Placing the 1843 conspiracies and rebellions of rural slaves and free blacks that occurred in Matanzas in the context of the black Atlantic, Finch explores the actions and ideology of this segment of the African diaspora and the causes of the insurgencies that evolved into the most important and studied Cuban revolt, that of the 1844 “Escalera.” Her sources are Cuban, Spanish, and American archival materials, including the correspondence of colonial functionaries; the personal papers of slave owners; and the testimonies of plantation slaves and free black insurgent.
Finch believes that the “Bemba,” “Triunvirato,” and Escalera rebellions illuminate how the slaves’ social institutions, culture, and gender are critical in explaining the grassroots organizations of resistance that slaves created in Cuba and other territories of the Americas. Hence, Rethinking Slave Rebellion engages the conversations about slave resistance in the British and French Caribbean, informed by Craton’s Testing the Chains, Hart’s...