Volantes, or quitrins, were driven by non-slave Afro-Cubans and, as noted by visitor, Maturin Ballou, “Strange as it may seem, it [the carriage] is very light upon the horse, which is also bestridden by the postilion, or calisero.” Clifford L. Staten, The History of Cuba, ( Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003) 25; Maturin Murray Ballou, History of Cuba; or Notes of a traveler in the tropics, (Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Company, 1854) 131-132.
Federico Mialhe, Album Pinteresco de la Isla de Cuba, Plate 12, copy in Special Collections, University of Virginia.
