The maintenance of the nineteenth-century Cuban slave society required strict social control, and it did not begin with adult-age women but rather with young girls. Through benevolence in the form of institutionalized charity and direct response to individual incidences, the state effectively secured those individuals who did not occupy their preordained position in society, while maintaining the hierarchal ordering of the slave society. Such activities provide insight into how the instillation of ideas regarding familial ordering into young girls and women ensured the future of the plantation society.

The Casa de Beneficencia

Elites who dominated the government and institutions such as the Sociedad Patriótica controlled nineteenth-century Cuban society, and they had much vested in the idea, establishment, and acceptance of a certain social structure. The Sociedad Patriótica desired to guide the evolution of the island so that Cuba would become the world's leading sugar-producing colony, thus enriching the coffers of its members; and the Sociedad believed education was the key to creating useful citizens who would contribute to their vision. Education would provide for the eradication of poverty, vice, and vagrancy, issues the Sociedad viewed with great concern.