Slavery, mobility, and networks in nineteenth-century Cuba

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the midst of a major economic restructuring known as Second Slavery, which included important debates between abolitionist and proslavery interests, Cuba experienced the emergence of new forms of mobility and networks. After being forcibly moved across the Atlantic, enslaved Africans were moved within Cuba, and sometimes sold to owners in other Caribbean islands or the U.S. South. A significant fraction of them managed to move on their own will – running away, defending their right to self-purchase, or making money that would help alleviate their situation or that of their friends and relatives. The essays included in this special issue, written by historians and literary critics, pay special attention to the ways in which human actors and ideas moved from the countryside to the city, from one Caribbean island to the next, and from the United States or the coasts of West Africa to the sugarcane fields.