[Manuscript File of Legal Documents Concerning Cuban Manumission Cases in the Late 1870s]

[Various places in Cuba, 1878. Overall good.. [29] leaves, varying sizes. In contemporary, ad hoc selfwrappers, loosely stitched. Rear wrap tattered. Varying degrees of toning and wear. Scattered offsetting throughout. Fascinating gathering of documents and letters that present several cases of Cuban slaves applying for their own freedom in 1878. The gradual abolition of slavery on the island was enacted by Spain in 1880, but prior to this, there were several bureaucratic mechanisms by which enslaved people could apply for or purchase their own manumission. The most interesting case amongst the present manuscript documents is the claim of a male slave that states he was born free in Puerto Rico, but was somehow included in an inheritance as a young boy, transported to Cuba, and sold into slavery:

"Un individuo que hoy se encuentran en la Cárcel del Alacranes, y que dice nombrase Juhan ó José Julian Quintana, y ser esclavo actualmente de Dn. Serapio Hernandez, dueño de los ingenios Escorial, ubicado en Colon, y Sta. Rosa [?], en Limonar, y vecino de esa Ciudad, calle del Rio, ha solicitado se le restituyan un derechos de libertad por haber nacídolibre en Puerto Rico, de donde á la edad de 5 ó 6 años le trajeron à esta Ysla y vencieron como esclavo."

Interesting for the study of manumission in late-colonial Cuba, and certainly worthy of further research.