The individual chapters in this book explore the conspiracies, rebellions, and protests of African slaves and free Afro-Cubans between 1812 and 1912 in Cuba. The leading historians and scholars from the United States and Cuba who contributed to this timely and important volume cite the Aponte conspiracy of 1812 as the first in a series of acts of resistance through which blacks attempted to end African slavery and Spanish colonialism during the nineteenth century. After the republic was established in 1901, blacks continued to fight for justice and equality. Their endeavors culminated in the founding of the Independent Colored Party (pic) of Cuba (1908). The pic challenged the political power of white Cubans and the Cuban government’s marginalization of blacks, eventually resulting in the Race War of 1912—a massacre that put an end to the black struggle for racial justice and equality.
The contributors argue that the historiography...