistency of his Church. This is an
answer, so far as concerns the Church's direct
authority; but it is an admission either of
feeble moral power, or of neglect of duty in
times past. An embarrassment in the way of
more strictness as to secular labor, arises from
the fact that slaves are entitled to their time
on Sundays, beyond the necessary labor of
providing for the day; and this time they may
use in working out their freedom.
Another of the difficulties the church has to
contend with, arises out of negro slavery. The
Church recognizes the unity of all races, and
allows marriage between them. The civil law
prohibits marriage between whites and persons
who have any tinge of the black blood. In
consequence of this rule, concubinage prevails,
to a great extent, between whites and mulattoes
or quadroons, often with recognition of
the children. If either party to this arrangement
comes under the influence of the Church's
discipline, the relation must terminate. The
Church would allow and advise marriage; but
the law prohibits it—and if there should be a
separation, there may be no provision for the
children. This state of things creates no small
obstacle to the influence of the Church over the
domestic relations.
SLAVERY.
It is difficult to come to a satisfactory conclusion
as to the number of slaves in Cuba.
The census of 1857 puts it at 375,000; but
neither this census nor that of 1853 is to be
relied upon, on this point. The Cubans are
taxed for their slaves, and the government find
it difficult, as I have said, to get correct returns.
No person of intelligence in Cuba,
lowest, has stated it to me at less than 500,000.
Many set it at 700,000. I am inclined to think
that 600,000 is the nearest to the truth.
The census makes the free blacks, in 1857,
125,000. It is thought to be 200,000, by
the best authorities. The whites are about
700,000. The only point in which the census
seems to agree with public opinion, is in the
proportion. Both make the proportion of
blacks to be about one free black to three
slaves; and make the whites not quite equal
to the entire number of blacks, free and slave
together. As to the Coolies, it is impossible
to do more than conjecture. In 1853, they
were not noticed in the census; and in 1857,
hardly noticed. The number imported may,
to some extent, be obtained from the records
and files of the Aduana, but not so as to be
relied upon. I heard the number estimated at
200,000 by intelligent and well-informed Cubans.
Others put it as low as 60,000. Certain
it is that Coolies are to be met with
everywhere, in town and country.
To ascertain the condition of slaves in
the laws, and secondly, the execution of the
laws. The written laws, there is no great difficulty
in ascertaining. As to their execution,
there is room for opinion.
At this point, one general remark should be
made, which I deem to be of considerable importance.
The laws relating to slavery do
not emanate from the slave-holding mind; nor
are they interpreted or executed by the slaveholding
class. 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 slaveholding,
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 fact that one negro in every four is free,
indicates that the laws favor emancipation.
They do both favor emancipation, and favor
the free blacks after emancipation. The stranger
visiting Havana will see a regiment of one
the troops of the line and the white volunteers,
and keeping guard in the Obra Pia. When it
is remembered that the bearing arms and performing
military duty as volunteers, is esteemed
an honor and privilege, and is not allowed to
the whites of Creole birth, except to a few who
are favored by the government, the significance
of this fact may be appreciated. The Cuban
slave-holders are more impatient under this
favoring of the free blacks, than under almost
any other act of the government. They see in
it an attempt, on the part of the authorities, to
secure the sympathy and coöperation of the
free blacks, in case of a revolutionary movement,
—to set race against race, and to make
the free blacks familiar with military duty,
while the whites are growing up in ignorance
of it. In point of civil privileges, the free
blacks are the equals of the whites. In courts
of law, as witnesses or parties, no difference
is known; and they have the same rights as to
the holding of lands and other property. As
to their social position, I have not the means
of speaking. I should think it quite as good
as it is in New England, if not better.
So far as to the position of the blacks, when
free. The laws also directly favor emancipation.
Every slave has a right to go to a magistrate
and have himself valued, and on paying
the valuation, to receive his free papers. The
valuation is made by three assessors, of whom
the master nominates one and the magistrate
the other two. The slave is not obliged to pay
the entire valuation at once; but may pay it in
instalments, of not less than fifty dollars each.
These payments are not made as mere advances
of money, on the security of the master's
receipt, but are part purchases. Each
payment makes the slave an owner of such a
portion of himself, pro parte indivisâ, or as
the Common Law would say, in tenancy-in-common,
with his master. If the valuation
be one thousand dollars, and he pays one hundred
dollars, he is owned, one tenth by himself
and nine tenths by his master. It has been
said, in nearly all the American books on Cuba,
that, on paying a share, he becomes entitled
to a corresponding share of his time and labor;
but, from the best information I can get, I think
this is a mistake. The payment affects the
all is paid, the master's dominion over the
slave is not reduced, as respects either discipline,
or labor, or right of transfer; but if the
slave is sold, or goes by operation of law to
heirs or legatees or creditors, they take only
the interest not paid for, subject to the right of
future payment under the valuation.
There is another provision, which, at first
sight, may not appear very important, but
which is, I am inclined to think, the best practical
protection the slave has against ill treatment
by his master: that is, the right to a
compulsory sale. 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 some one is willing
to buy him. This operates as a check
upon the master, and an inducement to him
to remove special causes of dissatisfaction;
and it enables the better class of slave-holders
in a neighborhood, if cases of ill-usage are
known, to relieve the slave, without contention
or pecuniary loss.
In making the valuation, whether for emancipation
or compulsory transfer, the slave is
to be estimated at his value as a common
laborer, according to his strength, age, and
health. If he knows an art or trade, however
much that may add to his value, only one
hundred dollars can be added to the estimate
for this trade or art. Thus the skill, industry
and character of the slave, do not furnish an
obstacle to his emancipation or transfer. On
the contrary, all that his trade or art adds
to his value, above one hundred dollars, is, in
fact, a capital for his benefit.
There are other provisions for the relief of
the slave, which, although they may make even
a better show on paper, are of less practical
value. On complaint and proof of cruel
treatment, the law will dissolve the relation
between master and slave. No slave can be
flogged with more than twenty-five lashes,
by the master's authority. If his offence is
thought greater than that punishment will suffice
for, the public authorities must be called
in. A slave mother may buy the freedom
of her infant, for twenty-five dollars. If slaves
be separated against their will; and the
mother has the right to keep her nursing
child. Each slave is entitled to his time on
Sundays and all other holidays, beyond two
hours allowed for necessary labor, except on
sugar estates during the grinding season.
Every slave born on the island is to be baptized
and instructed in the Catholic faith, and
to receive Christian burial. Formerly, there
were provisions requiring religious services and
instruction on each plantation, according to
its size; but I believe these are either repealed,
or become a dead letter. There are also provisions
respecting the food, clothing and treatment
of slaves in other respects, and the providing
of a sick room and medicines, &c.;
and the government has appointed magistrates,
styled Sindicos, numerous enough, and
living in all localities, whose duty it is to attend
to the petitions and complaints of slaves,
and to the measures relating to their sale,
transfer or emancipation.
As to the enforcement of these laws, I have
little or no personal knowledge to offer; but
sure, from my own observation, and from
the concurrent testimony of books, and of persons
of all classes with whom I have conversed.
The rule respecting religion is so far observed
as this, that infants are baptized, and
all receive Christian burial. But there is no
enforcement of the obligation to give the slaves
religious instruction, or to allow them to attend
public religious service. Most of those
in the rural districts see no church and no
priest, from baptism to burial. If they do receive
religious instruction, or have religious
services provided for them, it is the free gift
of the master.
Marriage by the Church is seldom celebrated.
As in the Roman Church marriage is
a sacrament and indissoluble, it entails great
inconvenience upon the master, as regards sales
or mortgages, and is a restraint on the negroes
themselves, to which it is not always easy to
reconcile them. Consequently, marriages are
usually performed by the master only, and of
course, carry with them no legal rights or
connection has been but little attended to.
While the slave-trade was allowed, the planters
supplied their stock with bozales (native
Africans) and paid little attention, even on
economic principles, to the improvement, or,
speaking after the fashion of cattle-farms, to
the increase of the stock on the plantation.
Now that importation is more difficult, and
labor is in demand, their attention is more
turned to their own stock, and they are beginning
to learn, in the physiology of increase,
that canon which the Everlasting has fixed
against promiscuous intercourse.
The laws respecting valuation, the purchase
of freedom at once or by instalments, and the
compulsory transfer, I know to be in active
operation in the towns, and on plantations
affording easy access to towns or magistrates.
I heard frequent complaints from slave-holders
and those who sympathized with them, as to
the operation of these provisions. A lady in
Havana had a slave who was an excellent
cook; and she had been offered $1700 for him,
and refused it. He applied for valuation for
$1000 as a laborer, which, with the $100 for
his trade, made a loss to the owner of $600,
and, as no slave can be subsequently sold for
a larger sum than his valuation, this provision
gave the slave a capital of $600. Another
instance was of a planter near Matanzas, who
had a slave taught as a carpenter; but after
learning his trade, the slave got himself transferred
to a master in the city, for the opportunity
of working out his freedom, on holidays
and in extra hours. So general is the enforcement
of these provisions, that it is said to
have resulted in a refusal of many masters to
teach their slaves any art or trade, and in the
hiring of the labor of artizans of all sorts, and
the confining of the slaves to mere manual
labor. I heard of complaints of the conduct
of individuals who were charged with attempting
to influence the credulous and too ready
slaves to agree to be transferred to them, either
to gratify some ill-will against the owner, or
for some supposed selfish interest. From the
frequency of this tone of complaint and anecdote,
as well as from positive assertions on
have considerable efficacy.
As to the practical advantage the slaves can
get from these provisions in remote places; and
as to the amount of protection they get anywhere
from the special provisions respecting
punishment, food, clothing, and treatment generally,
almost everything lies in the region of
opinion. There is no end to statement and
anecdote on each side. If one cannot get a
full and lengthened personal experience, not
only as the guest of the slave-holder, but as
the companion of the local magistrates, of the
lower officers on the plantation, of slave-dealers
and slave-hunters, and of the emancipated
slaves, I advise him to shut his ears to mere
anecdotes and general statements, and to trust
to reasonable deductions from established facts.
The established facts are, that one race, having
all power in its hands, holds an inferior
race in slavery; that this bondage exists in
cities, in populous neighborhoods, and in remote
districts; that the owners are human
beings, of tropical races, and the slaves are
human beings just emerging from barbarism;
by a low-lived and low-minded class of
intermediate agents. What is likely to be the
effect on all the parties to this system, judging
from all we know of human nature?
If persons coming from the North are credulous
enough to suppose that they will see
chains and stripes and tracks of blood; and
if, taking letters to the best class of slaveholders,
seeing their way of life, and hearing
their dinner-table anecdotes, and the breakfast-table
talk of the ladies, they find no outward
signs of violence or corruption, they will probably,
also, be credulous enough to suppose
they have seen the whole of slavery. They
do not know that that large plantation, with
its smoking chimneys, about which they hear
nothing, and which their host does not visit,
has passed to the creditors of the late owner,
who is a bankrupt, and is in charge of a manager,
who is to get all he can from it in the
shortest time, and to sell off the slaves as he
can, having no interest, moral or pecuniary, in
their future. They do not know that that
other plantation, belonging to the young man
abode of licentiousness and cruelty. Neither
do they know that the tall hounds chained at
the kennel of the house they are visiting, are
Cuban bloodhounds, trained to track and to
seize. They do not know that the barking
last night was a pursuit and capture, in which
all the white men on the place took part; and
that, for the week past, the men of the plantation
have been a committee of detective and
protective police. They do not know that the
ill-looking man who was there yesterday, and
whom the ladies did not like, and all treated
with ill-disguised aversion, is a professed hunter
of slaves. They have never seen or heard
of the Sierra del Cristal, the mountain-range
at the eastern end of Cuba, inhabited by runaways,
where white men hardly dare to go.
Nor do they know that those young ladies,
when little children, were taken to the city in
the time of the insurrection in the Vuelta de
Arriba. They have not heard the story of that
downcast-looking girl, the now incorrigibly
malignant negro, and the lying mayoral. In
the cities, they are amused by the flashy dresses,
and pleased with the respectfulness of their
manners, and hear anecdotes of their attachment
to their masters, and how they so dote
upon slavery that nothing but bad advice
can entice them into freedom; and are told,
too, of the worse condition of the free blacks.
They have not visited the slave-jails, or the
whipping-posts in the house outside the walls,
where low whites do the flogging of the city
house-servants, men and women, at so many
reals a head.
But the reflecting mind soon tires of the
anecdotes of injustice, cruelty and licentioushness
on the one hand, and of justice, kindness
and mutual attachment, on the other. You
know that all coexist; but in what proportion
you can only conjecture. You know what
slavery must be, in its effect on both the parties
to it. You seek to grapple with the problem
itself. And, stating it fairly, it is this,—Shall
the industry of Cuba go on, or shall the island
be abandoned to a state of nature? If the
former, and if the whites cannot do the hard
labor in that climate, and the blacks can, will
all the land and improvements, surrender them
to the blacks and leave the island, or will they
remain? If they must be expected to remain,
what is to be the relation of the two races?
The blacks must do the hard work, or it will
not be done. Shall it be the enforced labor of
slavery, or shall 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.
As to the Coolie labor, I do not know that I
have anything to add to what I have already
incidentally stated. The Coolies are from
China; and there is no law of China regulating
or supervising their contracts there, or their
shipment, or making any provisions for their
security. Neither are there any specific laws
of Cuba regulating their delivery here, or the
relations between them and their masters.
The Cuban authorities assume them to be
no more. That they are kept in strict confinement
until sold, and then kept to labor by
force, there is no doubt. I suppose there is
as little doubt that the form of a contract is
gone through with, which binds them to all
labor for eight years, at four dollars per month
and their board and two suits of clothes annually.
It is not yet eight years since their
introduction; and it remains to be decided
what this contract amounts to. That they
can be forced into a servitude for life, if it is
for the interest of their purchasers to force
them to it, and the government does not interfere
energetically, there can be as little doubt.
It is known by all, I suppose, that no women
or children are imported; and it is said that
they do not amalgamate with the people of
color. The tenure is so uncertain that their
master has little motive to do more than keep
them up to the labor point, so long as their
labor is valuable, and to neglect them utterly,
when it ceases to be so. They are deprived
of all the sympathetic and humanizing influences
and protections of home, family, common
are idolaters; but no one seems enough interested
in them to undertake their conversion.
They are taught to labor, and taught nothing
else. Their presence in Cuba adds another
distressing element to the difficulties of the
labor question, which hangs, like a black cloud,
over all the islands of the West Indies.
MATERIAL RESOURCES. EDUCATION.
Cuba contains more good harbors than does
any part of the United States south of Norfolk.
Its soil is very rich, and there are no large
wastes of sand, either by the sea or in the interior.
The coral rocks bound the sea, and the
grass and trees come down to the coral rocks.
The surface of the country is diversified by
mountains, hills and undulating lands, and is
very well wooded, and tolerably well watered.
It is interesting and picturesque to the eye,
and abounds in flowers, trees of all varieties,
and birds of rich plumage, though not of rich
notes. It has mines of copper, and probably of
iron, and is not cursed with gold or silver ore.
There is no anthracite, but probably a large
can be used for manufactures. It has also
marble, and other kinds of stone; and the hard
woods, as mahogany, cedar, ebony, iron-wood,
lignum-vitæ, &c., are in abundance. Mineral
salt is to be found, and probably in sufficient
quantities for the use of the island. It is the
boast of the Cubans, that the island has no
wild beasts or venomous reptiles. This has
been so often repeated by tourists and historians,
that I suppose it must be admitted to
be true, with the qualification that they have
the scorpion, and tarantula, and nigua; but
they say that the bite of the scorpion and
tarantula, though painful, is not dangerous to
life. The nigua, (sometimes called chigua,
and by the English corrupted into jigger,) is
troublesome; and if it be permitted to lie long
under the flesh, is ineradicable, and makes amputation
necessary. With these exceptions,
the claim to freedom from wild or venomous
animals may be admitted. Their snakes are
harmless, and the mosquitoes no worse than
those of New England.
As to the climate, I have no doubt that in
healthy and delightful, in summer as well
as in winter; but on the river borders, in the
low lands of black earth, and on the savannas,
intermittent fever and fever-and-ague prevail.
The cities have the scourge of yellow fever;
and, of late years, also the cholera. In the
cities, I suppose, the year may be divided, as
to sickness, into three equal portions: four
months of winter, when they are safe; four
of summer, when they are unsafe; and four
of spring and autumn, when they are passing
from one state to the other. There are,
indeed, a few cases of vomito in the course
of the winter, but they are little regarded,
and must be the result of extreme imprudence.
It is estimated that twenty-five per
cent. of the soldiers die of yellow fever the first
years of their acclimation; and during the
year of the cholera, sixty per cent. of the
newly-arrived soldiers died. The mean temperature
in winter is 70°, and in summer 83°,
Fahrenheit. The island has suffered severely
from hurricanes, although they are not so frequent
as in others of the West India islands.
and have suffered from droughts in winter,
though usually the heavy dews keep vegetation
green through the dry season.
That which has been to me, personally, most
unexpected, is the industry of the island. It
seems to me that, allowing for the heat of
noon and the debilitating effect of the climate,
the industry in agriculture and trade is rather
striking. The sugar crop is enormous. The
annual exportation is about 400,000 tons, or
about 2,000,000 boxes, and the amount consumed
on the island is very great, not only in
coffee and in daily cooking, but in the making
of preserves and sweetmeats, which are a considerable
part of the food of the people. There
is also about half a million hogsheads of molasses
exported annually. Add to this, the
coffee, tobacco and copper, and a general notion
may be got of the industry and productions
of the island. Its weak point is the want
of variety. There are no manufactures of
any consequence; the mineral exports are not
great; and, in fact, sugar is the one staple.
All Cuba has but one neck,—the worst wish
of the tyrant.
As to education, I have no doubt that a
good education in medicine, and a respectable
course of instruction in the Roman and Spanish
law, and in the natural sciences, can be obtained
at the University of Havana; and that
a fair collegiate education, after the manner of
the Latin races, can be obtained at the Jesuit
College, the Seminario, and other institutions
at Havana, and in the other large cities; and
the Sisters of the Sacred Heart have a flourishing
school for girls at Havana. But the
general elementary education of the people is
in a very low state. The scattered life of
planters is unfavorable to public day-schools,
nay, almost inconsistent with their existence.
The richer inhabitants send their children
abroad, or to Havana: but the middle and
lower classes of whites cannot do this. The
tables show that of the free white children,
not more than one in sixty-three attend any
school, while in the British West India islands,
the proportion is from one in ten to one in
twenty. As to the state of education, culture
and literary habits among the upper
classes, my limited experience gives me no
of tourists and other writers on Cuba is,
that the habits of the Cuban women of the
upper and middle classes are unintellectual.
To return to the political state and prospects
of Cuba. As for those persons whose political
opinions and plans are not regulated by moral
principle, it may be safely said, that whatever
their plans, their object will not be the good of
Cuba, but their own advantage. Of those
who are governed by principle, each man's
expectation or plan will depend upon the general
opinion he entertains respecting the nature
of men and of society. This is going
back a good way for a test; but I am convinced
it is only going to the source of opinion
and action. If a man believes that human nature
in an unrestrained course, is good, and
self-governing, and that when it is not so, there
is a temporary and local cause to be assigned
for the deviation; if he believes that men, at
least in civilized society, are independent beings,
by right entitled to, and by nature capable
of, the exercise of popular self-government,
exercise, it is because they have been deprived
of it by somebody's fraud or violence, which
ought to be detected and remedied, as we
abate a public nuisance in the highway; if a
man thinks that overturning a throne and
erecting a constitution will answer the purpose;
—if these are his opinions as to men and
society, his plan for Cuba, and for every other
part of the world, may be simple. No wonder
such an one is impatient of the inactivity of
the governed masses, and is in a constant state
of surprise that the fraud and violence of a few
should always prevail over the rights and merits
of the many—when they themselves might
end their thraldom by a blow, and put their
oppressors to rest—by a bare bodkin!
But if the history of the world and the observation
of his own times have led a man to the
opinion that, of divine right and human necessity,
government of some sort there must be,
in which power must be vested somewhere,
and exercised somehow; that popular self-government
is rather of the nature of a faculty
than of a right; that human nature is so constituted
in any place and nation, is, on the whole, the
fair result of conflicting forces of good and
evil—the power being in proportion to the need
of power, and the franchises to the capacity for
using franchises; that autocrats and oligarchs
are the growth of the soil; and that every
people has, in the main, and in the long run,
a government as good as it deserves—If such
is the substance of the belief to which he has
been led or forced, he will look gravely upon
the future of such a people as the Cubans,
and hesitate as to the invention and application
of remedies. If he reflects that of all the
nations of the southern races in North and
South America, from Texas to Cape Horn,
the Brazilians alone, who have a constitutional
monarchy, are in a state of order and progress;
and if he further reflects that Cuba, as a royal
province, with all its evils, is in a better condition
than nearly all the Spanish republican
states,—he may well be slow to believe that,
with their complication of difficulties, and
causes of disorder and weakness,—with their
half million or more of slaves and quarter million
and their divided and hostile races of whites,—
their Spanish blood, and their utter want of
experience in the discharge of any public duties,
the Cubans will work out successfully
the problem of self-government. You cannot
reason from Massachusetts to Cuba. When
Massachusetts entered into the Revolution,
she had had one hundred and fifty years of
experience in popular self-government; under
a system in which the exercise of this power
was more generally diffused among the people,
and extended over a larger class of subjects,
and more decentralized, than had ever been
known before in any part of the world, or at
any period of the world's story. She had been,
all along, for most purposes, an independent
republic, with an obligation to the British Empire
undefined and seldom attempted to be enforced.
The thirteen colonies were ships fully
armed and equipped, officered and manned,
with long sea experience, sailing as a wing of
a great fleet, under the Admiral's fleet signals.
They had only to pass secret signals, fall out
of line, haul their wind, and sail off as a
with the rest of the fleet made chase and
gave battle, it was sailor to sailor and ship to
ship. But Cuba has neither officers trained
to the quarter-deck, nor sailors trained to the
helm, the yard, or the gun. Nay, the ship is
not built, nor the keel laid, nor is the timber
grown, from which the keel is to be cut.
The natural process for Cuba is an amelioration
of her institutions under Spanish
auspices. If this is not to be had, or if the
connection with Spain is dissolved in any
way, she will probably be substantially under
the protection of some other power, or a part
of another empire. Whatever nation may
enter upon such an undertaking as this,
should take a bond of fate. Beside her internal
danger and difficulties, Cuba is implicated
externally with every cause of jealousy
and conflict. She has been called the key to
the Gulf of Mexico. But the Gulf of Mexico
cannot be locked. Whoever takes her is more
likely to find in her a key to Pandora's box.
Close upon her is the great island of Jamaica,
where the experiment of free negro
to her is Hayti, where the experiment of negro
self-government is on trial. And further
off, separated, it is true, by the great Gulf
Stream, and with the neighborhood of the almost
uninhabited and uninhabitable sea-coast
of Southern Florida, yet near enough to furnish
some cause for uneasiness, are the slave-states
of the Great Republic. She is an
island, too; and as an island, whatever power
holds or protects her, must maintain on the
spot a sufficient army and navy, as it would
not do to rely upon being able to throw in
troops and munitions of war, after notice
of need.
As to the wishes of the Cubans themselves,
the degree of reliance they place, or are entitled
to place, on each other, and their opportunities
and capacity for organized action
of any kind, I have already set down all I
can be truly said to know; and there is no
end to assertion and conjecture, or to the
conflicting character of what is called information,
whether received through men or
books.
| CHAPTER XXIII. To Cuba and back. | |