c. 1870s Cuban Coartación Settlement, Documenting the Purchase of Freedom for Two Named, Enslaved People at a Sugar Mill, with Comparative Valuation Notes
On offer is a manuscript Cuban accounting document, datable to the 1870s, recording the final settlement of two individuals securing their freedom through the coartación system. The transaction is explicitly tied to the dotación (the enslaved workforce) of the Ingenio Arcadia sugar mill. The document details the liquidation of two pagarés vencidos (overdue promissory notes) issued in favor of Juan de Dios and Estela, concluding in a total of $1,314.00. The text explicitly states the payment is made “para su completa libertad” [“for their full liberty”]. The account is executed and signed by Antonio Perilla, the responsible party settling the balance. Juan de Dios is identified as “Coartado en $311.74,” placing him within the formal Cuban legal structure where an enslaved individual’s value was fixed and repaid in installments. The document preserves the full financial mechanics of this system, including principal, interest, and a 3% government-referenced valuation clause (“al tipo que marca el Gob[ierno]”). At the foot of the document, the accounting shifts from simple debt liquidation to a raw comparative valuation of human bodies. A manuscript note justifies the assigned price of the mulata Estela (recorded at $600.00) by comparing her to another woman, Saturnina: “La mulata Saturnina... fue tasada en $800... un año más de edad... mucho más robusta... hija de una negra Gunche y general de campo...” [Translation: “The mulatto Saturnina... was valued at $800... a year older... much more robust... daughter of a black woman, Gunche and field general...”]. The writer justifies the lower “price point” for Estela by citing Saturnina’s physical comparative "robustness" and her maternal lineage. Saturina’s mother is identified as a "negra Gunche" (an ethnographic marker) who held the rank of "general de campo" (field overseer), suggesting that her status and perceived physical strength were factors in her daughter's “market value”. This document belongs to the post-Moret Law (1870) transitional period, capturing the moment at which enslaved individuals moved through legally defined stages: valued, indebted, and ultimately freed. All this occurring while the plantation’s financial systems for weighing and pricing human life remained fully intact. Condition Single manuscript sheet on ruled accounting paper. Moderate toning, fold lines, and scattered staining consistent with age and use. Ink remains strong and fully legible throughout.
