SLAVERY. 



217 



visited Havana, exchanging slaves for tobacco. The 

 possession of the island by the English stimulated 

 somewhat the importation of negroes ; yet, in 1763, 

 although the capture of Havana, and the presence 

 of foreigners, created new wants, the number of 

 slaves did not exceed 25,000 in that district, and 

 32,000 in the whole island. 



The number of Africans imported from 1521 to 

 1763, was probably 60,000, whose descendants exist 

 among the free mulattoes, the greater part of which 

 inhabit the eastern part of the island. From 1763 to 

 1790, when the trade in negroes was thrown open, 

 Havana received 24,875 (by the Tobacco Company 

 4,957 from 1763 to 1766 ; by the contract with the 

 Marquis de Casa Enrile, 14,132, from 1773 to 1779 ; 

 by the contract with Baker and Dawson, 5,786, from 

 1786 to 1789). If we estimate the importation of 

 slaves in the eastern part of the island, during these 

 twenty-seven years (1763 to 1790), at 6,000, we have 

 a total importation of 90,875 from the time of the 

 discovery of Cuba, or more properly speaking, from 

 1521 to 1790. 



The activity of the slave-trade in the fifteen years 

 following 1790, was so great, that more slaves were 

 bought and sold in that time, than in the two and a 

 half centuries that preceded its being thrown open. 

 This activity was redoubled when England stipulated 



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