[Slavery] Employment contract between a Chinese labourer and a Cuban sugar plantation

Letterpress sheet w. Chinese and Spanish text. Sheet size 32 x 20.5 cm, filled-out in pen, dated 22 July (?) 1858, w. signatures in pen and stamp of the "Consulario General de Espana en China". Waterst., frayed, foxed and folded.

Beginning around 1845 onwards, hundreds of thousands of Chinese men were forcibly relocated to labour in Cuban sugar fields under the indentured labour system, introduced to supplement slave labour and postpone the advent of free labor. Despite the vast numbers involved, surviving contracts such as this example are seldom encountered.