Negros libres en la periferia de la esclavitud

Abstract

Racial bias alone does not explain nineteen-century Cuban society’s need to simplify examine laws about its members’ skin color. In this essay I examine the topic of rigid hierarchical racial discrimination. What was the social and legal reality for free people of colour on the island? What were the gaps in the social barriers they could take in advantage to achieve mobility? I will try to answer these questions and I will make comparisons with Brazil and the United States in order to make the answers clear.