[Cuba]. [Indentured Servitude]

[Group of Sixteen Indenture Contract Renewals for Chinese Laborers in Cuba]

[Various places in Cuba, including Bejucal, Havana, Matanzas, & Sagua la Grande: 1862-1869]. Sixteen broadside, broadsheet, and bifolium forms, completed in manuscript. Previously folded, with some short separations along old folds; one longer closed tear from lower left corner of one form. Some chipping and wear at edges, not affecting text. Contemporary ink stamps. Varying degrees of tanning and foxing. Good plus. Item #5608

A group of sixteen contracts for Chinese indentured laborers in Cuba executed during the 1860s. The importation of Chinese labor to Cuba began in earnest in 1853, and in 1860 a law passed by the colonial government essentially enjoined Chinese workers to renew their agreements. The forms present here are sixteen such contract renewals, signed by Chinese workers who had completed their initial term of indentured servitude, but had no recourse to fairer forms of employment or means to leave the island.

"The new law required a change in the contract that required coolies who completed their original term of service to recontract with the same or another master. Otherwise, they were obligated to leave Cuba within two months.... There is no doubt that the Cubans issued the recontracting regulation in order to keep as many as possible of this captive alien labor force on the plantations, knowing full well that very few of the coolies could have saved enough from their meager wages to pay for their passage home" - Hu-DuHart.

The present group, dating from 1862 to 1869, includes five renewals from Havana; four from Matanzas; three from Colon; two from Guanabacoa; and one apiece from the towns of Sancti Spiritus and Sagua la Grande. Each form gives the adopted Spanish name of the laborer, his age, place of birth, the new and old masters (in some cases the same), and the duration of the new indenture, from six months to two years. The forms also state that the laborers are signing fresh contracts in compliance with the law of 1860, and give the terms for worker and employer, including daily hours to be worked, amount of food provided weekly, shelter (if any), and meager salaries, amongst other stipulations. One contract is signed in Chinese, but the preponderance are signed by "witnesses" or "interpreters" for the workers. Fascinating primary documents of the exploitative Chinese labor system in Cuba during the mid-19th century.
Elizabeth Hu-Duhart, "Chinese Coolie Labor in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century," Contributions in Black Studies 12 (1994), pp. 43-46.

Price: $7,500.00