Swarthout’s Reviews > The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888 > Status Update

mortality rates for Brazilian slaves were high, but not much higher than for slaves in the United States. Thus the Brazilian slave aged ten had a life expectancy of between thirty-four and thirty-eight years, while the US slave had a life expectancy of forty years. Similarly, the Brazilian slave had a life expectancy of twenty-three to twenty-six years, while the US slave had a life expectancy of twenty-seven years.

"The Cuban Slave Code of 1842, widely opposed and ignored by mill owners, stipulated that slaves should work for no more than sixteen hours a day. In fact, eighteen- or even twenty-hour days are frequently referred to as the norm."

cuba: "In 1865 the tobacco workers won the right to employ public readers – lectores – to inform and entertain the cigar rollers while they worked. The workers made their own selection of newspaper articles, short stories, novels by Guy de Maupassant or Charles Dickens."