Slavery in Cuba facts for kids

An enslaved Afro-Cuban person in the 1800s.

Slavery in Cuba was a system where people were forced to work without pay. This system was part of the larger Atlantic Slave Trade. It mainly supported Spanish plantation owners who grew sugarcane. Slavery was practiced in Cuba from the 1500s until it was officially ended by Spain on October 7, 1886.

The Spanish Empire first brought slavery to Cuba. They captured and enslaved the island's native Taíno and Guanahatabey people. Cuba's original population greatly decreased after the Spanish arrived. This was due to diseases like smallpox and the harsh forced labor. By the 1600s, most of the original Taíno people had mixed with Europeans or African enslaved people. Today, many Cubans still have Taíno DNA.

After the native population was almost gone, the Spanish needed new workers for their sugarcane farms. They brought over a million enslaved African people to Cuba. Over time, the number of enslaved African people became much larger than the number of European Cubans. A large part of Cubans today, possibly 65%, are descendants of these enslaved people.

Cuba became one of the world's biggest sugarcane producers after the Haitian Revolution. It continued to bring in enslaved Africans even after this practice was made illegal by other countries. Cuba did not stop participating in the slave trade until 1867. They did not end slave ownership until 1886. As it became harder to get enslaved African workers, Cuba also brought in over 100,000 Chinese workers. These workers came under a system called indentured servitude, where they worked for a period to pay off a debt.

History of Slavery in Cuba

By the 1550s, most of Cuba's native people, who were the first enslaved workers, had died. The Spanish then started bringing in enslaved African people. This was to solve the problem of not having enough workers.

Enslaved people in Cuba also worked in cities. They provided services to the ships of the Spanish treasure fleet. These ships came to Havana every year. In the 1500s and 1600s, enslaved people did many jobs in the city. They were skilled workers like shoemakers, tailors, and carpenters. Some were even silversmiths, sculptors, and painters. Some enslaved people in Havana had to find their own jobs and employers. They then gave a part of their earnings to their owners. This was a market-based system.

Life for enslaved people on sugarcane farms became very hard after the 1770s. This was when large farms grew in Western Cuba. In 1740, the Havana Company was created to help the sugar industry. It tried to encourage more enslaved people to be brought to Cuba, but it was not very successful at first.

In 1762, the British Empire captured Havana during the Seven Years' War with Spain. During their year-long control, the British expanded the farm system. They brought 4,000 enslaved people from their other lands in the British West Indies. These 4,000 people were almost 10% of all enslaved people brought to Cuba in the previous 250 years. Spain got control of Havana back in 1763. They gave Florida to the British in exchange.

The British had also freed 90 enslaved people who helped them during the invasion. Spanish officials realized that enslaved people might join other countries if offered freedom. So, they started giving out cartas de libertad (freedom papers). They freed about two dozen enslaved people who defended Havana. The Spanish Crown also brought in more enslaved people. This was to keep the loyalty of European-Cuban farm owners. It also increased money from the profitable sugar trade.

In 1792, enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) started a revolution. In 1803, ships with white European and free people of color refugees arrived in Cuba from Saint-Domingue. Even though these people were legally free under French law, Cubans classified those with any African background as enslaved. White passengers were allowed into Cuba. But African and mixed-race passengers were kept on the ships. Some white passengers even claimed some Black passengers as their enslaved people during the journey. Women of African descent and their children were especially at risk of being forced into slavery.

The Haitians finally gained their independence in 1804. They created the new Republic of Haiti. It was the second republic in the Western Hemisphere. It was also the first founded by formerly enslaved people. Cuban slaveholders watched these events closely. But they thought the rebellion was due to the extreme ideas of the French Revolution. As the new freed people in Haiti started small farms, Cuba's farm owners took over much of the sugar market. This market was once held by Saint-Domingue. As sugar became very important to Cuba's economy, farm owners brought in many more enslaved people from Africa. Because of this, over 91,000 enslaved people entered Cuba through Havana between 1791 and 1805.

In the early 1800s, Cuban farm owners watched debates about ending slavery in Britain and the United States. In 1807, both Britain and the United States banned the Atlantic slave trade. The British ban started in 1807, and the American ban in 1808. Unlike other parts of the Americas, the European-Cuban elite did not try to break away from Spain. They worried that this would encourage enslaved Cubans to revolt. Cuban elites asked the Spanish Crown to create their own slave-trading company. Smugglers continued to bring enslaved people to the island. They tried to avoid British and American anti-slavery patrols.

In March 1812, a series of revolts started on Cuban farms. These were led by a freedman named José Antonio Aponte. After the government stopped the revolts, hundreds of enslaved people were arrested. Many leaders were put on trial and executed.

By 1817, Britain and Spain worked together to improve their relationship. They negotiated the legal status of the Atlantic slave trade. A treaty in 1817 made Spain agree to immediately stop the slave trade north of the Equator. It also increased efforts against illegal slave ships. However, records show that 372,449 enslaved people were brought to Cuba before the slave trade officially ended. At least 123,775 were brought between 1821 and 1853.

Even as the slave trade stopped in other places, it continued in Cuba until 1867. Owning people as property remained legal in Cuba until 1880. The slave trade in Cuba did not fully end until 1886. This was when Spain officially abolished slavery. Cuba was one of the last countries in the Western Hemisphere to do so, just before Brazil.

Life for Enslaved People

Enslaved people who worked on sugar plantations and in sugar mills often faced the hardest conditions. Field work was very tough manual labor. It started at a young age. Workdays lasted almost 20 hours during harvest time. This included cutting crops, hauling wagons, and processing sugarcane with dangerous machines. Enslaved people were forced to live in barracoons. These were crowded and locked at night. They got only about three to four hours of sleep. The barracoons were very dirty and hot. They usually had no air flow, just a small barred hole in the wall.

Enslaved people who misbehaved, did not produce enough, or disobeyed their masters were often put in stocks. They were left there for days or even months.

Under Spanish law in the 1500s and 1600s, enslaved people had some rights. They could ask authorities to make sure these rights were followed. These rights were based on the Siete Partidas code. Some rights included the ability to buy their freedom. They also had access to Catholic practices like baptism and marriage. Buying freedom was often made easier by a legal custom called coartación. Through coartación, enslaved people could agree on a price for their freedom with their owner. They would pay for their freedom in payments. Enslaved people who made these agreements were called coartados.

In 1789, the Spanish Crown tried to improve slavery laws. This was because the need for enslaved workers in Cuba was growing. The Crown issued a law called the Código Negro Español (Spanish Black Code). This code set rules for food and clothing. It limited work hours and punishments. It also required religious teaching and protected marriages. It stopped young children from being sold away from their mothers. But farm owners often ignored these laws. They saw the code as a threat to their power.

The slave owners did not protest against all parts of the code. Many parts, they said, were already common practices. But they did object to limits on physical punishment. Slaveholders thought that enslaved Cubans would see these limits as weakness. They believed it would lead to resistance. Another problem was limiting work hours "from sunrise to sunset." Farm owners said that during harvest, cutting and processing cane quickly needed 20-hour days. Enslaved people on farms had very few chances to use these rights. Most coartados during this time were enslaved people who lived in cities.

Gender Roles in Slavery

Cuban society had strong ideas about gender roles. These ideas also affected enslaved people. Just as machismo meant men were in charge, marianismo meant white women were seen as superior to enslaved people. White Cuban men were expected to show power in public, like in the slave trade. White women controlled private spaces, including those where enslaved people worked. They did this through ideas like motherhood and honor.

In Cuba's slavery system, some work was done only by men, and some only by women. Enslaved women in Havana, from the 1500s onwards, worked in taverns, eating houses, and lodges. They also worked as laundresses and house servants.

History books have sometimes focused more on the role of men in fighting slavery. They have not always shown the role of enslaved women. But studies show that the link between gender and slave revolts was complex.

Some historical views suggest that enslaved women could only betray others in rebellions. This is because rebellion was seen as only for men. But enslaved women were known to play a key role in armed rebellions and other forms of resistance. One such leader was an enslaved woman named Carlota. She led a rebellion in the Triunvirate plantation in Matanzas in 1843. She is seen as a pioneer in the Cuban fight against slavery.

Enslaved women also resisted in ways that did not involve armed rebellion. Cuban oral stories and old newspaper ads show that some formerly enslaved women escaped from their owners. Also, in Latin cultures, racial separation was not always strict between white men and mixed-race women. So, some enslaved Cuban women gained their freedom through relationships with white men. Men who married enslaved women sometimes freed them and their children. Free mixed-race people then became another social group in Cuba. They were below ethnic Europeans but above enslaved Africans. Both freedmen and free people of color, who were generally mixed-race, made up 20% of the total Cuban population. They were 41% of the non-white Cuban population.

Literary Impact

Slavery left a lasting mark on Cuban culture. This impact continues to be seen today.

Images for kids

See also

In Spanish: Esclavitud en Cuba para niños