Sale 2471 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 29, 2018

69 69 c   (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—CUBA.) Correspondence of the Viceroy of New Spain and Governor of Cuba regarding a ship full of captured slaves. 4 printed pages, 7 3 / 4 x 5 3 / 4 inches, on one folding sheet, signed in type by Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, 1st Count of Venadito; minimal wear. Mexico, January 1819 [2,000/3,000] This document summarizes correspondence going back to 1797 regarding a shipment of 94 slaves from Jamaica to Havana aboard the Spanish schooner Nuestra Señora del Carmen. The ship was captured by a French privateer. The Spanish authorities then declared the slaves free—a case which took more than 20 years to get through the courts. We find no copies of this printing in OCLC. 70 c   (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—CUBA.) Contract for a Chinese indentured laborer bound to Cuba. Printed contract completed in manuscript, 2 pages on one sheet, 12 1 / 2 x 8 inches, in Spanish on one side and Chinese on the other, issued to Chan Song, 29 years of age from the town of Sanon [Xin’an, now Bao’an], passenger aboard the ship Nate Hooper; signed by agent J.R. Vargas for A.R. Ferran, and by Mr. Chan with his thumbprint; minor wear. Macao, 12 October 1857 [600/900] An early contract for a Chinese “coolie” laborer in Cuba, an extremely harsh form of indentured servitude closely approximating slavery. Many of these laborers were kidnapped, many did not survive the long passage from China to Cuba, and of those who arrived alive, many did not survive the period of their indenture. From 1847 to 1874, approximately 125,000 Chinese laborers were imported to Cuba. The trade was initially under English control, but blossomed after the Portuguese assumed control in 1853 from their col- ony in Macao. Here, Chan Song agrees to serve for eight years. He also agrees to pay back charges for his passage and clothing, arriving with a debt of 14 pesos, to be deducted from his salary of 8 pesos a month. See Evelyn Hu-Dehart, “Chinese Coolie Labor in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century” in Contributions to Black Studies 12 (1994). 70