[Cuba]. [Indentured Servitude]

[Cedula, or Identification Document, for a Chinese Indentured Servant in Cuba during the 1850s]

[Havana: 1857]. Small broadside form, approximately 8.5 x 12.5 inches. Previously folded, with some separation and minor loss along vertical fold. Completed in manuscript, with additional manuscript docketing on blank verso. Ink burn, causing additional minor loss in a few small areas. Light edge wear; some staining and offsetting; light tanning. Good plus. Item #4502

A 19-century Cuban identification form, known as a cedula, filled out in manuscript to authorize the travel of an Asian indentured servant between plantations in early May 1857. The document was completed for a twenty-six-year-old Asian fieldhand named Chan, who had signed a contract to work for one Gallego Toriceo [?], to be transferred to the premises of "P. Soler y Comp[añi]a." Printed at the left and right edges are nine articles from an 1855 decree that outline the regulations for issuing and keeping such documents, including the following:

"Estas cédulas servirán de documentos de seguridad, y además de licencias de transito para los colonos que se trasladen de un punto á otro de la Isla. Los patronos respectivos cuidarán de que los colonos no emprendan el viage sin licencia expresa suya que haràn constar al pié de la cedula.... Si algun colono fuere hallado sin cédula, deberá ser detenido y puesto à disposicion del Gobernador ó Capitan del partido mas inmediato, e cual dará conocimiento al patrono dentro de segundo dia."

On the otherwise blank verso is additional, contemporary manuscript docketing concerning the transfer of the cedula (and therefore the laborer concerned) to the receiver, located in Matanzas. A very interesting document of the bureaucracy and control of indentured servitude in Cuba during the mid-19th century.

Price: $1,250.00