Watch List notes:

CUBA. Ingenio Esperanza Guantanamo. 2 Pesetas, 21-12-1875. P-Unlisted.
This note for wages, or vale, was the typical form of payment for the imported labor on Cuban sugar plantations in the 1800s. This labor force consisted largely of black African field workers, called braceros or macheteros, toiling and suffering under conditions that ranged from peonage to abject servitude. Working from sunup to sundown, their expected production of cutting and hauling of cane for the mill was between one and two tons each day, per worker. As a means of further control, these vales were redeemable only in the company-store owned and operated by the sugar mills. This note dates to 1875, more than a decade before the decree emancipating the slaves in Cuba.

The all-manuscript legend of the note reads "No. 212 / Para Guantanamo / Baro Cerro / dos pesetas / Cuba 21 Dbre 1875," followed below by the signature "Murciano". A strongly inked hand-stamp reads "YNGENIO ESPERANZA / GUANTANAMO" with the initials J B at center; this may refer to John Brooks, a principal of the Brooks Sugar Company, headquartered in New York City, owner of Esperanza, as well as several other Cuban sugar plantations during that era. The piece is well preserved, showing only mild circulation, including minor discoloration.

Ex. Neil Shafer, "Money of the People" Sale, 2010.

Estimate: $400.00- $600.00