Cuba. SlaveryABAA
2 364 résultats
1856réf. 2026Remedios 1856. About very good. 4pp. on a large bifolium. Printed form completed in manuscript. Separated at fold repaired with tissue. Light wear at edges. Light tanning and foxing. Rare Cuban population census form listing the number of residents in and around the town of Remedios located on the northern central coast of Cuba in 1856. The present document completed in manuscript lists the population according to various categories such as ethnicity and race age range occupations marital status location of residence and several others. The census includes slaves of African origin newly arrived Chinese indentured servants "colonos Asiaticos" immigrant laborers from Yucatan freedmen and free white residents "Blancos". In all there are just over 2000 people living in and around Remedios at this time comprising just over 1300 free whites over 300 free people of color 460 slaves and 19 Chinese laborers. One of the most interesting sections records the population by place of residence which shows that the great majority people in the area lived on estancias with a good part of the remaining population living on livestock farms and sugar plantations. On the final page are two additional sections which enumerate the types of property farms and other enterprises in the regions and provide statistics on agricultural and industrial production and land usage along with some manuscript notes with the signatures of the census takers or local magistrates. An interesting document of slavery agriculture and population in rural Cuba during the mid-19th century. unknown books
1878réf. WRCAM38237Cuba 1878. Broadside 12 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches. Chip at upper left corner not affecting text. Small tears in all edges several repaired by tape on verso. Good. A rare and fascinating Cuban political broadside calling for an end to armed struggle but a beginning to a "struggle for ideas" at the conclusion of Cuba's "Ten Years' War" the battle for independence from Spain in 1868 to 1878. The broadside is addressed to the residents of the region around the north-central coast of Cuba some 150 miles east of Havana. The text of the broadside is signed in print by Gabriel Aguilera y Zayas Secretary of the Partido Union Constitucional PUC one of the two main political parties that developed out of the Ten Years' War. The PUC which was a conservative pro-Spanish party led by prominent Creoles sought a measure of local political autonomy while favoring continued Spanish control over Cuba. The text exhorts Cubans to partake in the ideological struggle that would succeed the armed rebellion and urges them not to fall into lethargy but to continue the battle of ideas against radicals seeking independence from Spanish colonial rule. Due to their ephemeral nature as well as the climate of the Caribbean any such Cuban broadsides are scarce. No copies of this broadside are located in OCLC. Important evidence of the political factionalism and the strength of pro-Spanish sentiment in Cuba in the late 19th century. Rare and possibly unique. unknown books
réf. 37208Each document a single manuscript page 8-1/2" x 12-1/2." Each with official stamp one also has a decorative illustrated green stamp at the head. Light wear and toning Good. Each document names the slaveholder and the enslaved person granted "libertad" and the cost in escudos or pesetas of that liberty. The slaves liberated here are Saturnia "morenita criolla" age 14; Gabriela "esclava mulata" age 15; and Dolores "parda criolla" age 16. unknown books
réf. 8028Ao.J. Pressefoto. 20 x 15 cm.
1853réf. 54601Havana. 1853. Writing Home from Havana An attractive Cuban pictorial lettersheet with a neatly executed third-page lithograph illustration of the port of Havana. The image depicts several small boats rowing barrels to and from a loading dock. In another small boat a plantation owner or some form of dignitary is being rowed to shore by a crew of men. On the right side of the image several larger ships lie at anchor and in the background on the shore is the fort guarding the mouth of the harbor the Morro Castle. The sheet is filled out by a man named Juan Fabre writing to his parents on Jan. 2 1853 advising them of his safe arrival in Havana. He talks about meeting up with a relative that he had not seen in two years and working at a shoe shop with another relative who adds a brief post script on the verso of the second leaf. Pictorial lettersheets of Cuba are quite rare on the market. Previously folded. Some chipping at fore-edge slightly affecting text. Light dampstaining and tanning. About very good. unknown
1857réf. 4502Havana 1857. Good plus. Small broadside form approximately 8.5 x 12.5 inches. Previously folded with some separation and minor loss along vertical fold. Completed in manuscript with additional manuscript docketing on blank verso. Ink burn causing additional minor loss in a few small areas. Light edge wear; some staining and offsetting; light tanning. A 19-century Cuban identification form known as a cedula filled out in manuscript to authorize the travel of an Asian indentured servant between plantations in early May 1857. The document was completed for a twenty-six-year-old Asian fieldhand named Chan who had signed a contract to work for one Gallego Toriceo to be transferred to the premises of "P. Soler y Compañia." Printed at the left and right edges are nine articles from an 1855 decree that outline the regulations for issuing and keeping such documents including the following: "Estas cédulas servirán de documentos de seguridad y además de licencias de transito para los colonos que se trasladen de un punto á otro de la Isla. Los patronos respectivos cuidarán de que los colonos no emprendan el viage sin licencia expresa suya que haràn constar al pié de la cedula. Si algun colono fuere hallado sin cédula deberá ser detenido y puesto à disposicion del Gobernador ó Capitan del partido mas inmediato e cual dará conocimiento al patrono dentro de segundo dia." On the otherwise blank verso is additional contemporary manuscript docketing concerning the transfer of the cedula and therefore the laborer concerned to the receiver located in Matanzas. A very interesting document of the bureaucracy and control of indentured servitude in Cuba during the mid-19th century. unknown
1884réf. 1574Habana 1884. Good plus. 2496 i.e. 498pp. Quarto. Contemporary calf gilt a.e.g.; rebacked with original spine laid down. Corners repaired with later black buckram; boards scuffed spine chipped. Hinges cracked repaired with later cloth and renewed endpapers. Minor scattered foxing and toning to text. Accomplished in a neat highly legible hand. A very attractive manuscript translation into Spanish of Pierre Larousse's well-known work on eminent and historical personages Fleurs Historiques des Dames et des Gens du Monde in a contemporary Cuban gilt goatskin binding. The manuscript connects three figures in the upper social echelons of Cuban society. José Fernandez Pellon the scribe of this volume is recorded as the Grand Master of Cuba's freemasons lodge the Gran Logia Unida de Colón y la Isla de Cuba. The translator Aurelio Almeida helped to found the organization in 1875 and at this time served as the Lodge Secretary. The initials E.D. gilt at the foot of the spine and the dedicatory inscription "A Eugenia Desvernine" refer to Eugenia Desvernine y Galdós b. 1865 daughter of the famous Cuban pianist Pablo Desvernine and Carolina Galdós y Echániz. She was also the niece of Benito Pérez Galdós the Spanish realist novelist who some authorities consider only second in stature to Cervantes. A contemporary social register remarks that Eugenia was one of the most beautiful women in Cuba perhaps an inspiration for the painstaking production of this manuscript. The original work by Larousse was a loose collection of religious parables classical myths biographies of ancient and modern historical figures. The title of the manuscript advises that is an extract and in the brief introduction Almeida explains his selection process writing that "He suprimido algunos artículos sobre cosas muy sabidas de la historia sagrada; y otros sobre la de Francia que mencionan frases ó personas casi ninca citadas ó citades solamente por las escritores francesas." He also notes several alterations and additions more relevant to Spanish history saying "En Cambio he agregado algunos artículos sobre historia de España que no están en el original y he tomado unos pocos de otra obra del mismo Mr. Larousse y de libros diversos." The result is an original amalgam of biographies historical episodes and religious parables. Interestingly we find no recorded printed editions of Larousse's work in Spanish so that the present manuscript is also an entirely original work of translation. A fascinating product of the cultural interests and mores of Cuban high society near the end of the Spanish colonial period. unknown
1813réf. 46892Havana. Sept. 20 1813. Early Havana Imprint A rare printed decree from Cuba at the beginning of the 19th century as Spanish power in the world was waning but Spain's grip on Cuba was still quite firm. This decree issued by the King on June 14 1813 and printed on September 20 announces new laws regarding the rights to vote and to be elected to hold government positions for professors and scholars from certain universities collegiums and seminars. The decree forbade these rights to the Knights of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem as well as members of the four military orders of Santiago Calatrava Alcantara and Montesa. It is endorsed in manuscript with the imprint and header also written in by hand. Early Caribbean imprints are rare. Folio. Old fold lines. Moderately chipped and worn at edges. Lightly and evenly toned. Contemporary manuscript notations. Good. unknown
1813réf. 46891Havana. Sept. 20 1813. Amnesty to Curry Favor A rare Havana imprint. As Spanish power in the New World was waning its grip on Cuba was threatened by domestic and foreign intruders. This decree issued by the Council of Regents "Cortes" standing in for Fernando VII on June 17 1813 and printed on September 20 orders the annulment of all criminal cases. This amnesty policy extended to other areas of New Spain as well sought to placate opposition forces. It calls on all levels of government to announce and enforce the decree. It is endorsed in manuscript. Folio. Old fold lines. Moderately chipped and worn at edges. Evenly toned. Contemporary manuscript notations. Good. unknown
réf. 12844Various locations in Cuba and Pennsylvania: contents ca 1973. 25 leaves totaling 40pp. illustrated with thirty black-and-white and sepia-toned photographs with detailed manuscript captions plus seven large clippings from school publications and six additional ephemeral items. Oblong folio. Black cloth with alligator-patterned cloth on front board with manuscript title below a drawn representation of a small pennant for Lehigh University. Covers worn frayed and chipped alligator-style cloth curling a bit along fore edge. A few items loose from adhesive and a few with small tears scattered spotting and soiling. Overall very good condition with fascinating materiality. A lovingly-compiled photograph album and memorial book created by a young woman named Magdalena Sofia Guitart in tribute to her godfather Rafael Genó a Cuban engineer who studied at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Juan Rafael Genó Rizo was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1883. A doctoral thesis on Cuban architecture found online deems him one of the premiere Art Deco architects of Santiago and the only one to obtain a degree abroad. Genó graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from Lehigh in 1909 and from the University of Havana in 1913. He died in Miami Florida in 1973. This doting scrapbook was compiled and heavily captioned in Spanish which we hereafter present in translation as a "Memorial which with love and pride I dedicate to my godfather and some of his works; a pale reflection of all the good he has done in his life" by Magdalena Sofia Guitart who was born in 1936 in Santiago and arrived in Miami in 1958. She includes photos of Genó as a baby and a boy of 11 "From a very young age as you can see here my godfather was a little gentleman" as well as in uniform alongside Mexican and Costa Rican comrades at Pennsylvania's Wayne Field. She lauds his "triumphs" and "genius" in "thousands of battles." Genó likely came to the United States following the Spanish-American War during the growth of Cuban immigration resulting from increased American attention of the island country. All of the content in the album is artfully presented within decorative rules or floral borders providing an unusual flair to the presentation. The book displays not only the hand-drawn Lehigh pennant on the cover but also large artistic renditions of the campus and an internal shot of its library clipped from school publications and comparing views from 1873 1909 and 1933 the relevance of Lehigh at the later date is unclear. Additional photographs and decorative designs share the story as "our engineer" returns to Cuba and "begins to demonstrate his knowledge" in the mines of Ponupo. Soon "his hard work integrity and honesty led him to be chosen" for other feats of engineering including "la Iglesia church Los Desamparados constructed by my godfather 1932" and a train terminal in Guantánamo. Images and a photographic clipping laud his renovations of "Colegio La Salle" in 1937. There are also six photos and a clipping showing Genó's work on the altar for the Eucharistic Congress held in Santiago in 1936 during which the original statue of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre Patroness of Cuba was granted a canonical coronation by Pope Pius XI. The album also holds a clipping naming Genó as president of the Board of Directors of Santiago's Urban Property Center an inauguration ribbon and brochure for the Municipal Food Market in 1950 with which he was also involved and photos of the celebrated engineer later in life. A captivating and carefully-assembled homage created by a Cuban immigrant to the United States honoring a loved one who was educated in Pennsylvania and then returned to his home country to serve as a noted engineer during the first half of the 20th century. contents ca unknown
1870réf. 231191870. Slavery Cuba Spanish colonial manuscript documenting the late persistence of slavery in Cuba recording the sale of five enslaved Creole individuals including women and children 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The presence of multiple children within the transaction underscores the hereditary nature of enslavement and the commodification of family units offering direct material evidence of how slavery functioned socially and economically in its final decades on the island. Although Spain had formally ended the transatlantic slave trade earlier in the century illegal trafficking and internal slave markets persisted and slavery itself would not be abolished in Cuba until 1886 placing this document within a crucial transitional period marked by reform debates gradual emancipation laws and continued exploitation. Official Cuban slave contract recording the sale of five enslaved individuals identified as "criollos" including one adult woman and four children from Santiago Simón Fambi to Don Pedro Catasús for the sum of 1200 pesos on November 21 1870. Single page manuscript leaf measuring 8.25" x 12". The manuscript is written in Spanish cursive hand in black ink. The upper left bears a blind embossed crest of Spain while a circular black ink government seal is impressed at the lower left partially overlapping the text. The text enumerates the enslaved individuals with ages and names embedding human lives within the formulaic language of sale and valuation while the bold signatures of both seller Santiago Simón Fambi and buyer Pedro Catasús anchor the transaction in identifiable actors within the colonial economy. By 1870 slavery in Spanish Cuba remained central to the island's plantation economy particularly in sugar production which had expanded rapidly in the mid-19th century with industrialized mills and global demand. Enslaved people were primarily forced into agricultural labor under highly regimented and brutal conditions though others were used in urban domestic service skilled trades or as hired laborers generating income for their owners. This document exhibits light toning edge wear and scattered foxing throughout. A closed wormhole extends approximately two inches from the upper right margin inward not affecting legibility of the text. Minor losses and small tears along the edges. Overall in very good condition. Given that this document records a woman and four children the family was likely intended for a combination of field labor and domestic or auxiliary work with the children gradually incorporated into plantation labor as they aged reflecting the system's reliance on both immediate exploitation and the reproduction of enslaved labor over time. unknown
1870réf. 231221870. Slavery Cuba Spanish colonial slave sale manuscript recording the transfer of four enslaved individuals in Cuba in 1870. Produced within the official bureaucratic framework of Spanish colonial governance the document reflects the legal normalization of slavery in Cuba even as abolitionist pressures mounted across the Atlantic world. The document records the sale of four enslaved people described as "criollos" and African-born individuals situating the transaction within a labor system that combined locally born and imported enslaved populations. Created at a time when Spain had formally restricted the transatlantic slave trade but continued to permit slavery itself the manuscript demonstrates the persistence of legalized human commodification and the integration of enslaved labor into the island's economic structure sixteen years prior to abolition in 1886. Official Cuban slave contract documenting the sale of four enslaved individuals to Don Pedro Catasús by Don Enfemia Ochoa for the sum of 1100 pesos on November 29 1870. Single manuscript leaf written in Spanish cursive in black ink measuring 8.25" x 12". A green "50 cs de escudo" revenue stamp is affixed at the top center with a blind embossed Spanish crest at the upper left and a circular black ink government seal impressed at the lower left. Large vertical docketing appears on the verso. A stylized watermark is visible within the paper. The text organizes the enslaved individuals within a standardized transactional structure while the signatures of Enfemia Ochoa Pedro Catasús and A. Díaz de Rada authenticate the exchange and identify participants within the slaveholding economy. By 1870 Cuba remained a central node in the late Atlantic slave system with plantation agriculture especially sugar dependent on enslaved labor despite mounting abolitionist pressure. Although Spain had curtailed official slave imports earlier in the century illegal trafficking persisted into the 1860s and other coerced labor systems including the importation of Chinese indentured workers overlapped with slavery into the 1870s. The presence of both Creole and African individuals in this document reflects the layered composition of the enslaved population during this period. Light toning scattered foxing and edge wear visible. A closed wormhole extends from the upper right margin approximately five inches into the sheet resulting in partial loss of text. Evidence of prior tape reinforcement visible on the verso along with offsetting from previously adjacent material. Overall in very good condition. This document provides named transactional evidence of late-period slavery in Cuba offering concrete material for examining race labor and legal practice within Spanish colonial society. unknown
In -4°, pp. (40), 146, (6), pergamena coeva, difetti al dorso. Prima edizione. Nato a Saragozza, l’autore insegnò a Napoli e Roma prima di partire per Cuba, dove avrebbe passato la vecchiaia. Il libro, interessante e curioso, si occupa di prostituzione e della sua accettabilità dottrinaria, argomento rispetto al quale l’autore è fortemente contrario. Lo scritto replica a un manoscritto (poi stampato a Catania, “Resolutio theologica moralis in qua occasione cuiusdam casus occurrentis afferitur et propugnatur, licite permitti posse Meretrices”, 1677) del francescano Giovanni dell’Olmo, che difendeva il diritto delle prostitute a entrare nelle dimore nobiliari napoletane. La polemica svela molto sui costumi del sesso a pagamento all’epoca. Born in Saragoza, the author was a professor in Naples and Rome before leaving to Cuba. This curious book deals with prostitution and its doctrinaire acceptability (that the author is strongly against to). This work replies to a manuscript (then printed in Catania, “Resolutio theologica moralis in qua occasione… licite permitti posse meretrices”, 1677) of a franciscan preacher, Giovanni dell’Olmo, who supports permission to prostitutes to enter in neapolitan noble palaces. This controversy reveals many facts about prostitution at time.
1940réf. 442581940. Very good with some foxing soiling to the edges and some fading at the corners. 1 sheet. 9 1/4 inches by 50 inches. Mounted to card stock. Built in 1939 to resemble an old Spanish fortress and now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site the Police headquarters and the Radio Patrol had just been outfitted with the latest two-way FM radio system when this image was taken. This new communication technology only adopted by its first police department the Connecticut State Police that same year was invented by an American radio engineer Fred Link 1905-1998 who appears as the white clad figure at the center of this panorama of the fortress fronted by dozens of police cars and officers. Signed by six important Cuban officials including President Federico Laredo Brú 1875-1946 and police chief Bernardo Garcia who has warmly inscribed it Garcia would be ousted by Batista who became president in October less than a year later. Dated Havana 18 June 1940. The picture had hung in Link's office See Dan Bishop "Fred M. Link Goodwill Ambassador" in Proceedings of the Radio Club of America 72:3 Fall 1998 pages 8-13. Original frame available. unknown books
1854réf. WRCAM46994Havana 1854. Broadside 12 1/2 x 8 inches. Printed on green paper. Old fold lines. Light wear and soiling minor separation at some folds. A few contemporary notations. Very good. Cuban broadside advertising a bullfight featuring matador Don Manuel Rodriguez Lanza and the "8 toros de muerte." The top of the sheet features a woodcut of a matador holding his cape out to a bull. The first swordsman for the fight is Manuel Diaz Lavi with two alternates listed. The names of the Banderilleros and Picadores for the fight are also noted. Bullfighting was a popular entertainment in Cuba during the Spanish colonial period though it was done away with after Cuban independence at the beginning of the 20th century. unknown books
1676réf. P2-5A-3Paris : Gervais Clouzier, 1676. 4 parties en deux volumes, 8° (160 x 100 mm) , plein veau époque, dos à nerfs ornés avec titre et tomaison , différence de reliure, 13ffnch.-246pp-2ffnch et 4ffnch.240pp. , 4ffnch.-297pp.-2ffnch. Et 4ffnch.-153pp.-2ffnch. , coins et coupes usés , reliure solide , mouillure sur quelques feuillets (t3-4).
1863réf. 6222Havana 1863. Good. Two partially printed broadsheets completed in manuscript 13 x 9 inches. Old folds wear at edges; some light worming slightly affecting text. Lightly soiled. A pair of documents recording the indenture of a Chinese national in Havana. The present documents contract the "Asiatico Francisco" as a cook to Don Jose Antonio Battle y Olle; the contract is dated June 28 1861 and is signed by "Francisco" in Chinese characters for a term of two years. At the end it is noted in manuscript that the Asiatico Francisco has completed the two years of his contract. The cedula is dated 1863 and indicates that Francisco is 33 years of age and now indentured for eight years as a "cocinero." An interesting pair of documents showing the continuing servitude of imported Chinese laborers particularly attractive for being signed in Chinese characters. unknown
1854réf. 46994Havana. 1854. A Bullfighting Broadside from Cuba in 1854 Cuban broadside advertising a bullfight featuring matador Don Manuel Rodriguez Lanza and the "8 toros de muerte." The top of the sheet features a woodcut of a matador holding his cape out to a bull. The first swordsman for the fight is Manuel Diaz Lavi with two alternates listed. The names of the Banderilleros and Picadores for the fight are also noted. Bullfighting was a popular entertainment in Cuba during the Spanish colonial period though it was done away with after Cuban independence at the beginning of the 20th century. Broadside 12½ × 8 inches. Printed on green paper. Old fold lines. Light wear and soiling minor separation at some folds. A few contemporary notations. Very good. unknown
1850réf. 230131Um 1850. In der Platte bezeichnet. 27 x 39,8 cm (Darstellung) 39 x 49 cm (Papier).
1850réf. WRCAM51706Havana 1850. 4pp. on a bifolium 15 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches. Printed in three columns. Previously folded with some short separations along fold lines and a closed tear to top edge. Somewhat tanned with some dust soiling in upper portion of first leaf recto. Good plus. Bifolium printing of twenty-four directives intended to govern the operation of vessels in the port of Havana. They include provisions for the arrival and departure of ships their docking and mooring the storage of gunpowder while in port fire prevention and penalties for carrying firearms or other deadly weapons ashore. The document is printed in three columns which provide versions of the regulations in Spanish English and French. Daniel Warren mentioned here as the port officer in charge of preventing desertions and illegal transfers of men from ship to ship is also named as Havana shipping master in an 1858 letter from the American Consul Thomas Savage to the Governor of Havana included in a contemporary United States Senate report on foreign trade. "As early as 1828 Irish migrant Daniel Warren established 'a deposit for foreign sailors and artisans' in Havana providing an initial place for them to stay while looking for work"- Curry-Machado. A very rare piece of Cuban maritime ephemera with OCLC noting only one copy at the Harvard Law Library. OCLC 81408661. Curry-Machado CUBAN SUGAR INDUSTRY p.74. unknown books
1931réf. 6190Havana 1931. Very good. 150pp. Stiff black cloth covers printed paper label on front board. Front cover vertically creased light wear to boards; remnants of glassine stuck to covers. Contemporary inscription on front flyleaf. Internally clean. In a custom clamshell box. First edition of the first Cuban cook book published in English. Blanche Zacharie de Baralt 1865-1950 was born in New York; she married Luis Alejandro Baralt y Peoli in 1886 and the couple moved to his native Cuba in 1900. She earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of Havana in 1902 and went on to translate the poetry of Tagore and to write a book on Jose Marti. She also published this volume which was clearly geared toward the tourist market with the introduction emphasizing the idea of taking home the tastes of one's holiday abroad. Each chapter heading has an illustration and these were drawn by Federico Edelmann and Conrad W. Massaguer the one above the section for beans appears to show a cowboy riding along in a cloud of gas. Notably this work contains several important Cuban cocktails including the first appearance of the mojito referred to here as a Rum Cocktail or Cuban Mojo. Rare in the true first edition. unknown
réf. 86443Havana: El Siglo XX. First Edition. hardcover. very good. 9 volumes bound in one. Very thick 4to 1/2 polished green calf stiff original printed wrappers bound-in. Habana: El Siglo XX 1924-1932. Very good. DIHIGO Y MESTRE Juan Miguel et al. El Siglo XX unknown
1832réf. WRCAM51901Havana 1832. 18pp. Folio. Loose leaves. Heavy worming mostly marginal but somewhat affecting text in places. Light dampstaining and foxing. Good. An extensive list of fugitives from Cuban courts that covers the period from 1822 to 1832. Each section comprises a catalogue of men tried before a specific court and individual entries provide names brief descriptions mostly of skin color birthplaces likely places of residence and crimes committed together with the sentences handed down. Many men are condemned to the gallows or are facing long sentences in African or other overseas prison camps. This list was also printed as a part of the Oct. 9 1832 issue of DIARIO DE LA HABANA but a separate printing as in the present example is not found in OCLC or the relevant bibliographies. unknown books
réf. 86443Havana: El Siglo XX. First Edition. hardcover. very good. 9 volumes in one. Very thick 4to 1/2 polished green calf stiff original printed wrappers bound in. Habana: El Siglo XX 1924-1932. Very good . DIHIGO Y MESTRE Juan Miguel et al. El Siglo XX unknown books
1856réf. WRCAM53452New York: Nathaniel Currier 1856. Broadside 10 x 13 inches. Foxed bottom right corner chipped. Lower margin trimmed costing the title. Good only. Framed under glass. A scarce political cartoon regarding the controversial Ostend Manifesto the initially- secret attempt by the United States to purchase Spanish-controlled Cuba. Earlier President Franklin Pierce had instructed Pierre Soulé upon his appointment as minister to Spain in April 1853 to negotiate to buy Cuba. Three American foreign ministers serving in Europe - James Buchanan John Y. Mason and Soulé - met secretly at Ostend Belgium in late 1854 to draft a plan to either buy Cuba from Spain or force Spain to give up Cuba by inciting a Cuban revolution. The plan met with overwhelming opposition once it was made public in America. In the present political cartoon Buchanan is attacked for his role in the Ostend controversy. He is surrounded by four armed ruffians seeking to rob him of his coat hat watch and money a particularly sharp turn- about on the American minister to Great Britain. The muggers' demands include quotations from the manifesto which is pasted to the fence at right. Buchanan calls out: "Why! Why! This is rank robbery! Help! Help! All honest men!" The fallout from the Ostend controversy was widespread. President Pierce's Democratic Party split asunder after he refused to continue any discussions of the plan or any other expansionist ideas; Soulé understandably resigned; and the international community saw it as a threat to Spanish sovereignty in the region. Oddly enough James Buchanan was not too hurt by the controversy; he was easily elected president in 1856 and still harbored hope for Cuban annexation. He was smart enough however to table the Cuba question for the foreseeable future after meeting with both popular opposition and increasingly bitter sectional conflict the latter only spurred on by incidents such as the Ostend controversy. CURRIER & IVES: CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ 5021. NEVINS & WEITENKAMPF p.72-73. Nathaniel Currier unknown books
