Ingenios Azucareros de Cuba

The term mill was used in Hispanic and Portuguese America throughout the colonial era to designate the entire sugar cane processing establishment and mill, the buildings of the owners and managers, the workshops and facilities, the slaves, the cane fields and supply lands, and the corrals and animals. Although they could be distinguished from modest sugar mills to large production complexes with enormous cane fields, hundreds of slaves, and abundant technical equipment.

An average mill had between sixty and eighty slaves, and a large one had about two hundred, although in the 18th century, there were plantations with more than a thousand slaves. During the harvest – the cutting of the cane – the mills worked 18 or 20 hours a day.