Rethinking the particularity of the arts and crafts apprenticeship system in mid-nineteenth century Cuba

Abstract

The protagonists of one of the new mechanisms to supply cheap labour while the demand for plantation labour was growing, most apprentices in nineteenth-century Cuba suffered as a result of the influence of slavery. Indentured servitude was absorbed by slavery. The fact that African slavery reached its peak in the Spanish colony in that century stood in the way of the vision and actions of the island’s authorities regarding the apprenticeship system. This article uses newspaper and archival sources to address the system’s limitations and to consider the reasons behind an apparently inclusive institutional eagerness to encourage the participation and accreditation of coloured artisans in urban life. The research concludes that when they were "black" or somehow the colour variable was involved, enslaved apprentices were indistinguishable from free apprentices of African descent.