Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Junta Provincial de Patronato de Matanzas Manumission Records #70142, Rare Book Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased in 2022 (Acc. 20221117.1)

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Jodi Berkowitz, January 2023

Encoded by: Jodi Berkowitz, January 2023

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Enslaved people--Cuba--Matanzas (Province)--History--19th century.
• Enslaved people--Emancipation--Cuba-- Matanzas (Province).
• Enslaved people--Legal status, laws, etc.--Cuba--Matanzas (Province).
• Matanzas (Cuba : Province)--History--19th century.
• Matanzas (Cuba : Province). Junta Provincial de Patronato.
• Slave records--Cuba--Matanzas (Province).
• Slavery--Cuba--Matanzas (Province)--History--19th century--Sources.

• See also Junta Pronvincial de Patronato de Matanzas Records at the University of Miami Libraries.

The Junta Provincial de Patronato de Matanzas was created in 1880 when the law of patronato (apprenticeship) was passed in Spain. The law represented a legal strategy to gradually abolish slavery in Cuba. Most of the workings of the Cuban enslavement system were preserved, but patrocinados, as formerly enslaved people came to be known, received a minimal set of legal rights and were to be paid a token wage. The transition to the patronato system was overseen by a provincial network of government agencies called Juntas de Patronato. The Junta Provincial functioned as a statewide entity, and local juntas present in municipalities and cities were under the jurisdiction of the Junta Provincial and the civil governor.

From the University of Miami Libraries Junta Provincial de Patronato de Matanzas Records.

The collection consists of sixteen sets of formal court records detailing the efforts of formerly enslaved people, or patrocinados, to obtain their freedom. Records contain official documents of the Junta Provincial de Patronato de Matanzas, letters, and other supporting material.