Cuban Tobacco in the Age of Second Slavery

Cuban Tobacco in the Age of Second Slavery, Volume 1 of the Race In The Atlantic World series, examines the critical role of enslaved Africans in the Cuban tobacco economy. By 1865, Cuba served as the epicenter of slavery in the Atlantic, with tens of thousands of enslaved people laboring in the Pinar del Río region. This history work challenges the misconception that tobacco was a small-scale family crop, revealing instead a massive plantation economy that exported millions of pounds of raw tobacco annually.

This academic study in Caribbean and West Indies history positions tobacco as a counterpart to sugar, emphasizing its total dependence on forced labor. By analyzing race relations and social sciences, the text provides a new narrative regarding slavery and emancipation in the Americas. Cuban Tobacco in the Age of Second Slavery offers a detailed exploration of the political and cultural structures that sustained this overlooked agricultural system.