To Cuba and back. A vacation voyage. |
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
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| VII. |
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| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
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| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
 | XXIII. |
SLAVERY. |
| XXIV. |
| XXV. |
 | CHAPTER XXIII. To Cuba and back. |  |
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.
| CHAPTER XXIII. To Cuba and back. | |