BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY SLAVERT AND SLAVE TRADE IN CUBA

In the 18th and 19th centuries,Cuba was defendant on an economy based on sugar cane and coffee crops and on slaves imported from Africa to work on the sugar cane and coffee plantations. It is estimated that over 600.000 were taken from West Africa and shipped to Cuba over three centuries, with tens of thousands dying during the brutal Atlantic crossing.

Most of these people were brought to Cuba in the 1760's as the slave population rose from 39,000 to 400,000. Despit the US slave trade to Cuba was illegal after 1794, US traders including De-Wolf family frequently voyages to Havana slave and profited from there own Cuban plantations. At the pick of the slave trade, slave based economy, enslaved comprised nearly one-third of the Cuban population.