Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Regulations Were Made Respecting The
Pursuit Of Fugitive Slaves,* Which, Till Then, Had Given Rise To The
Most Revolting Excesses (* Reglamento Sobre Los Negros Cimmarrones De
26 De Dec.
De 1796.
Before the year 1788 there were great numbers of
fugitive negroes (cimmarones) in the mountains of Jaruco, where they
were sometimes apalancados, that is, where several of those
unfortunate creatures formed small intrenchments for their common
defence by heaping up trunks of trees. The maroon negroes, born in
Africa (bozales), are easily taken; for the greater number, in the
vain hope of finding their native land, march day and night in the
direction of the east. When taken they are so exhausted by fatigue and
hunger that they are only saved by giving them, during several days,
very small quantities of soup. The creole maroon negroes conceal
themselves by day in the woods and steal provisions during the night.
Till 1790, the right of taking the fugitive negroes belonged only to
the Alcalde mayor provincial, an hereditary office in the family of
the Count de Bareto. At present any of the inhabitants can seize the
maroons and the proprietor of the slave pays four piastres per head,
besides the food. If the name of the master is not known, the
Consulado employs the maroon negro in the public works. This
man-hunting, which, at Hayti and Jamaica, has given so much fatal
celebrity to the dogs of Cuba, was carried on in the most cruel manner
before the regulation which I have mentioned above.); it was proposed
to augment the number of negresses on the sugar estates, to direct
more attention to the education of children, to diminish the
introduction of African negroes, to bring white planters from the
Canaries, and Indian planters from Mexico, to establish country
schools with the view of improving the manners of the lower class, and
to mitigate slavery in an indirect way.
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