The ordinance, however, betrays great concern for
the salvation of the souls of those whom it thus delivers over to the lash
of the slave-driver. It speaks of the Indians from America, as Christians
already, but while it allows the slaves imported from Asia to be flogged,
it directs that they shall be carefully instructed in the doctrines of our
holy religion.
Yet the policy of the government favors emancipation. The laws of Cuba
permit any slave to purchase his freedom on paying a price fixed by three
persons, one appointed by his master and two by a magistrate. He may,
also, if he pleases, compel his master to sell him a certain portion of
his time, which he may employ to earn the means of purchasing his entire
freedom.
It is owing to this, I suppose, that the number of free blacks is so large
in the island, and it is manifest that if the slave-trade could be
checked, and these laws remain unaltered, the negroes would gradually
emancipate themselves - all at least who would be worth keeping as
servants. The population of Cuba is now about a million and a quarter,
rather more than half of whom are colored persons, and one out of every
four of the colored population is free. The mulattoes emancipate
themselves as a matter of course, and some of them become rich by the
occupations they follow. The prejudice of color is by no means so strong
here as in the United States. Five or six years since the negroes were
shouting and betting in the cockpits with the whites; but since the
mulatto insurrection, as it is called, in 1843, the law forbids their
presence at such amusements. I am told there is little difficulty in
smuggling people of mixed blood, by the help of legal forms, into the
white race, and if they are rich, into good society, provided their hair
is not frizzled.
You hear something said now and then in the United States concerning the
annexation of Cuba to our confederacy; you may be curious, perhaps, to
know what they say of it here. A European who had long resided in the
island, gave me this account:
"The Creoles, no doubt, would be very glad to see Cuba annexed to the
United States, and many of them ardently desire it. It would relieve them
from many great burdens they now bear, open their commerce to the world,
rid them of a tyrannical government, and allow them to manage their own
affairs in their own way. But Spain derives from the possession of Cuba
advantages too great to be relinquished.
