Cuba In The 19th Century

Cuba was occupied by various Mesoamerican cultures before the arrival of Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus, who had made the most impact to the country, and after his arrival Cuba became a Spanish colony. In "A History of Latin America" (pg. 239) it states:
Largely isolated from expanding transatlantic markets and without precious metals or a large indigenous population to exploit, Cuba remained a neglected, sparsely populated outpost of the empire. The is- land's inhabitants engaged, for the most part, in small-scale farming for domestic consumption.
During the 19th century there was a severe change in Cuba, the country had transformed into a monoculture. Cuba was dependent on the production of a single crop called sugar. There was an economic boom in the 1800's due to
Africans were forced to leave their homes in Africa and become slaves of these sugar plantations. There were a series of advancements to technology on the plantations and an example of that would be the expanded operations and strong investments in steam-operated machinery. Due to these advancements, the labor needed on the mills increased because it processed more sugar, which meant more fuel was consumed, and more labor was needed. These plantations made wide-ranging use of slaves due to the fact that sugar was considered a profit crop (a crop that is grown to sell for profit) and had cost advantages because of the way the plantations operated. Due to the high demand for sugar, owners of plantations expanded their land and a vast number of African slaves were put to work more than 16 hours a day. The slaves worked on planting and cutting the canes, transport the cut canes to the mills, and clear land. Within a couple years most of the slaves had died, due to the ill-treatment that was brought on by the owners of the plantations. Based on "A History of Latin America" (pg. 241) it states