Property in Writing, Property on the Ground: Pigs, Horses, Land, and Citizenship in the Aftermath of

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2002
Property in Writing, Property on the Ground: Pigs,
Horses, Land, and Citizenship in the Aftermath of
Slavery, Cuba, 1880-1909
Rebecca J. Scott
University of Michigan Law School, [email protected]
Michael Zeuske
Universität zu Köln, [email protected]
Available at:https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/796
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Recommended Citation
Scott, Rebecca J., co-author. "Property in Writing, Property on the Ground: Pigs, Horses, Land, and Citizenship in the Aftermath of
Slavery, Cuba, 1880-1909." M. Zeuske, co-author. Comp. Stud. Soc'y & Hist. 44, no. 4 (2002): 669-99.
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in
Property Writing,
on the Ground:
Property
Pigs, Horses, Land, and Citizenship
in the Aftermatho f Slavery,C uba,
1880-1909
REBECCA J. SCOTT
Universityo f Michigan
MICHAEL ZEUSKE
Universitiitz u Kiln
In the most literal sense, the abolition of slavery markst he moment when one
humanb eing cannotb e held as propertyb y anotherh umanb eing, for it ends the
juridical conceit of a "personw ith a price."A t the same time, the aftermatho f
emancipationf orcibly reminds us that propertya s a concept rests on relations
among humanb eings, not just between people and things. The end of slavery
finds formerm astersl osing possession of persons, and formers laves acquiring
it. But it also finds otherr esourcesb eing claimed and contested,i ncludingl and,
Rebecca Scott would like to thankD avid Brion Davis, Sidney Mintz and Brian Pollitt for discus-
sions on slavery and peasantries,a nd Sara Berry, Hanoch Dagan, Gillian Feeley-Harnick,B ruce
Frier, Robert Gordon, Tom Green, Hendrik Hartog, Michael Heller, Ellen Katz, James Krier,
Richard Pildes, StuartS chwartz, KatherineV erdery,a nd especially Carol Rose for sharing their
work and thoughts on property.M ichael Zeuske would like to thank Ovidio Cosme Diaz Benitez
for collaborationi n document analysis, and Grisel Ramos Maceda for assistance in the work of
transcription.B oth of us thank Sharad Chari, John Dumoulin, Leida Fernandez, Josep Maria
Fradera,A lejandroG arcia,R am6n Garrabou,J uan Giusti, Marial Iglesias, Steven Jacobson, Fer-
nando MartinezH eredia,J esuisM illin, Dylan Penningroth,R einaldo Romin, RichardT urits,a nd
three anonymous CSSHr eviewers for advice and probing questions. We have built upon conver-
sationsw ith manyr esidentso f ruralC ienfuegos, includingE velio Castillo andT omasP erezy Pdrez,
whose recent deathsw e mourn.W e owe special thankst o theirk in and neighborsA raceli Quesada
y Quesada,C aridadQ uesada,R amonaQ uesadad e Castillo, GerardoQ uesada,F ranciscoQ uesada,
HumbertoQ uesada,F ranciscoM ena Aguila, EduardoG ir6n, Lidia Gir6n, Lenny Sarria,M arceli-
no IznagaS uarezR oman,M anuelM ufioz Soriano,A rturoI znagaa nd family, FerminT ellerifaF, elix
Telleria,a nd LeonardoA loma. Both authorsa re very gratefult o OrlandoG arciaM artinez,d irector
of the ProvincialA rchive of Cienfuegos, and to the staff of that archive. Garciai s also the coordi-
natoro f the project "Rescated e la MemoriaV iva," within which we carriedo ut these interviews.
The staff of the MassachusettsH istorical Society, and particularlyi ts librarian,P eter Drummey,
0010-4175/02/669-699$ 9.50 ? 2002 Societyf or ComparativSe tudyo f Societya ndH istory
669
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670 REBECCA J. SCOTT AND MICHAEL ZEUSKE
tools, and animals-resources thath ave shapedf ormers laves' workingl ives to
date, and that now shape their prospects for the future. When former slaves
make claims to such resources, they may draw on an idea of customaryp os-
session, or they may assert rights to respect and remuneration.T he resulting
conflicts thrusti nto the open the links between freedom, property,a nd mem-
bershipi n the political community.1
Graduals lave emancipationi n Cuba (1868-1886) took place duringa peri-
od of intense competitionf or popularl oyalty betweent he Spanishc olonial state
and Cuban separatists.M aneuveringw ithin this competitive situation,f ormer
slaves and theira llies soughtr esourcesa nd political voice, both within and out-
side the rankso f armedo pposition to Spanishr ule. Thoughn o broadp ublic de-
bate was ever engaged on the possibility of conferringl anded property-as
reparationso r otherwise-on former slaves, the colonial governmentd id con-
cede substantialc ivil rights and finally expandedt he franchise to many black
men in a last-ditche ffort to fend off anti-colonialr ebellion. Rebellion explod-
ed nonetheless, and former slaves and their kin were conspicuous in the ranks
of the cross-racial,c ross-class independences truggle.2
Once Spain was defeated in 1898, formers laves and their descendantsc ould
invoke the breakw ith the past, and often their own patriotics ervice in the Lib-
erationA rmy, as a basis for claiming new rights and full citizenship. Such as-
sertions,h owever,q uickly ranu p againstb edrockc ommitmentst o privatep rop-
erty and limited suffrageo n the parto f the U.S. MilitaryG overnmentt hatr uled
Cuba from 1899 to 1902, and revealed the reluctanceo f some elements of the
carriedo ut an impressive cataloguing and reorganizationo f the Atkins Family Papers, following
preliminaryw ork by David Sartorius.K athleenL opez, with supportf rom the University of Michi-
gan RackhamG raduateS chool, transcribedk ey portionso f the SoledadP lantationc orrespondence.
A first drafto f this paperw as presenteda t the TallerB ilateralJ ardinB otinico de Cienfuegos-
Harvard,h eld in November of 1999, and publishedi n Spanishi n Illes i Imperis( Barcelona)5 (Fall
2001). Expandedv ersions were delivered at the conference, "L'heritaged e l'esclavage et de l'6-
mancipatione n Europee t en Amerique,"S aint-Claude,G uadeloupe,9 -11 March2 001; at the No-
vember 2001 meetings of the SouthernH istoricalA ssociation in New Orleans;a nd at the Yale Le-
gal HistoryF orum.W e thankp articipantsi n each of those gatherings,a nd especially JosephR eidy,
for their comments.
1 On varyingc onceptionso f property,s ee, among others,C arolM . Rose, "Possessiona s the Ori-
gin of Property"a nd "Propertya s Storytelling:P erspectivesf rom Game Theory,N arrativeT heory,
Feminist Theory,"b oth in Carol M. Rose, Propertya nd Persuasion: Essays on the History, Theo-
ry, and Rhetorico f Ownership( Boulder,C olo.: Westview Press, 1994). On "a person with a price"
as one vernaculard efinition of the slave relation,s ee WalterJ ohnson,S oul by Soul: Life Inside the
AntebellumS lave Market( Cambridge,M ass.: HarvardU niversity Press, 1999).
2 On the campaign for civil rights, see Oilda Hevia Lanier,E l Directorio Central de las So-
ciedades Negras de Cuba, 1886-1894 (Havana:E ditoriald e Ciencias Sociales, 1996); and Raquel
MendietaC osta, Cultura:L uchad e clases y conflicto racial, 1878-1895 (Havana:E ditorialP ueblo
y Educaci6n, 1989). On the war, see OrlandoG arcia Martinez," La Brigada de Cienfuegos: Un
Anilisis Social de su Formaci6n,"a nd Michael Zeuske, "'Los Negros Hicimos la Independencia':
Aspectos de la Movilizaci6n Afrocubanae n un HinterlandC ubano. Cienfuegos entre Colonia y
Reptiblica,"i n FernandoM artinezH eredia, Rebecca J. Scott, and OrlandoG arciaM artinez,e ds.,
Espacios, silencios y los sentidos de la libertad: Cuba, 1878-1912 (Havana: Editorial Uni6n,
2001), pp. 163-92, 193-234.
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PROPERTY IN WRITING, PROPERTY ON THE GROUND 671
Cubanl eadershipt o challenge those commitments.T he result was a complex,
multi-sided struggle to define the boundarieso f freedom, the content of citi-
zenship, and the patterno f access to resources.3
The theoretical outlines of this classic postemancipationa nd postcolonial
problematica re relatively clear.4I t is the lived experiences, the on-the-ground
dynamics, andt he outcome of the strugglet hath ave proven difficultt o capture.
The strategyf or our currenti nquiry emerged from a conversationa few years
ago on a small farm in Cienfuegos, Cuba, with the childreno f CayetanoQ ue-
sada. Cayetano Quesada was born in 1878 to slave parents on the Santa Ro-
salia plantation,a nd he enlisted at the age of seventeen in the multiracialC uban
rebel army fighting against Spain. He survived the war, and settled on a piece
of land in the hamleto f SanA nt6n. Fouro f his children,i ncludingR amonaQ ue-
sada, still live on or neart hat land. Towardt he end of our first visit to the farm,
one of us asked Ramona Quesada how her father had acquiredt he land. She
replied, "por herencia"-by inheritance.A complex story has come down
throughf amily traditiona bout a dishonestn eighborw ho made off with crucial
papers, leaving a strong sense that the land was their father's,b ut thatt his was
not provable. Ramona Quesada believed that someone had stolen the docu-
ments; one of her brothersw as unsure whethert heir fatherh ad ever held for-
mal title.5
Upon reflection, we were curious about the concept of "inheritance"a s a
mechanism of propertya cquisitionf or a man born to two slave parents.T here
was no evidence that the owner of the Santa Rosalia plantation-an intransi-
gent Spaniardn amed Manuel Blanco-had allowed formers laves to settle on
lands owned by that estate, much less conveyed title to the land to them. The
pension requestf iled by CayetanoQ uesadai n the 1930s listed his residence in
San Ant6n as being on land belonging to the immense American-owned
Soledad sugarp lantation.T he registrarsa t that date certified that his name ap-
pearedi n no local propertyr egister.6I n what sense was the farm his, and what
3 On the complexity of the 1899-1902 period, see Louis A. P6rez,J r., Cuba Between Empires,
1878-1902 (PittsburghU: niversityo f PittsburghP ress, 1983); Rebecca J. Scott, "Race,L abor,a nd
Citizenshipi n Cuba:A View from the SugarD istrict of Cienfuegos, 1886-1909," Hispanic Amer-
ican Historical Review 78 (Nov. 1998):687-728; and the 2001 University of Havanad octoralt he-
sis of MarialI glesias Utset, "Las metiforas del cambio: transformacioness imb61licaes n el trainsi-
to del 'entrei mperios' en Cuba (1898-1902)."
4 The literatureo n these questionsi s now abundantS. ee Rebecca J. Scott, ThomasC . Holt, Fred-
erick Cooper, and Aims McGuinness, eds., Societies after Slavery:A Select AnnotatedB ibliogra-
phy of Printed Sources on Cuba,B razil, British ColonialA frica, SouthA frica, and the British West
Indies (Pittsburgh:U niversity of PittsburghP ress, 2002). For an explicitly comparatived iscussion
that encompasses the U.S. South, see FrederickC ooper,T homas C. Holt, and Rebecca Scott, Be-
yond Slavery:E xplorationso fRace, Labor and Citizenshipi n PostemancipationS ocieties (Chapel
Hill: University of North CarolinaP ress, 2000).
5 Interviewb y Rebecca Scott with RamonaQ uesadad e Castillo andh er family, June 1998, San
Ant6n.
6 See the 1936 pension requesto f CayetanoQ uesadai n leg. 477, Juzgadod e PrimeraI nstancia,
Cienfuegos, Archivo Provincial de Cienfuegos (hereafterA PC). On the formationo f the property
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672 REBECCA J. SCOTT AND MICHAEL ZEUSKE
did the Quesada family have in mind when they used the phrase "por heren-
cia"?
Keeping in view both the general question and the specific remarkm ade
by RamonaQ uesada,w e began to explore several aspects of the questiono f ac-
cess to productive resources after slave emancipation. We started on the
ground-with pigs and horses, moveable property par excellence. We then
looked at houses and house lots, both in town and in the country.F inally, we
reachedt he question of cultivable land itself. Our aim was to explore the links
between propertya nd citizenship in two different directions. First, we asked
how former slaves, as new citizens, might have sought to acquire property.7
Second, we asked how their status as propertylesso r propertyh olders might
have shaped the content of their citizenship, particularlyt heir exercise of the
vote. We focused our lens on a ruralc ounty in centralC ubaw ith a complex so-
cial structurea nd a rich regional archive: Cayetano Quesada's home territory
of Cienfuegos.
The district of Cienfuegos, on the south coast, has long been one of the is-
land's premiers ugar-producingr egions.8S everal riverse mpty into the bay and
the sea nearby,t heir broadv alleys providingf ertile soil and easy transport( see
Map 1). To the east rise the EscambrayM ountains,a nd to the west sprawlst he
vast ZapataS wamp and the Bahia de los Cochinos (Bay of Pigs). Rural Cien-
fuegos was home to thousandso f slaves and, later, to a large, multiracial,a nd
often militant ruralp roletariat.B ut on the edges and in the interstices of this
plantationw orld, formers laves and otherr uralp eople also planteds ubsistence
and marketc rops, grazed animals, and built lives in intimater elationshipw ith,
but not defined by, labor in the cane fields.
On the Soledad and Santa Rosalia plantations,l ocated side by side on the
CaunaoR iver a few miles from the coast, a succession of late nineteenth-cen-
tury administratorsm aintaineda regular correspondencew ith the respective
owners, Edwin F. Atkins in Boston and Manuel Blanco in the city of Cienfue-
gos. This documentationi nadvertentlyr eveals claims to propertym ade by for-
mer slaves, those who had so recently been held to be propertyt hemselves. A
registersi n 1884, see Manuel MartinezE scobar,L as inscripciones: Con toda lajurisprudencia ci-
vil e hipotecaria relacionada con las mismas, 2 vols. (Havana:J esus Montero,n .d.).
7 For earliere xplorationso f postemancipationl and tenure,s ee Rebecca J. Scott, Slave Emanci-
pation in Cuba: The Transitiont o Free Labor;1 860-1899 (Princeton:P rincetonU niversity Press,
1985), ch. 11; Fe Iglesias, "Algunos aspectos de la distribuci6nd e la tierrae n 1899," Santiago 40
(Dec. 1980):119-78; and Louis A. Perez, Jr.,L ordso f the Mountain:S ocial Banditrya nd Peasant
Protest in Cuba, 1878-1918 (Pittsburgh:U niversity of PittsburghP ress, 1989), chs. 3, 4. A pow-
erful cautionarye ssay is Brian Pollitt, "Some Problemsi n Enumeratingt he 'Peasantry'i n Cuba,"
TheJ ournal of Peasant Studies 4 (Jan. 1977):162-80.
8 See OrlandoG arciaM artinez," Estudiod e la economia cienfueguerad esde la fundaci6nd e la
colonia Fernandinad e Jaguah astam ediados del siglo XIX," Islas 55-56 (Sept. 1976-Apr. 1977).
See also the discussion by Fe Iglesias on pp. 103-21 of LairdB ergad,F e Iglesias Garcia,a nd Maria
del Carmen Barcia, The Cuban Slave Market, 1790-1880 (New York: CambridgeU niv. Press,
1995), and her essay in Martineze t al., Espacios, silencios, pp. 85-107.
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PROPERTY IN WRITING, PROPERTY ON THE GROUND 673
C'
CIENFUEGOS_ I/
+++++ Railway
--- Road or trail
LAJAS, 0 Plantation
0 5 miles
CONGOJAS , 5 kilometres
RODAS -
CIEGO
-, CRUCES
MONTERO.'
ABREUSO -- -
Constancia
0 Hormiguero
-.
CAMARONES
" PALMIRA --
AIKCAUNAO
S CIENFUEGOS Rosario
oledad
.
o jES San Anton 0'- CUMANAYAGUA
Qa van LaLsa Sie r
Palmar Santa, Moscas
SJuragua o Rosalia
0 ARI.MA O
LSai erraN
Ga*v%ila n
MAP1 . The Cienfuegos region, showing selected plantations.M ap courtesyo f the Past and Pres-
ent Society.
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674 REBECCA J. SCOTT AND MICHAEL ZEUSKE
short distance to the northl ie the sugar towns of Santa Isabel de las Lajas and
Cruces,f or which detailedm unicipalr ecordsh ave survivedt hatr eflect patterns
of urbanp ropertyi n the last years of the colony and the first years of the Re-
public. By looking at Soledad and Santa Rosalia on the one hand, and the La-
jas region on the other,w e can glimpse somethingo f the dynamics of access to
resources on plantationst hemselves and in the sugar towns alongside them.
What we find are multiple strategiesf or pursuingp roductiver esources, some
involving customaryr ights, some restingo n political claims, and still othersr e-
quiring direct engagement with law and the formal system of property.A sin-
gle regionalc ase study of this kind obviously cannota nswert he broadq uestion
of how propertyr elationsa re redefinedi n the aftermatho f slavery.9A narrative
focused on propertyc laims in a mixed-farmingr egion, moreover,s houldn ot be
taken as representativeo f the circumstancesf acing formers laves in the planta-
tion zone of Matanzast o the west, or in areas of acceleratingf oreign invest-
ment like Camagtieyt o the east.10B ut it can suggest the complexity of the ev-
idence that will need to be accountedf or in any generale xplanation-and may
hint at the importancet o rurald wellers today of the negotiationsu ndertakenb y
the generationt hat emerged from slavery.
MOVEABLE PROPERTY: PIGS AND HORSES
An explorationo f former slaves and propertym ight logically begin with that
most classic vehicle of subsistence and investment:t he pig. Throughoutt he
nineteenthc entury,o bserverso f Cubanp lantationsw ere agreed about the im-
portanceo f pigs for the daily life of many slaves. Througha web of unwritten
arrangementsa nd understandings,s laves obtainedp iglets, then fed them corn
held back from their own rations,o r grains and root crops from theirp rovision
grounds.O nce full-grown, the hog could be sold to the plantero r to an itiner-
ant merchant.P igs functioned as a kind of savings bank, eating up available
9 Importants tudiesh ave been done on postemancipationp easantriese lsewherei n the Caribbean,
often drawingo n the pioneeringw ork of the anthropologistS idney Mintz. See his "A Note on the
Definition of Peasantries,"J ournal of Peasant Studies 1 (Oct. 1973):91-106; the contributionsb y
Mintz, RichardF rucht,a nd Woodville Marshalli n Michael Craton,e d., Roots and Branches: Cur-
rent Directions in Slave Studies (Toronto:P ergamonP ress, 1979); the works of Jean Besson, in-
cluding "LandT enurei n the Free Villages of Trelawny,J amaica:A Case Study in the Caribbean
PeasantR esponse to Emancipation,"S lavery and Abolition 5 (May 1984):3-23; Thomas C. Holt,
The Problem of Freedom: Race, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832-1938 (Balti-
Labor,
more: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and VerontM . Satchell, From Plots to Planta-
tions: Land Transactionsi n Jamaica, 1866-1900 (Mona, Jamaica:I nstitute of Social and Eco-
nomic Research,U niversity of the West Indies, 1990).
1o On the complexity of generalizingi n a situationo f markedr egionald ifferentiationa, ndw here
the categories of "agriculturawl orker"a nd "peasant"o ften overlap, see Pollitt, "Some Problems."
On the contrastb etween establishedp ropertyr egimes in centralC uba and the more rapidly trans-
formed patternsi n the east, see Alan Dye, CubanS ugar in the Age of Mass Production: Technolo-
gy and the Economics of the Sugar "Central,"1 899-1929 (Stanford:S tanfordU niversity Press,
1998). See also C6sar J. Ayala, American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Spanish
Caribbean, 1898-1934 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999).
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PROPERTY IN WRITING, PROPERTY ON THE GROUND 675
corn and scraps, and accruingc ash value." They were also a source of cultur-
al capital-if selling a pig gave access to cash, killing a pig made it possible to
have a properfiesta.
During slavery itself, there was an implicit transitivityt o the propertyr ela-
tions involved: the mastero wned the slave, who owned the pig, which ate prod-
ucts from the master's land, cultivatedb y the slave. The differentm eanings of
"ownership"c ombinedl aw and custom, but they were not in fundamentalc on-
tradictionw ith each other.T here was tugging and hauling over who had how
much right to what within a nested set of ownershipr elations,b ut whatevert he
formalc onstraintso n propertyo wning by slaves, virtuallye veryoner ecognized
that enslaved laborersc ould raise pigs and pocket the proceeds.'2
As graduals lave emancipationb egan in the 1870s, and the purchasep rice of
a slave fell relative to the selling price of a pig, a new tension appeared.T he
raisingo f pigs came to be both substancea nd symbol of access to personalf ree-
dom: by selling several pigs, a family could sometimes accumulate enough
money to buy the freedomo f one or more of its members.O wnershipi n the le-
gal sense-of the slave by the master-could be broughtt o an end throught he
activationo f ownershipi n the customarys ense-of the pigs by the slave. When
J. S. Murraya rrivedo n the Soledad plantationi n 1884 as an administratorfo r
the new owners, E. Atkins and Company,h e immediatelyn oticed the extent of
this phenomenon.H e reportedt o the plantationo wners on the monies he was
taking in fromp atrocinados( "apprentices,"a s bound laborersw ere designated
in this last phase of emancipation)w ho wished to buy theirf reedom,a ndh e not-
ed that many of the funds were coming from the sale of hogs the patrocinados
had raised. He even admittedp rivatelyt hat some of the patrocinadosp urchas-
ing theirf reedomw ere over the age of sixty, andt hus technicallya lreadyf ree.13
In one sense, these self-purchasesw ere a windfallf or the plantationT. he 1870
MoretL aw had legally declareds laves free when they reacheda ge sixty,b ut age
was difficultt o prove. Thosep atrocinadoso n Soledadw hose ages had been fal-
11 The classic work on pigs and implicit rights in an urbanc ontext is HendrikH artog," Pigs and
Positivism," WisconsinL aw Review (1985):899-935. On pigs in Cuba, see R. Scott, Slave Eman-
cipation, pp. 144, 150, 159, 160.
12 WithinS panishc olonial law, most formald ebatec oncerningt he control of propertyb y slaves
invoked the Roman law concept of peculium, translateda s peculio. Opinionsr angedf rom an insis-
tence thata ll propertyc ontrolledb y the slave belongede ntirelyt o the master,t o acknowledgemento f
the righto f the slave to acquire,a ndp ass on to heirs, a "modestq uantity"o f propertyS. ee the various
provisionsa nd proposalsi n JavierM alag6nB arcel6, CddigoN egro Carolino( 1784) (SantoD omin-
go: Edicionesd e Taller,1 974), especially pp. 123-24, 199-201. See also ManuelL ucenaS almoral,
Los c6digos negrosd e la Amdricae spafiol( Alcala de Henares:E dicionesU NESCO, 1996).
13 Murrayr ecordedp ayments totaling $548 from six patrocinados in June of 1884. Three of
them (Victor Gangi, whose age was listed as fifty-two; Benicia Criolla, listed as forty-nine;a nd
Eduvijes, fifty-one), were "in reality over sixty years of age, thereforef ree accordingt o law."T he
previous owner had apparentlyf alsified his slaves' ages in ordert o preventt heir coming undert he
terms of the 1870 Moret Law. See the letter of J. S. Murrayt o E. F. Atkins, 19 June 1884, Box 1,
Series IV, Soledad Sugar Co. Records, 1884-1916, Atkins Family Papers [Ms. N-297] (hereafter,
Atkins FP), MassachusettsH istoricalS ociety (MHS).
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676 REBECCA J. SCOTT AND MICHAEL ZEUSKE
sified by the previous owner were now paying cash to assure the freedom that
should have been theirs under law. But all self-purchasesm oved workersi nto
the categoryo f libertos,f urthero ut from underM urray'sd irecta uthorityM. ore-
over, the presenceo f animalsn ot owned by the plantationu nderminedh is con-
trol over people and space. In May of 1885 he crackedd own: "I have given or-
der to negros to sell all theirh ogs, prohibitingi n the futuret he raisingo f hogs."
He offeredt o increaset he workers'm onthlys tipendb y 50 cents as a recompense,
but he then went on to ordert hem to sell their horses as well. Murrayh ad long
been irritatedb y the fact that" almoste very negro on the estate owns a horse and
they are a source of constantt roublei n some way,"a nd his lettersr eflect a con-
tinuingc ampaignt o force the workerst o get rid of them.14
Murray's efforts were counterproductive.T here was an immediate work
stoppage among the freedmen,a nd a few days later "all the libertos rebelled."
When they refusedh is termsh e orderedt hem off the estate, grumbling," we are
better without them as they are now only working when they feel like it, and
keeping up a constant loafing during the day in the ranchos."" Eventually,
however, Murrayt ook them back. He needed theirl abor;t hey needed theirh uts
and provision plots.
It is not clear how former slaves on Soledad had acquiredh orses, but the
recordso f the neighboringS antaR osalia plantationp rovidea n occasional hint.
Already duringt he last months of the apprenticeships ystem one former slave
on Santa Rosalia used his accumulateds tipends to buy a cloak and a saddle
throught he estate store. He also took out a large loan-perhaps to buy a horse
to go with the saddle-and then worked to pay it back. For this man, Felipe
Criollo, acquiringa horse may have been one of the first majorp urchasest hat
could both symbolize and embody freedom.16 Horses broughtm obility, and a
degree of masculine authoritya nd public standinga s well. For all of Murray's
bluster,i t was clear thatn o simple fiat would easily persuadem en, once in pos-
session of a horse, to dismounta nd approacht he world on foot.
Murray'sr eferencest o hogs, horses, and "loafing"i n the ranchos (huts with
small plots of land) suggest that an internale conomy, the lineal descendanto f
the old system of slave provision plots, was alive and well at Soledad."7M ur-
14 J. S. Murrayt o E. F. Atkins, 1 July 1884, 21 Oct. 1884, Box 1, Series IV, Atkins FP, MHS.
15 See J. S. Murrayt o E. F.A tkins, 26 May 1885, 2 June 1885, Box 1, Series IV,A tkins FP,M HS.
The patronato as a system of control was breakingd own at the same time. Murrayr eportedo n 26
May 1885: "Thirtyo ne (31) patrocinadoso btainedt heir libertyt hrought he governmenta nd of our
best men and women have bought theirs 40 in all, and no doubt more will buy their liberty as soon
as the hogs are sold."
16 See f. 55 and 57, "LibroN o. 1 de los negros, Santa Rosalia,"A PC. For a discussion of this
same evidence in a different context, see Rebecca J. Scott, "Reclaiming Gregoria's Mule: The
Meanings of Freedom in the Arimao and Caunao Valleys, Cienfuegos, Cuba, 1880-1899," Past
and Present 170 (Feb. 2001):181-216.
17 The literatureo n such systems in other slave societies is abundant.S ee in particularI raB erlin
and Philip D. Morgan, eds., Cultivationa nd Culture:L abor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the
Americas (Charlottesville:U niversity Press of Virginia, 1993).
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PROPERTY IN WRITING, PROPERTY ON THE GROUND 677
ray tried to trim it down, but in doing so he encountereda point of immediate
resistance by the estate's former slaves. His harsh methods-he placed some
libertos in the stocks-reflected the increasing difficulty of maintainings trict
control over the behavioro f men and women who had access to food and ani-
mals throughc ustomaryr ights that did not pas? throught he wage nexus. Over
time, undert he new managementa t Soledad,r ationsw ould be morer igidly con-
trolled and former slaves would find it more difficult to raise animals. But the
difficulties that Murraye ncounteredr eflected the deep roots of that internal
economy, and the proliferationo f claims to animals to which it had given rise.
These claims, moreover,w ere not easily countered,f or the propertyi tself could
be moved (andh idden,i f need be), and formers laves could back up theirc laims
by threateningt o withhold their labor.
HOUSE LOTS
Land and huts were even more importantt han pigs, and even more contested.
When a former slave assertedt he right to stay underh is or her own roof, or to
build a house on the land on which the plantationl aborersl ived, the claim did
not fit well within the web of propertyr elations mapped out in the notarial
recordso r the propertyr egister.S panishp ropertyl aw distinguishedb etween re-
lations of posesi6n (possession) and those of dominio (dominion).'8 The law
was sharpi n holding thatc ropsp lanted,a ndb uildingsc onstructed,e ven in good
faith, on land legally owned by anotherb ecame the propertyo f the landown-
er-though it could call for reimbursemento f expenditures.19
The SpanishC ivil Code, introducedi n 1889 and appliedt o Cubai n 1890, did
hold that rights of dominio could be extinguishedo ver time throughp rescrip-
ci6n (prescription),a t which point a squatterw ho could prove lengthy posses-
sion would acquirea recognized claim. This doctriner ested on the old Roman
concept of prescription,w hich in Spanish civil law made room for formal
claims parallelt o those that in Anglo-Americanc ommon law would be based
on the doctrine of adverse possession.20B ut the process requiredt hirty years
18 For a detailed and systematics urvey of Spanishp ropertyl aw as it was transformedin the An-
tilles, see Michel J. Godreaua ndJ uanA . Giusti, "LasC oncesiones de la Coronay la PropiedadT er-
ritoriale n PuertoR ico, Siglos XVI-XX," RevistaJ uridica, Universidadd e Puerto Rico 62 (1993),
351-579.
19 See Rafael P6rez Lobo, Codigo Civil y Constitucidn( Havana:C ultural,S .A., 1944), espe-
cially Libro Segundo, Titulos I and II, of the 1889 Spanish Civil Code. Article 361 holds that, "El
duefio del terreno en que se edificare, sembrare, o plantare de buenaf e, tendrd derecho a hacer
suya la obra, siembrao plantacidn,p revia la indemnizacidne stablecida en los articulos 453 y 454,
o a obligar al quefabricd o plantd a pagarle el precio del terreno,y al que sembrd la renta corre-
spondiente."
20 Wea reg ratefutlo BruceF riera ndC arolR osef ort heire xplanationosf the subtletieos f Ro-
man and Continentall aw on this point. They emphasizet he strongp referenceg iven to the title hold-
er,a ndt hec entralitoyf thep ropertrye gisterF. orC ubas, ee articles1 930a nd1 959o f theC ivilC ode,
in Perez Lobo, Codigo Civil y Constitucidn.A rt. 1930. "Por la prescripci'n se adquieren, de la
manera y con las condiciones determinadase n la Ley, el dominio y demds derechos reales. Tam-
bidn se extinguend el propio modo, por la prescripcidn, los derechos y las acciones de cualquier
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