The general classification of the population was
into Spaniards, who were recent immigrants or temporary
residents, and who largely held the offices and
employments of the government, including those of
the Church, but some of whom owned plantations
or were engaged in business in the larger c itie s ,
native white Cubans, who constituted the bulk of
the inhabitants of the rural parts of the island and
the small towns, and carried on the minor industries
and trad e ; the negroes, who were formerly slaves or
the children of such, still employed chiefly on the
plantations and in the sugar mills in a condition of
virtual peonage, and enjoying little more political or
social advantage than before emancipation; and
finally the mulattoes and mixed breeds,— generally
spoken of in all the West Indies as “ coloured,” in
contradistinction from “ blacks, whose position
was intermediate between the creoles and negroes.
The Spaniards insisted upon a certain exclusiveness,
and social as well as political superiority, while the
native Cubans cherished a pride of their own, which
was strongly tinged with insular patriotism.
The revolution of 1895-98 broke up the normal
conditions of Cuban life and society, and reduced the
population by a number variously estimated from
300,000 to 600,000; and it is necessary for the present
to deal with those conditions as they were before
the outbreak. It is generally stated that about one
half of the area of the island was still covered with
forest and other wild growths, though not more than
one fifth consisted of mountain and swamp land
that was not susceptible of cultivation. Much more