Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- A collection of 19th-century documents related to African slavery in Cuba. Documents include auction records, baptism records, sale documents, and other legal records. By the middle of the 16th century, enslaved Africans were colonial Cuba's primary source of labor after most of the indigenous population were killed by European diseases. Enslaved people endured forced family separation, harsh manual labor, and sexual assault. Cuba participated in the transatlantic slave trade until 1867, longer than any other region in the Americas. Sources: "African Slavery in Cuba - Manuscript Archival Collection." Description by Libros Latinos, 2019. Childs, Matt D., and Manuel Barcia. "Cuba." In The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas, edited by Mark M. Smith and Robert L. Paquette, Vol. 1. Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199227990.013.0005.
- Extent:
- 2.5 linear feet (2 flat boxes)
- Language:
- Materials are in Spanish.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Collection of African slavery in Cuba documents (Collection 2384). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
A collection of 19th-century documents related to African slavery in Cuba. Documents include auction records, baptism records, sale documents, and other legal records.
- Biographical / historical:
-
By the middle of the 16th century, enslaved Africans were colonial Cuba's primary source of labor after most of the indigenous population were killed by European diseases. Enslaved people endured forced family separation, harsh manual labor, and sexual assault. Cuba participated in the transatlantic slave trade until 1867, longer than any other region in the Americas. In 1880, Cuba passed their Patronato Law that established a set date for the abolition of slavery. Under this law enslaved people were required to complete an eight-year period of unpaid indentured servitude where formerly enslaved people were called patrocinados and enslavers were called patronos. Slavery in Cuba was not officially abolished by Spanish royal decree until 1886, two years before the original planned date under Patronato Slavery.
Sources:
"African Slavery in Cuba - Manuscript Archival Collection." Description by Libros Latinos, 2019.
Childs, Matt D., and Manuel Barcia. "Cuba." In The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas, edited by Mark M. Smith and Robert L. Paquette, Vol. 1. Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199227990.013.0005.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchased from Libros Latinos, 2019.
- Processing information:
-
Original description by Libros Latinos in 2019. Processed by Shannon Campbell utilizing guidelines outlined in "Anti-racist Description Resources" by Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia, under the supervision of Jasmine Larkin, 2023.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been arranged chronologically.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Indentured servants
- Places:
- Slavery -- Cuba
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Collection of African slavery in Cuba documents (Collection 2384). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988