The internal economy of Cuban tobacco slavery

The independent production by slaves of subsistence and surplus food, as well as material goods holding economic value, is a critical component in understanding the complexities of slavery as an institution. However, in the context of Cuba, scholars have either ignored or undervalued this practice - a result of the long-standing attention paid to slaves laboring in sugar production at the expense of scholarship on other slave-based agricultural economies. In an effort to highlight the existence of an internal, material economy within Cuba's slave community, this article analyzes Cuban tobacco slavery through a structural argument emphasizing how tobacco's unique labor arrangements facilitated the existence of an internal economy. As a result, within this specific community, tens of thousands of slaves had the potential to become autonomous economic actors whose independent activities fundamentally transformed the very nature of enslavement, most notably through the opportunity of self-purchase.