e
practically free were slaves who were permitted by their owners to live
where they pleased and work as they pleased, on condition of paying
their masters certain royalties every week or month. In Carreno's time
there were hundreds of negroes of these classes in and about Havana, and
probably still more of them in the eastern end of the island. The
anxiety concerning them arose from two causes. One was, the fear that
they might incite the slaves to insurrection, placing themselves at the
head of the movement; a fear which was not at that time realized. The
other was, the fear that they would build up objectionable communities.
Thus in Havana they occupied a quarter of the town by themselves, in
which their wooden cabins were huddled closely together; the sanitary
conditions were bad; and the danger of fire which might imperil the
whole town was obviously imminent. There was in Carreno's time a
movement to procure their deportation to Florida or elsewhere, and to
forbid the residence of free negroes in Cuba; but it did not become
effective.

It is agreeable to remember that in spite of the obviously objectionable
nature of the institution of slavery, and in spite of the fears and
anxieties which have been mentioned, negro slavery in Cuba in those
early days was not marked with the distressing features which it has
elsewhere borne. It was probably more humane than it was two and a half
centuries later in the United States. The slaves were seldom sold by one
master to another, and never in circumstances which separated husband
and wife, or parents and young children. Severe physical punishments
were prohibited. Their masters were compelled to feed them well, and to
provide them with decent and comfortable clothes. There was no personal
or social prejudice against them, but they were permitted to attend
church and to frequent all public places on equal terms with the
Spaniards. Ordinarily they were not permitted to carry weapons; but
those who occupation seemed to make it desirable for them to be armed,
such as cattle-rangers, and messengers travelling from one part of the
island to another, were permitted to bear arms just as white men would
have done. Moreover, the free negroes were called upon equally with the
whites to serve as sentinels on the water fronts of cities, and were of
course provided with arms. There are no authentic records of
intermarriage between Spaniards and negroes, yet neither is there any
proof tha