Jan 08 - Manaca-Iznaga tower (1830s), Valle de los Ingenios
The work of slaves in the fields of the huge Manaca-Iznaga sugar plantation was surveilled from this famous 44 m. high watchtower, and a bell that hung at the top would summon them. Built in the 1830s, it's now a symbol of class and racial oppression, and the gift shop in the estate house beside it (this taken from the patio) sells wooden figurines of slaves with a machete in one hand, shirtless & shoeless, ball and chain tied to one ankle, looking up wide-eyed (at the tower) with fearful or woeful expressions on their faces.
- "On the vast sugar estates, the kind of personal relationships /b/ master and slaves found in the towns, cities, and the more intimate tobacco and coffee plantations were nonexistent. Where before, in the 17th and 18th cent.s, slaves had lived in collections of small huts and had been allowed to work their own small plots, now they were crowded into barrack bldg.s and all available land was turned over to sugar cane. Floggings, beatings, and the use of stocks were common as punishment for minor insubordinations and as incentive to work harder. In the harvest season slaves could be made to work for 18 hr.s of every day for months at a time." (Rough Guide)
- This tower also represented the power of the estate owner Alejo (or Pedro) Iznaga (who made a great fortune in the slave trade) both over his slaves and within the sugar producing industry; at one time the tower was the tallest structure in Cuba. (Wikipedia) Founded in 1750, the estate was purchased by Iznaga in 1795.
- A mansion in the town of Trinidad, now a museum, was owned by "a German planter named Kanter or Cantero. Reputedly Dr. Justo Cantero acquired vast sugar estates by poisoning an old slave trader, Pedro Iznaga, and marrying his widow (who also suffered an untimely death)." (LP) What goes around comes around.
Jan 08 - Manaca-Iznaga tower (1830s), Valle de los Ingenios
The work of slaves in the fields of the huge Manaca-Iznaga sugar plantation was surveilled from this famous 44 m. high watchtower, and a bell that hung at the top would summon them. Built in the 1830s, it's now a symbol of class and racial oppression, and the gift shop in the estate house beside it (this taken from the patio) sells wooden figurines of slaves with a machete in one hand, shirtless & shoeless, ball and chain tied to one ankle, looking up wide-eyed (at the tower) with fearful or woeful expressions on their faces.
- "On the vast sugar estates, the kind of personal relationships /b/ master and slaves found in the towns, cities, and the more intimate tobacco and coffee plantations were nonexistent. Where before, in the 17th and 18th cent.s, slaves had lived in collections of small huts and had been allowed to work their own small plots, now they were crowded into barrack bldg.s and all available land was turned over to sugar cane. Floggings, beatings, and the use of stocks were common as punishment for minor insubordinations and as incentive to work harder. In the harvest season slaves could be made to work for 18 hr.s of every day for months at a time." (Rough Guide)
- This tower also represented the power of the estate owner Alejo (or Pedro) Iznaga (who made a great fortune in the slave trade) both over his slaves and within the sugar producing industry; at one time the tower was the tallest structure in Cuba. (Wikipedia) Founded in 1750, the estate was purchased by Iznaga in 1795.
- A mansion in the town of Trinidad, now a museum, was owned by "a German planter named Kanter or Cantero. Reputedly Dr. Justo Cantero acquired vast sugar estates by poisoning an old slave trader, Pedro Iznaga, and marrying his widow (who also suffered an untimely death)." (LP) What goes around comes around.