ns against their escaping from servitude
seem to have been dropped. They are no longer locked up in corral,
their special night quarters. Of course they are kept within certain
bounds, but the rigorous surveillance under which they have always
lived is no longer in force. The two sexes are nominally separated,
but as there is no strict recognition of the marital relation, and
free intercommunication between them really exists, the state of
morality may be imagined. It has always been customary for mothers to
receive certain consideration and partial relief from hard labor
during a reasonable period prior to and subsequent to their
confinement, with encouraging gifts from the masters, which has caused
them generally to covet the condition of maternity. Still the
proportion of female slaves on the plantations has always been so
small, compared with that of the other sex, that not nearly so many
children are born as would be supposed. Female slaves have generally
been sent to town service, even when born on the plantations.

It has always been clearly understood that the births on the part of
the negroes in Cuba have not nearly kept pace with the number of
deaths among them, even under apparently favorable circumstances. One
has not far to look for the reason of this. Promiscuous intercourse is
undoubtedly the predisposing cause, which is always an outgrowth of a
largely unequal division of the sexes. On the plantations the male
negroes outnumber the females ten to one. In the cities the males are
as five to one. When the slave trade was carried on between Africa and
the island, the plan was to bring over males only, but it was hardly
practicable to adhere strictly to the rule, so women were not declined
when a cargo was being made up and nearly completed. Thus a disparity
was inaugurated which has continued to the present day, with only a
slight equalizing tendency.

The present plan of freeing the slaves recommends itself to all
persons who fully understand the position, and if it be honestly
carried out will soon obliterate the crime of enforced labor upon the
island. A sudden freeing of the blacks, that is, all at once, would
have been attended with much risk to all parties, although justice and
humanity demand their liberation. France tried the experiment in St.
Domingo, and the result was a terrible state of anarchy. Not only did
she lose possession of the island, but the people settled down by
degrees into all the