Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The West Indies and the Development of Colonial Government, 1801-1834


Murray, D. J., The West Indies and the Development of Colonial Government, 1801-1834, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965.

Reviewed in The Resident Judge of Port Phillip.

Contents:
Introduction

I. British Government and the West Indies at the end of the Eighteenth Century

II. Late Eighteenth-Century Government in the Old West India Colonies

III. The Old West India Colonies during the Napoleonic War

IV. The Government of the Conquered Colonies

V. Trinidad: A New Departure

VI. The Demand for Supervision and Direction in Colonial Government

VII. The Colonial Office, 1801 - 27

VIII. Government with a Purpose

IX. From Exhortation to Authority

X. Reform in Colonial Government

XI. Emancipation – Coercion or Co-operation

XII. The Government for the West India Colonies after Emancipation

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Through Indian Eyes: A Journey Among the Indian Tribes of Guiana


Henfrey, Colin, Through Indian Eyes: A Journey Among the Indian Tribes of Guiana, New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.

See June Henfrey.

Contents:
Author’s Note

Prelude

I. The Troubled Guiana

II. The Gentle People

III. The Face of Change

IV. Hallelujah Indians

V. A Patamona Secret

VI. A Fading Millennium

VII. The Southern Trail

VIII. The Disinherited Macusi

IX. The Teacher Boys

X. Through Indian Eyes

XI. Orealla: The End of a Journey

Appendices :

A. The Guianese Background

B. The Indian Background

C. Hallelujah Songs and Prayer

D. Millennial Cults similar to Hallelujah

E. Postscript: Guianese Politics through late 1964

Selected Bibliography

Index and Glossary

Sunday, October 20, 2013

La Era de Trujillo: un estudio casuístico de dictadura hispanoamericana


de Galíndez, Jesús, La Era de Trujillo: un estudio casuístico de dictadura hispanoamericana,[tesis doctoral] Santiago de Chile: Editorial del Pacífico, S.A. 1956. – (2 copies)

Jesús (de) Galíndez Suárez (born October 12, 1915, Amurrio[1] - died 1956) was a basque nationalist (PNV) writer who disappeared in New York City. He was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by henchmen of Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic.
(…)
Galíndez was last seen at 10 PM on March 12, 1956, as he entered the subway station at 57th Street and Eighth Ave in Manhattan; Time magazine indicated that he disappeared near a subway station at 116th Street and Broadway. As was well known, Galíndez feared that Dominican agents might kill him. On the night of his death, two Dominican ships were in New York; one put out that night and returned after 5 hours, the other left later. However, investigations initially went nowhere. His body was never found, but with the unraveling of the Murphy disappearance further light was shed on his case.
(…)
it was feared that he was writing a critical volume about Trujillo and his family. Agents offered US$25,000 to buy the manuscript, but Galíndez refused. Thus Trujillo decided that Galíndez had to be killed.
(…)
Galíndez's book was published posthumously in 1973 as The Era of Trujillo, Dominican Dictator .... The Galíndez case was the inspiration for the 1991 novel Galíndez by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán that, in turn, resulted in the 2003 movie "El Misterio Galíndez (The Galíndez File)".


Tabla de Contenido:
Prólogo

Introducción
I. La dictadura Hispanoamericana
II. La República Dominicana hasta 1930

PRIMERA PARTE: SINPOSIS HISTORICA DE UN CUARTO DE SIGLO
Capítulo I – LA ERA DE TRUJILLO:
1. Antecedentes personales de Trujillo.
2. El golpe de febrero de 1930.
3. El gobierno provisional de Estrella Ureña.
4. El primer gobierno de Trujillo, 1930 – 1934.
5. El segundo gobierno de Trujillo, 1934 – 1938.
6. El gobierno de Peynado, 1938 – 1940.
7. El gobierno de Troncoso, 1940 – 1942.
8. Tercer gobierno de Trujillo, 1942 – 1947.
9. Cuarto gobierno de Trujillo, 1947 – 1952.
10. Gobierno de Héctor B. Trujillo, desde 1952.
11. Resumen histórico de la era de Trujillo.

SEGUNDA PARTE: ANALISIS DEL REGIMEN POLITICO BAJO TRUJILLO
Capítulo II – PARODIA CONSTITUCIONAL:
1. Historia constitucional de la República Dominicana.
2. Características comunes a las tres reformas de Trujillo.
3. Cuarta reforma en gestación.
4. Apariencia constitucional y realidades políticas.

Capítulo III – ELECCIONES Y RENUNCIAS:
1. Elecciones 100% unánimes.
2. Legisladores que renuncian por carta.
3. Las leyes se aprueban, no se discuten.
4. Un benefactor y varios secretarios con letra minúscula.
5. Magistrados y jueces que quita y pon.
6. Las provincias son reflejo de la capital.

Capítulo IV – TERROR DIFUSO EN VEZ DE LIBERTAD:
1. Principios constitucionales sobre derechos humanos.
2. Los derechos individuales en la realidad.
3. Las libertades políticas.
4. Detenciones sin procesamiento, y asesinatos.
5. Asesinatos en país extranjero.
6. La sumisión de un pueblo.

Capítulo V – PARTIDO UNICO, Y SINDICATO DE GOBIERNO:
1. La destrucción de los antiguos partidos.
2. La farsa de los partidos de “oposición”.
3. Estructura e ideología del partido dominicano.
4. El movimiento obrero en la República Dominicana.
5. La Confederación Dominicana del Trabajo.
6. La huelga azucarera de 1946.

Capítulo VI – INSTITUCIONES SOCIALES DE RELLENO:
1. El ejército y la policía.
2. Prensa, radio y televisión.
3. Universidad y estudiantes.
4. La Iglesia Católica.
5. El feminismo.
6. Actitud del hombre de negocios

Capítulo VII – ESTILO PERSONAL DEL TIRANO:
1. Megalomanía.
2. Peculado.
3. Nepotismo.
4. Adulación y servilismo.
5. Leyes hechas a medida.

Capítulo VIII – REPERCUSIONES DE LA POLITICA INTERNACIONAL:
1. Las turbulentas relaciones con Haití.
2. Los refugiados europeos.
3. La II Guerra Mundial.
4. La situación política en el mar Caribe.
5. La República Dominicana en la comunidad internacional.
6. Sus relaciones con Estados Unidos.
7. Relaciones con otros países.

Capítulo IX – EL “ANTI-COMUNISMO” DE TRUJILLO:
1. Antecedentes del comunismo en la República Dominicana hasta 1945.
2. Trujillo envía un Ministro a Moscú y elogia a la URSS.
3. El Partido Socialista Popular.
4. Represión del Comunismo desde 1947.

Capitulo X – LA OBRA POSITIVA DEL REGIMEN TRUJILLISTA:
1. Mantenimiento del orden publico.
2. Progreso material.
3. Progreso cultural.
4. La defensa doctrinal del régimen.

Capítulo XI – CRITICA DEL REGIMEN, Y GRUPOS DE OPOSICION:
1. La crítica del régimen.
2. La oposición en la República Dominicana.
3. La oposición en el exilio.
4. El cáncer de toda dictadura personal.

CONCLUSIONES

The Cuban Story


Matthews, Herbert L., The Cuban Story, New York: George Braziller, 1961.

Reviewed in World Affairs.

Reviewed in International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) © 1963.

Reviewed in The American Political Science Review © 1962.

Reviewed in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1962.

Available online .

Herbert Lionel Matthews (January 10, 1900 – July 30, 1977) was a reporter and editorialist[1] for the New York Times who grew to notoriety after revealing that Fidel Castro was still alive and living in the Sierra Maestra mountains, though Batista had claimed publicly that he was killed during the 26th of July Movement's landing.

The European Nations in the West Indies, 1493-1688


Newton, Arthur Percival, The European Nations in the West Indies, 1493-1688, London: A & C Black Publishers Ltd 1933.

Reviewed in The English Historical Review © 1935.

Contents:
Introduction.

1. The Beginnings of a New International Rivalry, 1493 - 1500.

2. The Planting of the First Colony, 1500 – 1513.

3. The Exodus from the Islands to the Continent, 1513 – 1548.

4. The First Attacks upon Spanish Monopoly, 1523 – 1559.

5. The Beginnings of the African Slave Trade, 1502 – 1569.

6. Francis Drake and the Corsairs, 1569 – 1573.

7. The Privateering War, 1573 – 1590.

8. The Later Years of the Elizabethan War, 1590 – 1603.

9. The Peace and After, 1604 - 1625.

10. The First Settlements in the Lesser Antilles, 1605 - 1625.

11. The Deluge from the North, 1625 – 1637.

12. The Beginnings of the Buccaneers, 1630 – 1641.

13. The Height of Dutch Commercial Ascendancy and the Rise of Slave – Grown Sugar, 1640 – 1660.

14. Cromwell and the Western Design, 1649 - 1660.

15. The Buccaneers and International Policy, 1660 – 1665.

16. The Second Dutch War, 1665 – 1667.

17. The Heyday of the Buccaneers, 1665 – 1671.

18. The Indies Trade, 1648 – 1678.

19. Preparations for a New War, 1667 – 1672.

20. The Third Dutch War, 1672 – 1678.

21.The Coming of the Brandenburgers and the Danes, 1673 – 1683.

22. The Suppression of the Buccaneers, 1672 – 1688.

23. The End of an Era, 1678 – 1688.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Slavery and Race Relations in Latin America


Toplin, Robert Brent (ed), Slavery and Race Relations in Latin America, Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1974.

Contents:
Introduction.

1. The Black Experience in Chile, by William F. Sater.

2. Health Conditions in the Slave Trade of Colonial New Granada, by David L. Chandler.

3. Manumission, Libres, and Black Resistance: The Colombian Chocó, 1680 – 1810, by William F. Sharp.

4. African Slave Trade and Economic Development in Amazonia, 1700 – 1800, by Colin M. MacLachlan.

5. Nineteenth – Century Brazilian Slavery, by Robert Conrad.

6. The Implementation of Slave Legislation in Eighteenth – Century New Granada, by Norman A. Meiklejohn.

7. Slavery, Race, and Social Structure in Cuba During the Nineteenth Century, by Franklin W. Knight.

8. The Abolition of Slavery in Venezuela: A Nonevent, by John V. Lombardi.

9. Abolition and the Issue of the Black Freedman’s Future in Brazil, by Robert Brent Toplin.

10. Beyond Poverty: The Negro and the Mulatto in Brazil, by Florestan Fernandes.

11. The Question of Color in Puerto Rico, by Thomas G. Mathews.

12. Elitist Attitudes Toward Race in Twentieth Century Venezuela, by Winthrop R. Wright.

13. The Gradual Integration of the Black in Cuba: Under the Colony, the Republic, and the Revolution, by Marianne Masferrer & Carmelo Mesa – Lago.

14. Afro – Brazilians: Myths and Realities, by Arthur F. Corwin.

Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation


Handler, Jerome S., Frederick W. Lange, Robert V. Riordan, Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.

Reviewed in The William and Mary Quarterly © 1980.

Reviewed in Historical Archaeology © 1981.

See also Jerome S. Handler.

From the inner sleeve of the book:
Here is the first detailed investigation of plantation slave life in Barbados from earliest times until 1838. The authors have visited slave village sites, and their intensive excavation of a slave cemetery has yielded a wealth of material pertaining to mortuary practices and other dimensions of social and material life. Handler and Lange have also examined and extensively integrated the written records to amplify and cross – check their findings.

Pacem in Maribus: Working Papers and Selection from Dialogue at Preparatory Conference – Jamaica, October 1972


Caribbean Study Project, Working Papers and Selection from Dialogue at Preparatory Conference – Jamaica, October 1972, Pacem in Maribus, Published for the International Ocean Institute by Royal University of Malta Press, 1974. – 2 identical copies + 1: [The two identical copies were published in 1973, one volume differs only by including a preface by Eric Williams]

Table of Contents:
Preface – Eric Williams.

List of Authors.

PART I – Resource potential, development, environmental considerations and science policy in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico:

Section 1. Resource Base:
Chapter 1. Perspectives on a Caribbean Region, Norton Ginsburg.
Chapter 2. Petroleum Production and Pollution Potential in the Caribbean Sea, Kenneth O. Emery and Elazar Uchupi.
Chapter 3. The Living Resources of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, Gilberto Rodriguez.

Section 2. Development and the Environment, and Geopolitics:
Chapter 4. Brackish – Water Lagoons and Mangrove Forests, Geoffrey I. Kesteven.
Chapter 5. Tourism and Caribbean Natural Resources, Ivan Goodbody, G.C. Hodges, M. Martinez.
Chapter 6. A Sea – Level Canal in Panama, Ira Rubinoff.
Chapter 7. Effects of the Caribbean on the Water Resources of Central America, L.E. Garcia M., and Hector R. Ponce R.
Chapter 8. An Historical View of the Geo-Political Aspects of the Lines of Communication to and through the Caribbean, Thomas Mathews.

Section 3. Environmental Modeling, Research Needs, and Science Policy:
Chapter 9. A Model for Environmental Design, Luis A. Ferrate F.
Chapter 10. Research Needs in the Caribbean, Maxime J. Cerame – Vivas.
Chapter 11. The Needs and Impacts of Technology Transfer, Thomas A. Clingan, Jr.

PART II – Political institutions and the Law of the Sea in the Caribbean and the Gulf:

Section 1. Past and Present:
Chapter 12. The Effects of the Existing Law of the Sea on the Development of the Caribbean Region and the Gulf of Mexico, K.O. Rattray, A. Kirton, P. Robinson.
Chapter 13. Applicability of the Archipelago and Mare Clausum Concepts to the Caribbean Sea, Lennox F. Ballah.
Chapter 14. Note on the Patrimonial Sea or Economic Zone of Exclusive Jurisdiction, Duke E.E. Pollard.
Chapter 15. The Legal Position of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Framework of a Caribbean Regional Regime, Rene Jean Dupuy.

Section 2. Future:
Chapter 16. The Patrimonial Sea as a Regional Concept, Jorge Castañeda.
Chapter 17. Impacts of Some Law of the Sea Proposals on Gulf and Caribbean Ocean Resource Development, H. Gary Knight.
Chapter 18. Pacem In Maribus in the Caribbean Region, Reynaldo Galindo – Pohl.
Chapter 19. A Caribbean Community for Ocean Development, David Krieger.

PART III – Selections from Dialogue.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

La Viña de Naboth: La República Dominicana 1844-1924


Welles, Sumner, [Prólogo y traducción de Manfredo A. Moore], La Viña de Naboth: La República Dominicana 1844-1924, Tomos I & II, Santiago, República Dominicana: Editorial El Diario, 1939.

Reviewed in Foreign Affairs, and in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1930.

Benjamin Sumner Welles (October 14, 1892 – September 24, 1961) was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. He was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State from 1937 to 1943, during FDR's presidency.
(…)
[When] Welles … retired to his estate at Oxon Hill, Maryland… (h)e devoted himself to writing and his two-volume history of the Dominican Republic, Naboth's Vineyard: The Dominican Republic, 1844-1924 appeared in 1928. Time described the work as "a ponderous, lifeless, two-volume work which was technically a history of Santo Domingo, actually a careful indictment of U.S. foreign policy in the Hemisphere." James Reston summarized its thesis: "we should keep in our own back yard and stop claiming rights for ourselves that we denied to other sovereign States."

Los Perros Hambrientos


Alegría, Ciro, Los Perros Hambrientos, Santiago de Chile: Empresa Editora Zig-Zag, 1954. [en estado paupérrimo debido al comején]

Ver Realidad y ficción en 'Los perros hambrientos', de Ciro Alegría , y The Indianista Novel since 1889.

Ciro Alegría Bazán (November 4, 1909 – February 17, 1967) was a Peruvian journalist, politician, and novelist.
(…)
He remained in exile in both Chile and later the United States up until 1948. Later, he taught at the University of Puerto Rico, and wrote about the Cuban revolution while in Cuba. His most well known novel, Broad and Alien is the World (1941) or El mundo es ancho y ajeno, won the Latin American Novel Prize in 1941, and brought him international attention.


Los perros hambrientos es una novela del escritor peruano Ciro Alegría, publicada en Santiago de Chile por la Editorial Zig-Zag (1939). Es considerada como una de las obras más representativas de la novela indigenista peruana y latinoamericana en general.
(…)
Ciro Alegría, que por entonces vivía en Chile, ya era conocido en el mundo literario pues años antes había publicado su novela La serpiente de oro, ganadora en 1935 de un concurso convocado por la Editorial Nascimento y auspiciada por la Sociedad de Escritores de Chile. A fines de 1936, como consecuencia de la dura vida de prisión y persecución política que sufrió en el Perú, enfermó de tuberculosis pulmonar. Se recluyó en el sanatorio de San José de Maipo y allí estuvo dos años. Antes de darle de alta le aplicaron un neumotórax, pero una burbuja de aire inyectada en la sangre le produjo entonces una embolia cerebral que le dejó temporalmente ciego y con medio cuerpo paralizado. Esta dificultad motriz le anuló la capacidad de escribir. Durante su recuperación, a manera de terapia, fue obligado a escribir “algo” para readiestrar el uso de su mano derecha. Una noche despertó sobresaltado por los ladridos de unos perros. Entonces se le vino la idea de componer una novela basándose en relatos cortos que había escrito con anterioridad, sobre la vida de unos perros en la serranía del norte peruano. La tarea de armar la novela le demandó un mes de labor, titulándola Los perros hambrientos. Acto seguido la presentó al concurso de novela convocado por la Editorial Zig-Zag y auspiciada por la Sociedad de Escritores de Chile. De las 62 obras presentadas, la suya obtuvo el segundo puesto. El primer premio lo obtuvo el escritor chileno Rubén Azócar con su novela Gente en la isla. El fallo del jurado fue muy discutido. La obra fue publicada en agosto de 1939; tuvo después múltiples ediciones en países de habla hispana y se la tradujo a varios idiomas.

Antonio Maceo, el Héroe


Costa, Octavio R., Antonio Maceo, el Héroe, Miami, FL.: La Moderna Poesía, 1984.

Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales (June 14, 1845 – December 7, 1896) was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence. Fellow Cubans gave Maceo the sobriquet of the "Bronze Titan" (Spanish: El Titan de Bronce), which was a reference to his skin color, stature and status.[2] Spaniards referred to Maceo as the "Greater Lion" (El Leon mayor). Maceo was one of the most noteworthy guerrilla leaders in 19th century Latin America, comparable to José Antonio Páez of Venezuela in military acumen.


From Cuba Collectibles:
Una biografía escrita hace mas de 50 años y premiada por la Academia de la Historia de Cuba, dirigida por Emeterio S. Santovenia. El autor consulto todo lo que se habia escrito sobre Antonio Maceo y tuvo el privilegio de consultar el archivo personal de heroe, entregado por su viuda, Maria Cabrales. Cubierta dura con 326 paginas.

The State of Latin America


Arciniegas, Germán, The State of Latin America, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952.

Reviewed in The Western Political Quarterly © 1952.

Contents:
Introduction: The Reason for this Book.

I. Which Way Latin America?

II. Double Talk.

III. The Ego with Two Heads: Sinister.

IV. The Ego with Two Heads: Dexter.

V. Perón’s Justicialism is Fascism.

VI. The Military vs. Aprismo in Peru.

VII. Venezuela, or the Military in Oil Heaven.

VIII. Bolivia, Land of Tin, Military, and Gallows Fruit.

IX. Paraguay, Land of Dilemma.

X. Colombia, or How to Destroy a Democracy.

XI. The Colombians in Korea.

XII. Brazil: A Continent within a Continent.

XIII. Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay: A Triangle above a Void.

XIV. The Caribbean, World Hurricane Center – I (Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Panama).

XV. The Caribbean, World Hurricane Center – II (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico).

XVI. Mexico, or the Eagle and the Serpent.

XVII. The Army and the Armies of Latin America.

XVIII. Latin America’s Hopes and Fears.

XIX. Visible and Invisible America.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

A History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511 to 1868


Aimes, Hubert H. S., A History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511 to 1868, New York & London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1907.

Available online.

From the Preface:
This exposition is the first part of my work in the history of slavery in Cuba. I have endeavoured here to point out salient features of the Spanish policy governing the slave trade in Cuba. My aim has been to show the causes of the trade in Cuba, its effects on Cuba, Spain, and, so far as they are closely related to the island, on the world; I have then gone into considerable detail in order to show the nature of the trade and the times. In doing this I have chosen to make large use of extracts for the purpose of bringing the reader as close as possible to the work of the writers themselves. Furthermore, political, social, and economic situations bearing on or influenced by the trade have been explained as fully as space would allow.

Caribbean Circuit


Luke, Sir Harry, Caribbean Circuit, London: Nicholson & Watson, 1950.

Note: This book was given to Dr. Mathews by Miles Galvin on 10/13/70.

Reviewed by the MOUFFLON BOOKSHOP, and Foreign Affairs.

Sir Harry Charles Luke (born Harry Charles Lukach) KCMG, GCStJ, D.Litt. of Oxford (1938) and honorary LLD of Malta, (London 1884 - Cyprus 1969) was an official in the British Colonial Office. He served in Barbados, Cyprus, Transcaucasia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Malta, the British Western Pacific Territories and Fiji. He is the author of some books on several of these countries.

Cuba, the Economic and Social Revolution


Seers, Dudley, Ed., Cuba, the Economic and Social Revolution, Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 1964.

Reviewed in The Journal of Politics / Volume 27 / Issue 02 / May 1965.

Reviewed in the Journal of Inter-American Studies © 1964.

Reviewed in The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1964.

Reviewed in Desarrollo Económico © 1964.

Reviewed in The American Economic Review © 1964.

Dudley Seers (1920–1983) was a British economist who specialised in development economics. After his military service with the Royal Navy he taught at Oxford and then worked for various UN institutions. He was the director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex from 1967 till 1972.

A Study of the Chinese in Cuba, 1847-1947


Corbitt, Duvon Clough, A Study of the Chinese in Cuba, 1847-1947, Wilmore: Asbury College, 1971.

See: A Question of Methodology: Review Essay on Recent Literature on Cuba, by Anthony P. Maingot, and Chinese Contract Labour in Cuba, 1847-1874, by Mary Turner.

From the Preface:
Upon the occasion of my removal from one home to another during my Cuban residence, the Chinese laundryman on the corner stepped out, took my portable typewriter from my hand, and with the remark, “Him sabe, nueva casa,” accompanied me to my new home. For the next ten years Felipe took it upon himself to tutor me in Chinese life, customs and language. His achievement was to awaken my interest in the Cuban Chinese so that, when, in the course of investigations in the Archivo Nacional de Cuba on other subjects, I discovered numbers of papers dealing with the importation of Chinese coolies, I was moved to examine them with more than passing care. This volume is the fruit of that introduction, from which I have reaped much pleasure and many friendships.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Gan-Eden, or, Pictures of Cuba


Hurlbert, William Henry, Gan-Eden, or, Pictures of Cuba, Boston : John P. Jewett ; Cleveland, Ohio : Jewett, Proctor and Worthington ; New York : Sheldon, Lamport and Blakeman, 1854.

Available online .

From the English language introduction:
William Henry Hurlbert (July 3, 1827—September 4, 1895) was an American journalist and author of “The Diary of a Public Man,” published in the North American Review in 1879. His responsibility for the Diary—once dubbed the “most gigantic” problem of uncertain authorship in American historical writing—was carefully concealed and has only recently been established.

Roaming Through The West Indies


Franck, Harry A., Roaming Through The West Indies, New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1920.

Available online.

Harry Alverson Franck, better known as Harry A. Franck (29 June 1881 - 18 April 1962) was an American travel writer during the first half of the 20th century.
(…)
While an undergraduate, he bet a fellow student that he could travel around the world without money, and after a year of teaching, proceeded to do so. He spent sixteen months circling the globe, working to earn money along the way and performing feats such as walking across the Malay peninsula.

Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849


Baird Robert, Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849, Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1850.

Available online.

Robert Baird, reformer, was born in Fayette county, Pa., Oct. 6, 1798. His classical studies were pursued at Uniontown, and he was graduated at Jefferson college, Pa., in 1818. He studied theology at Princeton, N.J., and was licensed to preach in 1822. He served as tutor in the College of New Jersey, and in 1822 founded a grammar school at Princeton, which he conducted until 1827, when he became interested in the effort to supply every family in New Jersey with the Bible.

History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics


Ballou, Maturin M., History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics, Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company; New York: J.C. Derby; Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1854.

Available online.

Maturin Murray Ballou (April 14, 1820 – March 27, 1895) was a writer and publisher in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He co-founded Gleason's Pictorial, was the first editor of the Boston Daily Globe, and wrote numerous travel books and works of popular fiction.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Historia de la Esclavitud de la Raza Africana en el Nuevo Mundo y en especial en los Países Américo-Hispanos


Saco, José Antonio, (con Prólogo de Fernando Ortiz), Historia de la Esclavitud de la Raza Africana en el Nuevo Mundo y en especial en los Países Américo-Hispanos, (con documentos y juicios de F. Arango y Parreño, Félix Varela, Domingo del Monte, Felipe Poey, José de la Luz y Caballero, José Silverio Jorrín, Enrique José Varona, y otros) La Habana: Cultural, S. A. 1938. [Vol. I; Vol. II; Vol. III; Vol. IV] (Los cuatro volúmenes en estado precario)

Volume I is reviewed in The Journal of Negro History © 1938.

José Antonio Saco (May 7, 1797 – September 26, 1879), was a statesman, deputy to the Spanish Cortes, writer, social critic, publicist, essayist, anthropologist, historian, and one of the most notable Cuban figures from the nineteenth century.


Del Prólogo de Fernando Ortiz:
El problema de la esclavitud ha sido en Cuba el más importante de su historia por sus enormes trascendencias sociales en el país, así en el orden económico de su producción agraria y en el político de su constitución oficial como en el día de los aluviones de su formación demogénica y en el de sus turbias relaciones internacionales. En rigor, el sistema colonial de España en Cuba, desde la conquista de la isla por Diego Velázquez en los albores del siglo XVI hasta la caída de tal soberanía en el ocaso del siglo XIX estuvo siempre basado en la esclavitud. Primero la esclavitud de los indios, efectiva aun cuando a veces disimulada bajo sutilezas de juristas; luego la esclavitud de los negros, con plena legitimación real, sin remilgos ni tapujos. Siempre la esclavitud, y solo la esclavitud, fue la base de la estructura económico-social de la colonia de Cuba. Sobre la básica esclavitud de la fuerza del trabajo productor se alzaba un sistema de concordantes y complejísimas restricciones económicas que caracterizaron el colonialismo español como un régimen autoritario y absolutista hasta sus últimos tiempos. España fue una metrópolis económicamente inepta que, cegada por sus fanatismos, destruyó su propia y activa burguesía, así la judaica e internacional como la católica y comunera, precisamente cuando nacía su imperio indiano, quedando sometida durante siglos, así ella como sus colonias, al dominador provecho de la banca extranjera, ora a los florentinos y genoveses, ora a los tudescos y flamencos y, al fin, a los mercaderes de London, Bristol y Liverpool. España fue incapaz de sostenerse en América cuando su política económica, secularmente esclavista y feudalesca, hubo que cesar por la abolición de la servidumbre y esta fue sucedida en el mundo occidental por una economía liberal de industrias y comercios competidores, a la cual España no se pudo incorporar.
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José Antonio Saco, desde su cátedra y desde la Revista Bimestre Cubana, de la Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, era en la tercera década del siglo XIX el mentor de la juventud liberal de Cuba. Era su guía y su esperanza; era, pues, un “hombre peligroso”. Por eso, apenas llegó a esta isla el Capitán General don Miguel Tacón, tan dado a las públicas obras como a las públicas corrupciones y a las públicas tiranías, Saco fue desterrado de Cuba. Fue proscrito por los temores que inspiraban en las autoridades su influjo en la juventud de Cuba, y a su “maldita manía de pensar”; por la intriga de un empingorotado clérigo, deán de la catedral habanera, a quien Saco estorbaba para su ensoberbecida politiquería personal; por la enemiga del Superintendente de Hacienda, don Claudio Martínez de Pinillos, Conde de Villanueva, a quien Saco le combatía su proyecto, al fin realizando, de contratar abusivamente el primer empréstito público de Cuba con el capitalismo extranjero; y sobre todo, por las campañas de Saco en pro de la supresión de la trata negrera a la cual se negaban los magnates de la gran colonia española, así sus nativos aristócratas terratenientes, que en sus plantaciones azucareras explotaban a los esclavos, como sus autoridades peninsulares, que fomentaban la trata ya ilícita, cohechados al precio del oro que cobraban porcada negro encadenado que del África se traía por los contrabandistas protegidos; y como los advenedizos mercaderes de Ultramar cuya principal fuente de medros indianos fue casi siempre el contrabando y el comercio intérlope con los filibusteros.