The African women of the Dos Hermanos slave ship in Cuba

In 1817, the Spanish King decreed the emancipation of over two hundred Africans who had been sold as slaves in Cuba in 1795. This declaration brought an end to a long-running legal case in which Spanish and British traders had disputed property rights in the human cargo which had been transported from African shores in the Dos Hermanos frigate. Following the royal proclamation, Havana’s Real Consulado de Agricultura y Comercio undertook the lengthy task of locating the survivors of the voyage. The process of locating the women survivors revealed the harsh experiences of mothering under slavery: the women had been reduced to mere reproducers, their families dispersed through sale. The process also revealed, however, the great efforts of the now freed women to rescue their children from slavery, and to claim what they perceived to be their rightful custody of them. The article explores the conflicting arguments presented about these issues by various parties: the officials who processed the women’s claims; the owners of the women’s children, who stood to lose ownership of them; and the women themselves, who struggled to demonstrate their capacity, as mothers, to take custody of the children

Declaration · Emancipation · Political science · Proclamation · Sociology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Law

• Teresa Mina’s journeys

  Open Access•Camillia Cowling•Atlantic Studies•2021

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