Cuba, Old and New | Page 6

to the total
number of whites, was a fact.
It is, of course, quite impossible even today to argue the question of
slavery. To many, the offence lies in the mere fact; to others, it lies in
the operation of the system. At all events, the institution is no longer
tolerated in any civilized country. While some to whom the system
itself was a bitter offence have found much to criticize in its operation
in Cuba, the general opinion of observers appears to be that it was there
notably free from the brutality usually supposed to attend it. The
Census Report of 1899, prepared under the auspices of the American
authorities, states that "while it was fraught with all the horrors of this
nefarious business elsewhere, the laws for the protection of slaves were
unusually humane. Almost from the beginning, slaves had a right to
purchase their freedom or change their masters, and long before slavery
was abolished they could own property and contract marriage. As a
result, the proportion of free colored to slaves has always been large."
Humboldt, who studied the institution while it was most extensive,
states that "the position of the free negroes in Cuba is much better than

it is elsewhere, even among those nations which have for ages flattered
themselves as being most advanced in civilization." The movement for
the abolition of slavery had its beginning in 1815, with the treaty of
Vienna, to which Spain was a party. Various acts in the same direction
appear in the next fifty years. The Moret law, enacted in 1870 by the
Spanish Cortes, provided for gradual abolition in Spain's dominions,
and a law of 1880, one of the results of the Ten Years' War, definitely
abolished the system. Traces of it remained, however, until about 1887,
when it may be regarded as having become extinct forever in Cuba.
For the first two hundred and fifty years of Cuba's history, the city of
Havana appears as the special centre of interest. There was growth in
other sections, but it was slow, for reasons that will be explained
elsewhere. In 1538, Havana was attacked and totally destroyed by a
French privateer. Hernando de Soto, then Governor of the island, at
once began the construction of defences that are now one of the special
points of interest in the city. The first was the Castillo de la Fuerza. In
1552, Havana became the capital city. In 1555, it was again attacked,
and practically destroyed, including the new fortress, by French
buccaneers. Restoration was effected as rapidly as possible. In 1589, La
Fuerza was enlarged, and the construction of the Morro and of La Punta,
the fortress at the foot of the Prado, was begun. The old city wall, of
which portions still remain, was of a later period. Despite these
precautions, the city was repeatedly attacked by pirates and privateers.
Some reference to these experiences will be made in a special chapter
on the city. The slow progress of the island is shown by the fact that an
accepted official report gives the total population in 1775 as 171,620,
of whom less than 100,000 were white. The absence of precious metals
is doubtless the main reason for the lack of Spanish interest in the
development of the country. For a long time after the occupation, the
principal industry was cattle raising. Agriculture, the production of
sugar, tobacco, coffee, and other crops, on anything properly to be
regarded as a commercial scale, was an experience of later years. The
reason for this will be found in the mistaken colonial policy of Spain, a
policy the application of which, in a far milder manner, cost England its
richest colony in the Western Hemisphere, and which, in the first
quarter of the 19th Century, cost Spain all of its possessions in this half

of the world, with the exception of Cuba and Porto Rico.

II
NEW CUBA
While there is no point in Cuba's history that may be said to mark a
definite division between the Old Cuba and the New Cuba, the
beginning of the 19th Century may be taken for that purpose. Cuba's
development dragged for two hundred and fifty years. The population
increased slowly and industry lagged. For this, Spain's colonial policy
was responsible. But it was the policy of the time, carried out more or
less effectively by all nations having colonies. England wrote it
particularly into her Navigation Acts of 1651, 1660, and 1663, and
supported it by later Acts. While not rigorously enforced, and
frequently evaded by the American colonists, the system at last proved
so offensive that the colonists revolted in 1775. Most of Spain's
colonies in the Western Hemisphere, for the same reason, declared and
maintained their independence in the first quarter of the 19th