?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 350 - $ 500
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--CUBA.) Tenencia de Gobierno de Cardenas. Contrata que celebra el colono Leopoldo. . (The colonist Leopoldo re-signs his contract for another year.) Large folio leaf, folded to form four 4to pages, printed on two sides. Signed by the Chinese laborer and the Cuban official. Cardenas, 10 June, 1867
Leopoldo, the Chinese "colonist," as the Spanish euphemistically referred to these coolie laborers, signs a contract for another year in Cuba. Realistically, where could he go?? Passage back to China would be impossibly expensive, and it's entirely possible that conditions there might be worse. By the late 1870's, there were over 40,000 Chinese in Cuba. Havana's "Barrio Chino" alone stretched for 44 square blocks. Many Chinese had married and put down roots in their new home, with African or mixed race women, given the laws forbidding intermarriage with white Spanish citizens.
