José Antonio Aponte, Cuba and Haiti

In 1812 occurred the Aponte rebellion, which began in Havana. Aponte was a free Negro whose motives were not apparent, though race hatred seems to have been the prime cause of the outbreak. He terrorized Havana for a time but was slain with many others.

E.P. Herrick, “Uprisings of Cuban Negroes,” The Southern Workman (1913)

One of these outbursts, that instigated by José Antonio Aponte in 1812, and directly traceable to the example and influence of Haiti, was repressed with relentless severity, the leader and eight accomplices meeting death by hanging.

Henry Cabot Lodge, “Conspiracies and Revolutions in Cuba, 1793-1896,” The History of Nations (1906)

In Cuba, José Antonio Aponte, a free man who organized an uprising in 1812, had promised his followers that help would come from Haiti, and he galvanized his troops with pictures of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe.

“The Impact of the Revolution,” New York Public Library

There is of course the famous case of José Antonio Aponte, who was executed in 1812 as the supposed leader of a slave uprising. In his possession they found a book of drawings and paintings, which was used as evidence against him in the trial. The book itself appears to be lost, but the trial records give us a description of the pictures, and these descriptions strongly suggest that Haiti was one of his main sources of inspiration.

Sibylle Fisher interviewed by Gina Ulysse, Bomb 90 (Winter 2005)

Image: Personnage des sociétés secrètes Bizango d’Haïti © musée du quai Branly, Paris, France.