The Effect of Slavery on the Identity of Cuba Essay examples -- Slaver

The Effect of Slavery on the Identity of Cuba The Caribbean is a diverse region with a unique history. The progress and advancement of each island complied with the European country in control of it at the time. The Caribbean was conquered and colonized soon after Columbus’ discovery in 1492. A similar aspect of the heterogeneous region has been its plantations. The plantations were an important aspect of the cultural history of the Caribbean. Mintz believed that the plantations tied the colonies in the Caribbean to the European country that was colonizing it. He states: "the plantation system was an agricultural design for the production of export commodities for foreign markets- a means for introducing agricultural capitalism to subtropical colonial areas, and for integrating those areas with the expanding European economy"(Mintz 26). The plantations of the Caribbean are also useful tools in learning more about the history of the island who once inhabited the island, as Benitez-Rojo states in his essay, From Plantation to Plantation, "the plantations serve as a telescope for observing the changes and the continuities of the Caribbean galaxy through the lenses of multifold disciplines, namely economics, history, sociology, political science, anthropology, ethnology, demography, as well as through innumerable practices, which range from the commercial to the military, from the religious literary"(Benitez-Rojo 38). The plantations in the Caribbean played a significant role in shaping each colony in the development from colonialism to the modern society. In the other readings in class, we learned that Michelle Cliff (Abeng) despised the plantation systems because the Europeans profited from the sugar plantations, whic... ...combination. The blending of the Spanish guitar and the African drum gives Cuban music its distinctive form, the rumba and son are good examples. Today Cubans are peoples of all different colors. The islands complicated history is evident in its inhabitants. WORKS CITED Beckles, Hilary& Shepard, Verene. Caribbean Slave Society & Economy, New York, 1991. Cliff, Michelle. Abeng. Penguin Group, 1984. Knight, Franklin. The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism. New York, 1990. Paquette, Robert. Sugar is Made with Blood. Middletown, CT, 1988. Perez, Louis. Slaves, Sugar & Colonial Society, Wilmington, Delaware, 1992. Benitez-Rojo, Antonio. The Repeating Island, Duke University, Durham & London, 1992. Mintz, Sidney W. The Caribbean as a Socio-Cultural Area, Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean, Garden City, New Jersey, 1971.