Slaveholding Women in 19th-Century Cuba

This presentation explores the interaction between the slaveholding woman and the enslaved people whose lives she tried to control physically, culturally, and emotionally. Despite women’s subordinate legal standing, as heads of the domestic sphere, nineteenth-century female slave owners profited from and were actively involved in the institution of slavery. Women enriched themselves and their families through the buying and selling of enslaved men, women, and children. The labor from the enslaved population allowed them to run their homes efficiently and lead a comfortable life or, in the worst-case scenario, live above the poverty line. The mistress’s circumstance varied widely: From a constant interaction with her slaves in urban settings, to brief encounters when visiting her sugar-mill, from wealthy landowners who owned hundreds of slaves, to those financially struggling who owned just a few, from coffee-plantation owners, who lived on their property to absentee landowners, from her role in times of peace to her plight in times of war, the Cuban female slaveholder presents a picture as complex as the society she lived in. Particular attention will be paid to women’s wills and what these documents capture about both the personal and impersonal connections between mistresses and the enslaved. Writing a will gave nineteenth-century Cuban women a rare instance of legal power, and a chance to reshape the fortunes of those around her, including her slaves. It also gave these women a voice at the time and now in history.