An Institution for the Advancement of Slaves into Freedmen? Understanding Cuban Laws about Coartacion

Abstract

María del Carmen was a twenty-five-year-old African woman when, in 1813, she was recorded as being ethnically Carabalí and a “coartada,” having a past that included four prior owners.¹ That same year María del Carmen was conditionally sold, south of Havana, in the town of Jaruco. She had been made coartado at 350 pesos by her previous owner, “so that she may not be sold at a greater price than the above, to which, by its being in my power, I declare myself bound, renouncing the proof, laws of deposit, exceptio non numeratae pecuniae, fraud, etc., of the case, of...