The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-28

of 3D. on last week All circulars agree in
quoting Genesee and Pennsylvania white at
IS 3d. Is; mixed and red, 6S. Id. a 6s. Sd.
A decline of Is per barrel ia established upon
all descriptions of -four, with considerable spec
ulative business transacted. Prices on Friday,
the 9Th: Baltimore, 23s 3d. Philadelphia 23S !;
Ohio, 23s 3D.: Western Canal, 2lS. Cd. 22S.
Indian corn--yellow scarce, and moderate de-
mand at 3ls Cd; white has receded Cd Is.
per quarter; sales at 2aS.
FAMILIAR LETTERS FROM CUBA JAMAICA
AND HAYTI,
BArABANo, CUBA, March 81.
To the Editor Of the National Era,
"Non unas, mentes, agtat Juror" all men
are not mad in the same way, says Juyenal,
speaking of the rash men who 90 to sea in
search of gain. Perhaps, like Ulysses and my
self, Juvenal was sempcr nauseator, in which
case | don't wonder that pedding wares over
the seas seemed to him good ground for COM
mission de lunstico; and | am sure that if
"concisum argentum in titulos faciesque mi
nutas" seemed to him an insufficient induce
ment to incur the risks of O Levantine voyage,
it never would have satisfied him as the plea
of a man who should devote himself to life
on sugar estate for that cause alono. Sugar
planting, fostered by the Spanish on the priu-
ciple Of fattening the VICTIM you mean to kill
has become the great remunerative crop of
Cuba. My excellent host, who formerly plant
ed coffee in the Vuelta Arriba, found himself
obliged to change his business by the decline
in the value of that product, and so transferred
himself to the sugar estate which he now occu-
pies in the Vuelto Absjo. As the only large
sugar planter in q comparatively populous dis
trict, he enjoys a ready sale of his products on
the spot, and, without sending anything to
Havana, clears fine per centage on his in
vestment every year and as he does not ex-
port, he is not obliged TO adopt tho modern ex-
pensive French machinery, which produces
finer sugar at higher cost But the same
causes which insure his pecuniary advantage
| deprive him of society. There are no persons
in the neighborhood with whom he can assoc-
ate and he lives here practical exile, re-
| lieved occasionally by visit to the United
States. He said to me once, Nothing pleas.
ant ever happens here, and the best news can
have, when 20 out in the morning, is no news
But for the constant occupation he finds in at
tending to his eatate, should think his life
would be an intolerable one. That occupation
is indeed constant The estate is very large
one-I know not how many acres of land
waving with the beautiful talleane- plants; pas
lures full of pigs, mules, and horses steam
engine, TO crush the life out of the canes and
two trains of boilers to regenerate it into sugar
seventeen white men to superintend different
departments, and $40 negroes OF all work
They manufacture $4,000 pans Of purged sugar
| per annum, at about SO pounds of sugar to the
pan, and some 400 pipes of aguardiente This
as you see, is rather large farm and requires
not little attention. Ii is in fact, a colon,
or small State, demanding from the admins
traitor no ordinary qualities Of Judgment anc
temper. And here, | have no doubt, have
seen agricultural slavery ip ita most tolerable
aspect. The frmness and mildness combined
of IS government are quite remarkabl
Really believing that the whip is neoessity on
the plantation, (just as you find intelligent Off
GERS of the army and navy who tell you il is a
necessity in those services, and honest Judges
and clergymen who tell you hanging is a ne.
gessity in civil society," really believing this, he
takes the infection of punishment wholly upon
himself allowing no negro TO be sentenced or
chastised, excepting by himself and under his
own eye, after trial, and with the GOODNESS of a
judicial infection. And when you remember
that what a slave has most to dread of physi.
cal suffering is that which may proceed from
the passion of ignorant overseerp, you will ap.
prsoiate the sense Of duty which is shown in
this regulation. But the Cuban laws Law
rein upon the authority Of tho master In this
matter of punishment which, however loosely
held by the Government, is drawn up with
great force in case Of extreme inhumsnity.
There is q master here above the masters. and
this is one great element Of superiority in the
condition of the Cuban slave over that of his
brethren on the main land. Another, of still
greater price, is the law which gives him a
hope in this world as well "a in the next Any
slave may purchase his freedom, for a sum de,
cided by arbitration nor osn his master re.
fuse his offer. This fact alone would constitute
On essential difference between American and
Cuban slavery The Cuban slave has some
incentive to work for himselE-the American
pone at all Each slave is allowed TO own q
pig which he fattens freely on the place and
sells when he pleases. Pork is really the only
superior meat of the island, and the monteros
mot mountaineers, but simply foresters, or
which is perhaps the best English word, yeo-
men, those cock. fight and silver-spur loving
Hidalgos, live almost exclusively on pork and
plantsin, which are TO them as bacon and
greens to Virginian, or beef and water 10 a
Guacho. Consequently the negroes find their
piggeries very profitable, and adding thereto a
small tract Of land, WHICH they cultivate in
tobacco or vegetables, they contrive 10 lay by
some money every year,
The domestic relations Of the slaves here too,
are protected by law, and the great immorali-
ty, which undoubtedly exists among them, is
duo not less to their own savage and unre-
strained habits Of life, and to the corrupt OK.
ample of the whites, than to any such tyranny
a. that described in Uncle Toms Cabin. The
Creole too, with all his vices, is a more easy
and good-natured being than the American,
and the brutslising habit Of drunkenness,
which is too common in America, is compare
lively rare here
| know we'll that there 10 reverse side TO
this picture of the Cuban slaves condition. On
SOME estates and by some owners know that
gangs Of men are worked like Norfolk Island
convicts, in horrible secluson from oil hu-
man society On the small vegas Of this region |
particularly, you will often find four or five
miserable men doomed 10 such life OF wretch |
edne~-poor creatures, with whom the dread |
cd words "night work have indeed an awful |
meaning, since this delicious moonlight which |
seems to call forth only sweet and holy |
soft, clear, Southern moonlight
il 10 them ghastly yiatant, summoning them,
weary and jaded with the days toll 10 dig and
hos and weed for long hours more. And on
the great sugar estates, during the grinding
season, "night work. means s'xtesn hours
day OF toll, thus literally making the night
joint lsborer with the day" But on some Of
the estates the arrangements, like thoss Of my
friend -, are such a. 10 svoid this
Just now IL the height Of the grinding season,
which, beginning in November, ends In April
Dr. May. sunday 10 day Of rest. even now
Tor the negroes, and ID is by this alone that !
know it 70 be Sunday; for am nov truly in
= churchlcss land remaining, Tar from all tsm-
pies and from all divinss," and the days are w
like a. the days Of Robinson Crusoe. For three