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


ulative business transacted Prices on Friday,
the 9Th Baltimore, 23s 3D. Philadelphia, 23s
Ohio, 23s 3d.: Western Canal, 2ls sd. 22s.
Indian corn-yellow scarce, and moderate de-
mand at 3lS Cd white has receded 3D. Is.
per quarter; sales at 29s.
FAMILIAR LETTERS FROM CUaA, JAMAICA
AND HAYTI,
BArABANo, CUBA, March 81.
To the Editor Of the National Era:
"Non unas, mentes, agitat 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 "semper nauseator," in which
case | don't wonder that peddling wares over
the seas seemed to him good ground for COM
mission de lunatico and am sure that if
"concisum argentum in titulos faciesque mi.
nutas" seemed to him an insufficient induce
ment to incur the risks of Levantine voyage,
it never would have satisfied him as the plea
of a man who should devote himself to a life
on sugar estate for that cause alone Sugar
planting, fostered by the Spanish on the prin-
oiple 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 Abajo. AS the only large
sugar planter in comparatively populous dis
trict he enjoys ready sale of his products on
the spot, and, without sending anything to
Havana, clears a fine per centage on his in
yestment every year and as he does not ex-
port he is not obliged to adopt the 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 associ-
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 ! 90 out in the morning, is no news"
| But for the constant occupation he finds in at
tending to his estate | should think his life
would be an intolerable one. That occupation
is indeed constant The estate is a very large
one-I know not how many acres of land
waving with the beautiful tallrane- plants; pas
lures full of pigs, mules and horses q steam
engine, TO crush the life out Of the canes, and
two trains of boilers to regenerate it into sugar
seventeen white men to sgperintend 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 require,
not little attention. II is, in fact colony
or small State, demanding from the admins
traitor no ordinary qualities of judgment and
| toc,par And hara I hova M do,,hk \ Ia
seen agricultural slavery ip ita most telerable
aspect. The frmness and mildness combined
of IS government are quite remarkable
Really believing that the whip is necessity on
the plantation, (just as you find intelligent off,
GERS Of the army and navy who tell you it is a
necessity in those services, and honest Judges
and clergymen who tell you hanging is a ne.
eessity n 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 q
judicial infection. And when you remember
that what slave has most to dread of physi
cal suffering is that which may proceed from
the passion Of ignorant overseere, you will CD
prsolate the sense Of duty which is shown in
this regulation. But the Cuban laws Law a
rein upon the authority Of the master in this
matter of punishment, which, however loosely
held by the Government, is drawn up with
great force in case of extreme inhumanity.
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
hope in this world as we'll as in the next. ANY
slave may purchase his freedom, for sum de-.
cided by arbitration nor oan bis 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
none at ell. 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.fght and slver-spur loving
Hidaigos live almost exclusively on pork and
plantain, which are to them as bacon and
greens to Virginian, or beef and water to
Guacho. Consequently, the negroes find their
piggerios very profitable, and adding thereto
small tract Of land WHICH they cultivate in
tobacco or vegetables, they contrive TO lay by |
some money every year
The domestic relations of the slaves here, too |
are protected by law, and the great immorsli- |
ty, which undoubtedly exists among them, is
due 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 bis vices, Ia a more easy |
and good-natured being than the American,
and the brutslizing habit Of drunkenness,
which is too common In America, is compare
lively rare here
| know well that there is q reverse side TO |
this picture of tho Cuban slaves condition. On |
some estates and by some owners know that |
gangs of men are worked like Norfolk Island |
convicts, in horrible secusion from all hu-
man society On the small vegas Of this region
particularly, you will often find four or five
miserable men doomed TO such q life OF wretch
ednea-po0r creatures, with whom the dread
cd words "night work" have indeed an awful
meaning, since this delicious moonlight which
seems 10 call forth only sweet and holy
houghts-ihis soft clear, Southern moonlight
10 10 them ghastly yiatant summoning them,
weary and ,jaded with the days toll 10 dig and
hoe and weed for long hours more And on
the great sugar estates, during the grinding
season Hnig6t work means sxteen hours
day Of toll, thus literally making the night
joint lsborer with the day" But on some Of
the estates the arrangements, like those Of my
friend -, are such as To avoid this.
Just now IL the height Of the grinding season,
which, beginning Ia November, ends In April
or May sunday 10 q day Of rest; even now,
for the negroes, and il is by this alone that ]
know il TO be Sunday; for am nov truly in
chuSchless land remaining, Tar from all tenn
plies and from all divinss," and the days are ~
ka A the daya of Robinson Cruu0e. For three