10
The result was a precipitous decline in production. Between the abolition of slavery
and 1838, when the apprenticeship period ended, the production of sugar decline
dramatically, dropping by at least twenty percent (Holt 1992, 120-1). The decline
continued over the next decade, dropping an additional thirty-seven percent. By the time of
the start of the first Cuban war for independence in 1868, Jamaican sugar production had
dropped from 61,244 metric tons per year to 23,367 metric tons (Holt 1992, 120-1). The
consequences for Jamaican planters were devastating. Most of the island’s sugar estates
stopped cultivating sugar, as indebtedness and lack of access to willing laborers forced
planters to turn away entirely from growing sugar cane (Holt 1992).
Changes in Sugar Production in Cuba and Jamaica, 1825-1868
Period
Cuban Sugar Production
Jamaican Sugar Production
Metric Tons (avg.)
Change (%)
Metric Tons (avg.)
Change (%)
1825-34
86,761
61,244
1835-38
120,358
39%
47,190
-23%
1839-48
186,868
55%
29,881
-37%
1849-58
376,020
101%
23,021
-23%
1859-68
524,663
40%
23,367
2%
Source: Holt, The Problem of Freedom, 120-121.
Cuban planters drew unmistakable lessons from the example of Jamaican sugar’s
decline. Deeply in debt, often unable to invest in advanced machinery required to
introduce steam-driven manufacturing, Cuban planters were operating at the edge of
profitability themselves (Drysdale 1992; Wurdmann 1992; Gallenga 1992). The
perception among most planters was that profit could only be guaranteed through a
continuation of the brutal exploitation of slave labor (Wurdmann 1992). Any movement
toward the abolition of slavery would require a change both in how owners supervised
their property—most planters lived in Havana and managed their affairs from a distance,
a luxury they could not enjoy if they were required to continuously negotiate with freely-
contracted workers—and in the education of blacks—who would need to learn, it was
Convention