“In 1789, the Spanish Crown declared free trade in slaves throughout the empire. No colony in Spanish America capitalized on the decree more than Cuba…

from 1790 to 1820 at least 300,000 slaves entered Cuba, if not more. The massive importation of slaves and the radical transformations in Cuban society are all the more apparent given that in the previous 280 years only 100,000 slaves had been imported into the island.

In the span of thirty years, the overall volume of the entire history of the Atlantic slave trade to Cuba had increased threefold.

The figure of 300,000 slaves in thirty years is even more staggering when compared to the United States, which imported roughly 400,000 slaves during its entire history.

The expansion of slavery during the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century caused radical social, political, economic, and cultural transformations of Cuban society; these changes, in turn, gave birth to the 1812 Aponte Rebellion.”

“Cuban masters recognized the global trends in slavery and attempted to insulate the island from the radical ideas crisscrossing the Atlantic as a strategy of self-preservation.

Slaves and free people of color also knew about the larger transformations operating outside of Cuba and the possibility for radical changes.

The contradictions generated by the dramatic increases in sugar production and slave labor precisely when the institution of slavery came under question provided the political opening for the 1812 Aponte Rebellion.

Although slavery in Cuba dates to the early 1500s, by 1800 the institution had been completely transformed, drawing new and increasingly rigid lines of hierarchy and social division.

… Racial identity ever more rigidly defined the barriers of inclusion for the white population of European ancestry and exclusion for the black population of African ancestry.

… The rise of a racialized plantation society in the 1790s corroded the special niche and limited privileges that free men and women of African ancestry previously enjoyed in Cuba’s hierarchical society. The expansion of slavery…

made the distinction between the free population of white European ancestry & the enslaved population of black African ancestry all the more clear, & the contradictory position of free people of color such as [freed slave José Antonio] Aponte ever more apparent.”

“Spain fielded the free men of color militia to compensate for the lack of able-bodied white soldiers to protect the island from European rivals and pirate attacks. The militia…had long served as a distinct corporate body that provided social mobility for free men of color.

The dramatic increase in slave labor & …expansion of plantation agriculture in the 1790s served to dilute the distinctions & privileges of militia service… Aponte & others decided to turn their military training in the service of Spanish colonialism into a weapon to destroy it.

The militia provided crucial access to arms and weapons necessary for the rebellion to be a success.

[…] The battlefields of the Aponte Rebellion spread over 500 miles, qualifying it as one of the most extensively planned revolts in the Americas […]

The insurrections by slaves and free people of color began in the east-central region of Puerto Príncipe during January 1812. The rebels then escaped to the east and attempted to extend their movement to Bayamo in February.

But before the revolt erupted in Bayamo, a slave had denounced the rebellion. By early March, Holguín and other destinations had been rocked by reports of insurrection. Then, in the middle of March, the insurgents rose in rebellion on several plantations outside of Havana…”

@threader_app compile