Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1898 — SUGAR ESTATES IN CUSA. [ARTICLE]

SUGAR ESTATES IN CUSA.

A Picture of Their Conditions Half a Century Ago, Jonathan S. Jenkins, an American miniature-painter, lived in Havana during the middle of the century, and kept a diary of his experiences. A selection from this journal is published in the Century. Mr. Jenkins says: Coffee plantations, though so beautiful, have not Increased in numbers of late years; In fact, many of them have been ehanged into sugar estates, which are more profitable, and render the owner socially more important The owner usually resides in Havana, where his family may enjoy the pleasures of cultivated society and have the luxuries of a city; he therefore employs a sort of middleman, called a majorI domo, to manage his estate. The own- • er wants all the money he can get to maintain his establishment in Havana, and the major-domo seeks to increase his percentage, and thus the poor slaves are ground to the dust, and at times the cruelties practiced are barbarous.-* The mayorals are usually Canary Islanders, a hot-tempered and cruel race, and, being without restraint of the presence of the owner, are vindictively oppressive, and in their inhuman punishments often take life. The horrors which have been perpetrated in Cuba by the lash would disgrace barbarians. One striking fact attesting the hardships of slave life on a sugar estate is that children are very rarely seen there. Slave men in their vigor are more profitable, and hence in a large force of several hundred men only a few women are allowed. The labors and hardships which these women endure tend to prevent Increase, and the few children born usually die in infancy from neglect. There is no care taken to prevent this result, as they say it is cheaper to supply the losses on the plantations by new importations than by the rearing of children. The climate, fortunately, is so mild that the slaves need but little clothing, and a wide palm hat and a cloth about the loins are their costume In the fields, the sun seeming to have but little effect upon their black skins. Every week there is a ration day, on which they are drawn up in long lines, and a few pounds of black-looking beef brought from Buenos Ayres are thrown’ at the feet of each, which at night each cooks to suit himself. In addition, a coarse meal or small hominy (bran and all) is boiled, and put in a trough, from which they eat it every morning with a spoon, a paddle, or their hands, as they choose. The Africans brought into Cuba are generally from the coast of Mozambique, and are called Locoomees and Caravalees. They are large, stout men, of dogged will, and at times are very obstinate. All these creatures believe implicitly in the transmigration of souls, and that if they commit suicide they go immediately back to Africa. To check this evil, when a suicide occurs, the mayoral makes each of the slaves bring a bundle of wood and build a funeral pyre, on which the body is burned. The ashes are then scattered in the air by the survivors, in whose opinion the dead negro’s soul is’ thus prevented from returning to Africa. In scattering the ashes they sigh audibly, “Aha! Aha!” as if expressing grief that the soul of their companion can no longer go home. The appearance of the sugar estates is the very opposite of the beautiful coffee plantations. Wide fields of monotonous green stretch themselves to the horizon on every side, while here and there the royal palm lifts its tufted head above the verdant level. The mayoral’s house, the sugar works and the dingy barracoons for the slaves are the only objects to break the monotony of the desolate scene. When first planted, the cane is laid lengthwise in trenches, or furrows, about five or six feet apart, and then covered. From each eye (these Is an eye to each sound joint) a shoot springs up, and sends out others, forming a bunch of canes; and thus the fields are covered with the most luxuriant green. Every year the crop is cut at the ground, and the next season another crop springs’ up from the roots, which are called vatons. These vatons will yield crops in this way for several years, the length of time depending on the mildness of the climate. In Louisiana only three or four crops are gathered from one planting, while In the tropics eighteen or twenty are thus obtained. The grinding of the cane begins about the last of October, and continues until the beginning of the rainy season, a period of nearly six months. This Is the time of greatest labor on the estate; and, without intermission of Sundays or holidays, with but few exceptions, the slaves work incessantly and men and teams are worn out before work is over. The slaves are given a few trifling presents and are allowed some extra privileges to encourage them In undergoing the Increased labor.