The Cuba Commission Report

Book excerpt: "Provides background information and establishes the context for this episode in the international history of labor as well as in the histories of Cuba, Caribbean plantations, and the overseas Chinese."--Journal of Economic Literature. In 1873, prompted by reports of such abuse in the Spanish colony of Cuba, the government of China sent an Imperial Mission to investigate the living and working conditions of Chinese laborers on the island's sugar plantations. The result was The Cuba Commission Report, a gruesome record of the experience of Chinese workers in Cuba, corroborated by hundreds of depositions taken from the laborers themselves. This softcover edition reproduces the English-language text that was part of the original report of 1876. In a special note to the reader, Rebecca Scott and Sidney Mintz describe the kinds of information contained in this remarkable document. "This is, indeed, labor history and migration history," writes Helly, "but of a sort rarely narrated in so terrifying a manner."