The 1812 Aponte [?] Rebellions in the Provinces of Cuba

Abstract

Over the last twenty-five years, scholars of Cuban history have investigated of a series of slave rebellions and conspiracies that spread across the island from January to April 1812 known collectively as the Aponte Rebellion, or Aponte Conspiracy. The scholarship on the Aponte Rebellion has largely focused on what happened in Havana in 1812, and the cultural reconstruction of the world of the rebels, and Aponte’s Libro de Pinturas, in particular. By contrast, this article examines the rebellions outside of Havana that have been collectively labeled as part of the Aponte Rebellion going back to the pioneering work of José Luciano Franco (1963). Drawing upon archival sources from national, regional, and international archives in Cuba and Spain, the article asks: Was it one island-wide coordinated movement based in Havana led by Aponte?; Or were there four separate movements in Puerto Principe, Bayamo, Holguin, and Havana from January 1812 to March 1812? At least from the extant archival and documentary records and other studies completed to date by historians, there is very limited contemporary evidence generated in 1812 of an island-wide movement coordinated and directed by Aponte from Havana.