BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : SPANISH RULE IN CUBA - SUGAR AND SLAVES :

Sugar plantation rested on slave traders  and the life of a slave in Cuba was often harsh. Most Cuban slaves were males who work long hours clearing land and cutting sugar cane on the sugar plantations. Once a slave began work in a sugar fields, his or her future life expectancy shrank to eight years. Plantation owners tended to work slaves very hard until they died and then replaced them with new slaves. The sugar harvest required backbreaking work, from November to May slaves work shifts of 16 to 19 hours daily. During the slow months from June through to October, owners could not work there  slaves more than 9 hours a day by Law.Women could be field slaves and they were generally doing the same jobs as the men.

Slaves were well fed and they lived in sheltered huts that were usually kept neat and clean by the older women who also cook and look after the children. Sundays and holidays were reserved for planting gardens for the slaves subsistence and the Africans could hold their own religious ceremonies during this time. Treatment of slaves varied according to the wimps of the masters, even though laws offered theoretical protection. Overseers carried whips which they used to move people along.