The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825: Cuba and the Fight for Freedom in Matanzas by Manuel Barcia (review)

Abstract

Manuel Barcia. The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825: Cuba and the Fight for Freedom in Matanzas. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2012. 272 pp.As Spain's mainland American colonies were disintegrating and their inhabitants were forming independent national states, the webs that connected Cuba to the Atlantic World were becoming more intricate than ever. Faced with the emergence of a large-scale independence movement, representatives of the Spanish government took measures to prevent the island from succumbing to a invasion that would end colonial rule, ruin profitable agricultural enterprises, and galvanize the presumed restive enslaved population. But what if those officials, in retrospect, were too late? Manuel Barcia's most recent study of slave rebellion makes the provocative case that by 1825 subversive foreigners were already present. The Great African Slave Revolt of 1825 is the story of Africans who arrived in Cuba with memories, skills, and predispositions from their homelands that informed their decisions to challenge their enslavement. Their local world, the Guamacaro region of Matanzas Province, was likewise the product of far-reaching connections that extended beyond those forged by the African slave trade. In connecting these multiple Atlantic contexts that frame the rebellion, Barcia affords African slaves the same complexity of foreign political and social backgrounds that other historical actors and processes routinely receive.The book focuses on a seldom-discussed slave revolt that differed in nature from the better-known Aponte (1812) and La Escalera (1843-44) conspiracies in its rural origins and leadership of African-born slaves. In much clearer detail than the other uprisings, the 1825 case reveals the significance of African survivals: knowledge of the art of war, ethnic affiliations, and a range of cultural practices for which a standard attribution as religion is far too limiting. Most of the two hundred or so slaves involved appear in the historical record with Spanish given names followed by African-derived designations such as Lucumi, Ganga, Carabali, Congo, and Mandinga. They came from multiple sub-Saharan regions in the midst of military conflicts at the turn of the nineteenth century. Among the most important of these for the Atlantic trade was the precipitous decline of the Oyo Empire during wars that resulted in the sale of prisoners (including soldiers) into slavery. Always attentive to regional differences, Barcia displays a sophisticated understanding of West African developments that matches his mastery of Cuban history. Only through this kind of careful and specific research can he advance his argument about the African nature of the 1825 revolt.On the face of it, thinking of slaves as foreigners would appear to euphemize the involuntary and exploitative nature of African slavery. But it provides a useful counterpoint to other demographic transformations taking place in nineteenth-century western Cuba. Heightened efforts to attract white immigration to Cuba led to the arrival of settlers from the United States, Spain, and other European countries. …