1872 Matanzas Slave-Transfer Authorization Naming Félix (African) and Mariano (Creole), a Late-Slavery Certificate Signed by José Benítez

On offer is an original 1872 certificación de vigilancia issued in Matanzas to Doña Magdalena Bofill, authorizing her to obtain official permission (vista a la expedición) for the transfer of two enslaved men—Félix, a forty-two-year-old of African birth, and Mariano, a twenty-six-year-old criollo (Cuban-born)—from the southern district of Matanzas to the district of Lagunillas, under the jurisdiction of Cárdenas. Signed by José Benítez, Inspector of Vigilance (Inspector de Vigilancia del Distrito del Sur), the document bears the embossed official seal of that office and the blue Sello 8º fiscal stamp (2 ½ Pesetas, 1871). It is numbered N.º 270443 and includes manuscript endorsements at the top (“Expediente n.º 628 / Obra 2/1872 / Carta de aviso”) together with a marginal clerk’s notation “Gato N.º 55,” likely an internal filing or registry code. The text reads in part: “Certifico que Dª Magdalena Bofill de esta misma del barrio de la Iglesia solicita vista a la espedición para el partido de Lagunillas jurisdicción de Cárdenas por dos esclavos Félix de Africa de 42 años y Mariano criollo de 26 años los cuales existían empadronados y residiendo en este distrito. Y para que pueda obtener dicho documento expido la presente. Matanzas Octe 21 de 1872. José Benítez.” Issued only six years before the formal abolition of slavery in Cuba (1880), this certificate represents the bureaucratic machinery of slavery’s final phase—when cédulas, certificados de empadronamiento, and licencias de traslado documented the internal movement of enslaved laborers between sugar districts. The Matanzas–Cárdenas corridor was one of the island’s richest sugar regions, and Lagunillas referred to a plantation zone inland from the port of Cárdenas. The identification of both an African-born and a Creole enslaved man typifies the generational overlap of Cuba’s late slave era, when African survivors of the illegal trade coexisted with Cuban-born descendants on the same estates. The Chinese coolie trade, a system of indentured labor that targeted young, poor Chinese men, operated from 1847 to 1874. Throughout this period, African slavery was slowly being abolished around the world. The coolie trade was initiated by Britain and later dominated by both Britain and the United States. Chinese coolie laborers were sent to work in British, American, and Spanish colonies, and the nature of the trade evolved throughout its 27-year operation due to social and political pressures. It took place primarily between Macao (then under Portuguese rule) and Havana, Cuba, and its manifests and certificates often mirrored the bureaucratic precision of the present document. A rare, well-preserved example of Cuba’s late-slavery administrative system, complete with seal, stamp, and clearly named enslaved individuals—ideal for institutional acquisition and teaching collections concerned with race, labor, and the mechanics of emancipation. Condition: Moderate foxing and ink oxidation typical of nineteenth-century Cuban paper; small wormholes not affecting legibility; embossed seal strong; fiscal stamp intact; manuscript bright and legible.