Cuba: An American History

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, and racism.

On October 10, 1868, a sugar planter and enslaver from eastern Cuba named Carlos Manuel Céspedes emancipated his enslaved people and declared the beginning of a revolutionary movement to overthrow Spanish control of the island. This revolutionary war would go on for 10 years and came to be known as the Ten Years’ War. The Cuban rebels known as the Liberation Army fought a “guerilla war” against the Spanish government. With its dual goals of national liberation and emancipation for enslaved people, many enslaved and free people of color joined the effort. A key leader in the rebellion was Black Cuban soldier Antonio Maceo, who rose to the rank of general in 1873. The rebellion was based in eastern Cuba, which had a smaller population of enslaved people and fewer sugar plantations. To protect wealthy western Cuba with its large sugar plantations and enslaved populations, the Spanish built a barrier called the troncha to divide the island.

The rebels were eventually worn down. On February 8, 1878, the rebel forces brokered the Pact of Zanjón with Spain, declaring an end to hostilities in exchange for partial emancipation of enslaved people and some representative government.