Overview

In 1812, a series of revolts known collectively as the Aponte Rebellion erupted across the island of Cuba, comprising one of the largest and most important slave insurrections in Caribbean history. Matt Childs provides the first in-depth analysis of the rebellion, situating it in local, colonial, imperial, and Atlantic World contexts. Childs explains how slaves and free people of color responded to the nineteenth-century ""sugar boom"" in the Spanish colony by planning a rebellion against racial slavery and plantation agriculture. Striking alliances among free people of color and slaves, blacks and mulattoes, Africans and Creoles, and rural and urban populations, rebels were prompted to act by a widespread belief in rumors promising that emancipation was near. Taking further inspiration from the 1791 Haitian Revolution, rebels sought to destroy slavery in Cuba and perhaps even end Spanish rule. By comparing his findings to studies of slave insurrections in Brazil, Haiti, the British Caribbean, and the United States, Childs places the rebellion within the wider story of Atlantic World revolution and political change. The book also features a biographical table, constructed by Childs, of the more than 350 people investigated for their involvement in the rebellion, 34 of whom were executed.

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9780807830581

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Reviews

A passionately written book that will prove to be a valuable contribution to slavery studies, as well as to the historiography of Cuba and the African diaspora. <br> -- The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

A passionately written book that will prove to be a valuable contribution to slavery studies, as well as to the historiography of Cuba and the African diaspora.--<i>The Journal of Interdisciplinary History</i>

A microhistorical gem through which the lives and actions of the protagonists . . . are scrutinized and connected by admirable heuristic work. . . . Would recommend it without hesitation to both undergraduates and graduate students, as well as to any scholar interested in issues related to slavery in the Atlantic World. . . . May well become obligatory reading for anyone interested in the intriguing and exciting topic of slave rebelliousness in the Age of Revolution. <br> - New West Indian Guide

Framed in an engaging narrative . . . a welcome contribution to the study of African slavery in the New World. <br>-- Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe

Author Information

MATT D. CHILDS is assistant professor of Caribbean history at Florida State University and coeditor of The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World. Envisioning Cuba

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