Runaway slave settlements in Cuba : resistance and repression / Gabino La Rosa Corzo ; translated by Mary Todd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

La Rosa Corzo, Gabino.

Series:

Envisioning Cuba.

Envisioning Cuba

Standardized Title:

Palenques del oriente de Cuba. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Cuba--Holguin (Province)--History.

Slavery.

Fugitive slaves--Cuba--Holguin (Province)--History.

Fugitive slaves.

Government, Resistance to--Cuba--Holguin (Province)--History.

Government, Resistance to.

Holguín (Cuba : Province)--History.

Holguín (Cuba : Province).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Combining archaeological and historical methods, Gabino La Rosa Corzo provides the most detailed and accurate available account of the runaway slave settlements ( palenques ) that formed in the inaccessible mountain chains of eastern Cuba from 1737 to 1850, decades before the end of slavery on the island. The traces that remain of these communities provide important clues to historical processes such as slave resistance and emancipation, anticolonial insurgency, and the emergence of a free peasantry. Some of the communities developed into thriving towns that still exist today. La Rosa challenges the claims of previous scholars and demonstrates how romanticized the communities have become in historical memory. In part by using detailed maps drawn on site, La Rosa shows that palenques were smaller and fewer in number than previously thought and they contained mostly local, rather than long-distance, fugitives. In addition, the residents were less aggressive and violent than myth holds, often preferring to flee rather than fight a system of oppression that was even more effective and organized than generally supposed. La Rosa's study illuminates many social and economic issues related to the African diaspora in the Caribbean, with particular focus on slavery, resistance, and independence. This translation makes the book available in English for the first time.

Contents:

The attack on El Portillo ; The captured runaways ; A settling of accounts ; Decades of economic development

Active resistance in the eastern region, 1790-1820 ; Runaway slave settlements east of Santiago de Cuba ; Runaway slave settlements in the northern mountain ranges

Eastern palenques in the period of slave plantation expansion ; Runaway slave settlements in the Mayari Mountains ; Tightening of the eastern repressive system ; Consolidation of resistance and repression

Expansion and decline ; Last large-scale attack on the eastern palenques ; Last of the runaways living in settlements

Runaway slave settlements as a system of resistance ; Specific characteristics of the eastern settlements ; Forms of settlement ; Types of dwellings in runaway slave settlements ; Adaptability of the repressive system.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [275]-279) and index.

ISBN:

9798890872333

9780807861738

0807861731

OCLC:

56356665