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."

"For the slave-holders, the most vital alliance was with non-slave-owning whites in the South, who not only had to be kept from rebelling against slave-owner rule, but also represented the first line of defence against slave and Indian revolt."