Empire and Antislavery: Spain Cuba and Puerto Rico 1833-1874

By Christopher Schmidt-Nowara

Book Overview

In 1872, there were more than 300,000 slaves in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Though the Spanish government had passed a law for gradual abolition in 1870, slaveowners, particularly in Cuba, clung tenaciously to their slaves as unfree labor was at the core of the colonial economies. Moreover, the Spanish bourgeoisie was deeply implicated in colonial slavery as Spain was the last European power to abolish the slave trade and bonded labor in the Americas.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082295690X
• ISBN13: 9780822956907
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

WOW!!!!!

This is an incredible book for anyone interested in the abolition of slavery.

A major break through

Christopher Schmidt-Nowara has written an excellent book to understand the process that led to the abolition of slavery in the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, taking into account the latest developments in Cuban, Puertorrican, and Spanish history. This is an important new viewpoint: to understand the nineteenth-century history of Cuba and Puerto Rico it's necessary to have a fine understanding of Spain's colonial policy and the socio-economic links that these two colonies established with the metropolis. I consider this book a major break through, a very important book for any person interested in the history of the Caribbean, Latin America and/or Spain.