Synopses & Reviews
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. Childs provides the first in-depth analysis of the rebellion, situating it in local, colonial, imperial, and Atlantic World contexts. He explains how slaves and free people of color responded to the 19th-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.
Review
"Childs should be praised for redirecting the 'Aponte Rebellion' into the general literature of African diaspora studies."
Colonial Latin American Historical Review
Review
"Framed in an engaging narrative . . . a welcome contribution to the study of African slavery in the New World."
Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe
Review
"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."
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
"An impressive array of archival sources. . . . Provides an engaging model."
Hispanic American Historical Review
Review
"A careful and multi-layered account of the uprisings and the people who planned and carried them out. . . . Childs brilliantly renders this historical complexity."
The International History Review
Review
"A masterfully researched book. . . . Insights . . . about the structures and institutions that slaves and free people mobilized represent one of the book's greatest contributions."
-H-Net Reviews
Review
"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."
-New West Indian Guide
Review
"A welcome contribution to the debates about slave rebellion and also about the nature of the societies of both the slave-owning Caribbean islands and of the free people of colour. Its detail is always fascinating and telling, and its argument sound and much needed."
Journal of Latin American Studies
About the Author
Matt D. Childs is assistant professor of Caribbean history at Florida State University and coeditor of The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World.