Rum · History · Short entry
End of slavery in Cuba (1886)
Spain declared the total abolition of slavery in Cuba on 7 October 1886, ending a gradual process that began with insurgent emancipation in 1868 and the Moret Law of 1870.
7 October 1886
End of the patronato, the apprenticeship that had replaced slavery in 1880; about 25,000 patrocinados were still bound.
Why it mattered
Pressure from insurgents, enslaved people and patrocinados, who sought freedom through flight, self-purchase and legal challenge, overtook the planters' attempt at slow change.
A gradual abolition
Rebecca Scott traces the stages: insurgents freed enslaved people to fight in the 1868 rebellion; the Moret Law of 1870 freed children born from 1868 and people over 60; in 1880 the patronato turned the enslaved into patrocinados paid small stipends and able to buy their freedom; corporal punishment was banned in 1883. Spain declared total abolition on 7 October 1886. The number of enslaved people and patrocinados fell from 368,550 in 1861-62 to 25,381 in 1886.
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