SLAVERY. 



211 



CHAPTER VI. 



SLAVERY. 



Manumission frequent in Cuba — Its causes — Slaves allowed to hire 

 their time. [Note — Usual wages — Number of working days — 

 Slaves may purchase their freedom by partial payments — Many 

 remain partially redeemed — Reason — Curious phase of negro 

 mind.] Position of free negroes — Mild laws — Slaves previous to 

 the Eighteenth century — Religious scruples regarding females — 

 Population of Sugar plantations — Projects for increasing slaves 

 — Don Francisco de Arango — Desire to ameliorate their condition 

 — First importation — Entire importation to America in sixteenth 

 century — Slaves in Cuba in 1763 — Activity of trade at the close 

 of the eighteenth century — Treaty with England. [Note — Total 

 number imported.] Compared with Jamaica — Other English 

 colonies (note) — Humane result in Cuba — Mortality of slaves — 

 Has diminished — Of newly imported negroes — Means to prevent 

 decrease — Abolition of slave-trade. [Note — Not effective — Baron 

 Humboldt's sketch of slavery in Cuba — Decrease of slaves a fal- 

 lacy—Increase only paralleled in United States — Their well-being 

 evident — Chinese imported— Injurious influence and evil results. 



In no part of the world, where slavery exists, is 

 manumission so frequent as in the island of Cuba ; 

 for Spanish legislation, directly the reverse of French 

 and English, favors in an extraordinary degree the 



