Pre-Abolition Spanish Colonial Cuba Bill of Sale for Enslaved Creole Women and Children, 1870

Slavery Cuba

Manuscript & Autographs

[Slavery] [Cuba] Spanish colonial manuscript documenting the late persistence of slavery in Cuba, recording the sale of five enslaved Creole individuals, including women and children, 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance, the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The presence of multiple children within the transaction underscores the hereditary nature of enslavement and the commodification of family units, offering direct material evidence of how slavery functioned socially and economically in its final decades on the island. Although Spain had formally ended the transatlantic slave trade earlier in the century, illegal trafficking and internal slave markets persisted, and slavery itself would not be abolished in Cuba until 1886, placing this document within a crucial transitional period marked by reform debates, gradual emancipation laws, and continued exploitation.

Official Cuban slave contract recording the sale of five enslaved individuals, identified as “criollos”, including one adult woman and four children, from Santiago Simón Fambi to Don Pedro Catasús for the sum of 1200 pesos on November 21, 1870. Single page manuscript leaf measuring 8.25" x 12". The manuscript is written in Spanish cursive hand in black ink. The upper left bears a blind embossed crest of Spain, while a circular black ink government seal is impressed at the lower left, partially overlapping the text. The text enumerates the enslaved individuals with ages and names, embedding human lives within the formulaic language of sale and valuation, while the bold signatures of both seller (Santiago Simón Fambi) and buyer (Pedro Catasús) anchor the transaction in identifiable actors within the colonial economy.

By 1870, slavery in Spanish Cuba remained central to the island’s plantation economy, particularly in sugar production, which had expanded rapidly in the mid-19th century with industrialized mills and global demand. Enslaved people were primarily forced into agricultural labor under highly regimented and brutal conditions, though others were used in urban domestic service, skilled trades, or as hired laborers generating income for their owners. This document exhibits light toning, edge wear, and scattered foxing throughout. A closed wormhole extends approximately two inches from the upper right margin inward, not affecting legibility of the text. Minor losses and small tears along the edges. Overall in very good condition. Given that this document records a woman and four children, the family was likely intended for a combination of field labor and domestic or auxiliary work, with the children gradually incorporated into plantation labor as they aged, reflecting the system’s reliance on both immediate exploitation and the reproduction of enslaved labor over time.

Item #23119

Price: $1,250.00