230 CUBA 



more just than theirs, no self-sacrificing heroism greater, and 

 3^et the world, during all the agitation of the past three years, 

 has known little of them, so completely have they been cut off 

 from communication, while such little as has been heard has 

 had to find its outlet through the stronghold of their enemies. 



THE NEGROES 



In addition to the white Creole population, 32 per cent are 

 black or colored — using the latter word in its correct signifi- 

 cation, of a mixture of the black and white. This black popu- 

 lation of Cuba has been as little -understood in this country as 

 has been the Creole, especially by those who have alleged that 

 in case Cuba should gain her freedom the island would become 

 a second Haiti. The black and colored people of the island as 

 a class are more independent and manly in their bearing than 

 their brethren of the United States, having possessed even be- 

 fore slavery was abolished on the island the four rights of free 

 marriage, of seeking a new master at their option, of purchasing 

 their freedom by labor, and of acquiring property. While the 

 negro shares with the Creole the few local rights possessed by 

 any of the inhabitants, their social privileges are greater than 

 here, although a strong caste feeling exists. Miscegenation has 

 also produced many mulattoes, but race mixture is no more 

 common than in this country. 



The colored people of Cuba belong to several distinct classes. 

 The majority of them are descendants of slaves imported during 

 the present century, but a large number, like the negroes of Co- 

 lombia and the maroons of Jamaiea, come from a stock which 

 accompanied the earliest Spanish settlers, like Estevan, the negro, 

 who, with the two white companions of Cabeza de Vaca, first 

 crossed the United States from the Gulf of Mexico to California 

 in 1528-36. The amalgamation of this class in the past century 

 with the Spanish stock produced a superior class of free mulattoes 

 of the Antonio Maceo type, unlike any people in this country 

 with which they can be compared. 



The current expressions of fear concerning the future relations 

 of this race in Cuba seem inexplicable. The slaves of the 

 South were never subjected to a more abject servitude than have 

 been the free-born whites of Cuba, for they at least were protected 

 from arbitrary capital punishment, imprisonment, and deporta- 

 tion without form of trial, such as that to which all Cubans are 



