The Role of Africans Slaves in the Transition of Cuba’s Livestock Economy from the Open Range to the Potreros Systems

The history of cattle ranching in Cuba, and livestock activities in general, is a neglected topic due to an uneven attention on the sugar agroindustry, which dominated the economy of the island from the end of 18th century to the end of 20th century. Similarly, the influential book by Fernando Ortiz, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar, obscures the central role of animal husbandry in Cuban history. In this paper, I will focus on the long process of transformations that occurred in the open ranch system over the first two centuries of colonization, leading to the more intensive 19th-century pens or “potrero” system to breed cattle and other animals. Although there is an abundant historiography on the use of slaves from Africa for the Cuban sugar plantations, and other crops such as coffee or tobacco, almost nothing exists for the cattle economy. Island censuses from the 1800s, however, show that the number of slaves working with livestock was second only to those working on sugar plantations. This paper looks at the role of Africans and Afro-descendants in Cuba’s livestock economy, and especially at those slaves as agents of change in the transition from the open ranch to the “potreros” systems. It will also touch on related topics and agricultural practices, such as the introduction of African grasses to the Cuban ecosystem.