Houghton Library collection of Chinese Cuban documents
Overview
Documents related to Chinese immigration to Cuba as well as indentured servitude and slavery in 19th century Cuba.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1850-1890
Language of Materials
In Spanish and Chinese.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.1 linear feet (1 box)Documents related to Chinese immigration to Cuba as well as indentured servitude and slavery in 19th century Cuba. Collection includes documents related to disease outbreaks, indentured servitude contracts, Chinese nationality certificates, and death certificates. Some lists have names of the enslaved and the indentured as well as names of ships taken by immigrants. Some "documents" are in fact groupings of documents.
Biographical / Historical
In the mid-19th century, more than 100,000 Chinese people, mainly men, immigrated to Cuba, typically as indentured servants and contract laborers on sugar plantations. These Chinese Cuban indentured servants and laborers often worked alongside enslaved people on these plantations. Many died shortly after arriving in Cuba due to the labor and living conditions they experience on the sugar plantations.
This information was sourced from articles about Chinese Cubans: A Transnational History, by Kathy Lopez, accessed in October 2021.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged in chronological order, as received from the dealer.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Ownership prior to the dealer's is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2021M-17. Joint purchase with Widener Library (Lynn Shirey) from Libreria de Antano LLC with the Amy Lowell Trust and the Charles Motley Clark Memorial Fund, 2020 December 7 (purchased with MS Span 199).
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. Description of the items contained in the collection came from a list provided by the dealer. (Melanie Wisner, 2021 January)
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2021 to address euphemistic descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in the collection level scope and content and historical notes, as well as in the title. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
- Title
- Houghton Library collection of Chinese Cuban documents, 1856-1890 (MS Span 198): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2021 January 17
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03361
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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