Shade-Grown Slavery: The Lives of Slaves on Coffee Plantations in Cuba

Notes

155 Notes Introduction Epigraph. Laird W. Bergad et al., The Cuban Slave Market, 1790–1880 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 29. 1. Except where otherwise noted, all translations are my own. Chapter 1 Epigraph. P. J. [Pierre-Joseph] Laborie, The Coffee Planter of Saint Domingo; with an appendix, containing a view of the constitution, government, and state of that colony, previous to the year 1789. To which are added, some hints on the present state of the island, under the British government (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1798), 14–15. 1. This story is based on a variety of accounts of life on plantations. For example, see Abbot, Letters; and Fredrika Bremer, Cartas desde Cuba, trans. Matilde Goulard de Westberg (Havana: Fundación Fernando Ortiz, 2002). 2. Pio and Gertrudis were married, but mandingo was not their married surname. Rather, it was an ethnic designation given by the slaveholder. I will discuss this issue and the problems related to these ethnic designations later. 3. I will be using the terms plantation and farm interchangeably for readability. I am aware of the distinction some have drawn between social and economic orders of plantations and haciendas; see, for example, Eric R. Wolf and Sidney W. Mintz, “Haciendas and Plantations in Middle America and the Antilles,” Social and Economic Studies 6, no. 3 (1957): 380–412. While this is a salient point, especially vis-à-vis my argument that crops matter, my usage nevertheless seems consistent with Spanish custom, in which plantación and finca are used as synonyms. 4. See, for example, Boubacar Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade, trans. Ayi Kwei Armah (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 5. The limitations of records always hamper these sorts of projects. Pio is not listed in an 1820 census of the farm but does appear in a later 1833 census. Miguel de Quintana, Ylario Loredo, Fran.co de Chappotin, Diego Hasbrook, Juan Llorena, and Fran.co Pedrerro, “Plano a fs. 672 de la 4a pieza. Plano de diez y un cuarto caballerías de tierra que medí en el partido de S. Marcos vínculo de Mey[I] reles y forman el cafetal nombrado La ‘Paciencia’ que quedó entre los bienes de D. Alonso Benigno Muñoz y hoy corresponde a D. Santiago F. Firmado por Desiderio Herrera. En los autos del concurso de acreedores de Dn. Alonso Benigno Muñoz,” 1833 (December 2), Fondo Escribanías de Ortega, Legajo 38, 156 Notes to Pages 9–11 Número 1, Archivo Nacional de Cuba (hereafter ANC). He was listed as married and appears to be well situated on the farm by that point, so it is reasonable to presume that he had been acquired at least a few years earlier. The acquisition of Pio and Gertrudis during the 1820s, coupled with their African origins, suggests they were part of the burgeoning illegal trade in slaves that continued for several decades in spite of British efforts to halt the practice through both international treaties and force. I make the distinction that Pio was a general laborer because some slaves did have specific skills and jobs, which were noted in the plantation inventory. An example of this distinction is José mina, who was listed as “cocinero” (cook) in the 1820 inventory. Manuel Lafita, “Los autos promovidos por D[on] José Silverio O’Halloran como apoderado de Los Colonos del vínculo de Río Grande de Maireles, sobre rebajo de censos,” 1820 (January 22), Fondo Escribanías de Varios, Legajo 236, Número 3561, A N C. 6. The vuelta abajo or vueltabajo is a region primarily known for tobacco cultivation. The territory is almost entirely within the current borders of the province of Pinar del Río and consists of a long narrow strip of land approximately fifteen kilometers wide and about one hundred kilometers long, much of it along the piedmont of the Organos mountains. It begins at the city of Artemisa in the east, near the current provincial border between Artemisa and Pinar del Río. The term vuelta abajo appears in documents as two words but also occasionally as a single word. In this work, the two-word spelling will be used with the exception of direct quotations. 7. A corral was a territorial division of land used in Cuba during the colonial era. The area of a corral was circular, with a radius of one league. 8. Antonio Núñez Jiménez, Geografia de Cuba, 2nd ed. (Havana: Editorial Lex...