"El Lugareño" contra la esclavocracia: las cartas de Gaspar Betancourt y Cisneros (1803-1866)

Abstract

Gaspar Betancourt y Cisneros, known as El Lugareño, was an outstanding member of the Cuban intellectual and landing aristocracy during the first half of the 19^th Century. He supplies a most interesting case that may help to understand some essential aspects of the debate that took place in his time between the anti-slavery minority —who maintained that the slave working force checked the development of the sugar industry— and the majority of the great landing owners who still trusted in the ilimited exploitation of human resources linked to the slave trade and its agrarian uses. The letters sent by Betancourt to some of his friends and followers, notably to Domingo del Monte, are a first-hand testimony of the importance of the issue.