Robinson, Albert Gardner / 2008-09-14 00:00:00

The records of
the time are somewhat unreliable. It was a custom for the small vessels
engaged in that trade to take out clearance papers for the West Indies. The
cargo might be distributed in a number of ports, and the return cargo might
be similarly collected. For the year 1795, the records of the United States
show total imports from the Spanish West Indies as valued at $1,740,000,
and exports to that area as valued at $1,390,000. In 1800, the imports were
$10,588,000, and the exports $8,270,000. Just how much of this was trade
with Cuba, does not appear. Because of the trade increase at that time,
and because of other events that, soon afterward, brought Cuba into more
prominent notice, this period has been chosen as the line of division
between the Old and the New Cuba.
Compared with the wonderful fertility of Cuba, New England is a sterile
area. Yet in 1790, a hundred and seventy years after its settlement, the
latter had a population a little exceeding a million, while the former, in
1792, or two hundred and eighty years after its occupation, is officially
credited with a population of 272,300. Of these, 153,559 were white and
118,741 were colored. Several forces came into operation at this time, and
population increased rapidly, to 572,363 in 1817, and to 704,465 in 1827.
In 1841, it was a little more than a million. But the increase in colored
population, by the importation of African slaves, outstripped the increase
by the whites.
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