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emancipation and in the fact that their very example inspired slaves (and, prospectively,
freed slaves) to imagine a life outside bondage and away from plantation labor.
The production of sugar in Cuba was in most respects similar to the process employed
in Jamaica, which, until the emancipation of its slaves, had been one of the world’s
leading producers of sugar. The collapse of the Jamaican sugar industry was an
opportunity for Cuban planters, but they also drew lessons relevant to their own
circumstances from the decline of Jamaican producers, and these lessons reinforced their
commitment to resist any change that might result in the emancipation of their slave labor
(Gallenga 1992).
A superior account of the transition from slave to free labor can be found in Thomas
Holt’s The Problem of Freedom. I’ll draw out a few issues relevant to the Cuban case. In
1830, the small island of Jamaica produced more than a tenth of the world’s sugar (Holt
1992, 119). In 1833, the British Parliament abolished slavery on the island and,
following a short period of apprenticeship for the former slaves, Jamaican sugar
producers were forced to employ free labor in the cultivation and production of their
sugar. What followed was a steep decline in the production of sugar.
I should pause for a moment to comment on the special nature of sugar production.
Sugar producers were involved both in the cultivation of sugar cane and the manufacture
of sugar. Their operation, as a result, encompassed both the supervision of agricultural
laborers and the management of production workers. Because cane juice ferments and
spoils rapidly after the cane is cut, the manufacturing process must follow quickly after
the harvesting of the sugar cane. As a result, the harvest season was a period of intense
activity, focused on harvesting the cane and transporting the crop to the plantation’s
Convention