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.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 355 of 396
Words from 95975 to 96231 of 107287