Legislation, manumission and abolition. Considerations about their behavior in Santiago de Cuba (1868-1886)

Abstract

In this article the behavior of slave manumission in Santiago de Cuba in the final stage of slavery is assessed through examples. It explores how the abolition of slavery was outlined as a necessity for the slavers themselves in need of a workforce that was tempered to the technical development achieved in sugar production. In this scenario, the dilemma was the procedure to be followed in terms of defining whether the abolition would be free, compensated, total or gradual. The solution was not immediate and joined the indemnified and gradual formula as it was the least damaging for the owners. The first step was taken with the approval of the law of free wombs in July 1870, the second with the law of patronage in February 1880 and the third and final with the law of cessation of patronage in October 1886. In those decisions legal events affected two major events for the political life of Spain and Cuba as were respectively the Glorious Revolution and the Ten Years War; the first began in September and the second in October, both in 1868. It also affected the conjugation of interests between the slave-owning bourgeoisie of Cuba and Spanish political personalities as was the case of General Francisco Serrano, regent of the kingdom after the dethronement of Isabel II, was closely linked to the island's sugar production.