On August 16, 1855, Doña Carlota Dascar, a resident of Santiago de Cuba, initiated a lawsuit against the city’s public advocate (síndico procurador) to prevent the forcible sale of her slave María. Dascar had tried to sell María, whom she described as a healthy criolla without vices, for 700 pesos. The slave, however, “presented” herself before the síndico Miguel Rodriguez — the municipal official charged with the representation of slave interests — to request that he initiate the customary process of assessing her value in order to fix the price at which she would become coartada: the price that she would have to pay, in installments, to purchase her freedom. He invited Dascar to appoint an appraiser, whose valuation would be compared to that of the síndico’s own assessor.1
As was frequently the case, the valuations differed significantly and had to be negotiated in court. Dascar’s appraiser...
