This speech, delivered at the third Spanish abolitionist conference in February 1872 by Puerto Rican liberal politician and abolitionist Joaquin Sanromá, examines the nature of plantation slavery in Cuba, and why it proved so difficult to abolish. Sanromá explores the question of Cuba's future as a colony of modern, democratic Spain, accusing the island of being a "pagan" society like that of ancient Greece and Rome, founded on slavery (9). He dismisses the concept of a 'benign' form of slavery, citing mortality figures among Cuban slaves.