Abstract

Black Ivory and White Gold in Cuba

Cuba's white gold, the source of its "national prosperity," depends for its future role in the national economy of the country on the size of its black population. The blacker Cuba becomes, the more white sugar will it be able to pour out in competition with the rest of the world. The production of sugar in Cuba depends entirely on black labor, most of it imported from Haiti, Jamaica, and the other Antilles, in a form which differs from the old slave traffic only by a few legalistic formalities. The African Americans are brought to Cuba in ships equipped as the slave ships of old and delivered for a premium of $15 to $20 each to the sugar companies on the basis of labor contracts signed by the African Americans with a finger-print.