Cuban slaves

Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, born Anta Madjiguene Ndiaye, (18 June 1793 – April or May 1870) was a West African from present-day Senegal who was enslaved and sold in Cuba. She became the wife of plantation owner and slave trader Zephaniah Kingsley, and then a planter and slaveholder in her own right as a free black in early 19th-century Florida.

Sengbe Pieh (c. 1814 – c. 1879), also known as Joseph Cinqué or Cinquez and sometimes referred to mononymously as Cinqué, was a West African man of the Mende people who led a revolt of many Africans on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad. After the ship was taken into custody by the United States Revenue Cutter Service, Cinqué and his fellow Africans were eventually tried for mutiny and killing officers on the ship, in a case known as United States v. The Amistad. This reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where Cinqué and his fellow Africans were found to have rightfully defended themselves from being enslaved through the illegal Atlantic slave trade and were released. Americans helped raise money for the return of 35 of the survivors to Sierra Leone.

Chocolat was the stage name of Rafael Padilla, a clown who performed in a Paris circus around the turn of the 20th century. Rafael was of Afro-Cuban descent and was one of the earliest successful black entertainers in modern France. He was the first black clown to play a lead role in a circus pantomime act, and with his longtime partner George Foottit they revolutionized the art of clowning by pairing the sophisticated white clown with the foolish auguste clown.

Carlota Lucumí, also known as La Negra Carlota (died March 1844) was an African-born enslaved Cuban woman of Yoruba origin. Carlota was known as one of the leaders of the slave rebellion at the Triunvirato plantation in Matanzas, Cuba during the Year of the Lash in 1843-1844. Carlota led the slave uprising of the sugar mill "Triunvirato" in the province of Matanzas, Cuba on November 5, 1843. Her memory has also been utilized throughout history by the Cuban government in connection to 20th century political goals, most notably Operación Carlota, or Cuba's intervention in Angola in 1974. Little is actually known about the life of Carlota due to the difficulty and availability of sources in archives (Finch 88). Scholars of Afro-Cuban history have grappled with the dearth of reliable sources that document slaves' lives, and the ability of written documents to accurately encompass the reality of slave life. Slave testimonies obtained under investigations after rebellions provide most of the information surrounding Carlota and her contemporaries, making it difficult to construct a complete understanding of her involvement in the 1843 slave rebellion, much less a detailed biography. She is considered significant by scholars due to her role as a woman in an otherwise male-dominated sphere of slave revolt, as well as the way her memory has been employed in the public sphere in Cuba. Carlota and the uprising at Triunvirato plantation are honored as part of the UNESCO Slave Route Project through a sculpture at the Triunvirato plantation, which has since been turned into a memorial and museum.

Ambrosio Echemendia was a Cuban negro slave and poet. He authored poems such as Al Damují and Un incrédulo de mis versos in 1843. Accused of being involved in slave rebellions on the island, Cuba's white literary elite were so impressed by his verses that they raised $1000 to set him free in 1865.

Ño Remigio Herrera Adeshina Obara Meyi (1811/1816 – 1905) was a babalawo (Yoruba priest) recognized for being, along with his mentor Carlos Adé Ño Bí (birth name, Corona), the main successor of the religious system of Ifá in America. Ño Remigio Herrera was perhaps the most famous surviving African in Cuba in the 19th century. Ño, synonymous to "Sir", was a title of distinction, a term of respect and endearment bestowed upon the great native elders of the African “nations” on the island. His name “Adeshina” means “Crown-Opens-The-Way” in Yoruba.

Esteban Mesa Montejo (1860-1965) had been a runaway Cuban slave. He told his story to the Cuban ethnologist Miguel Barnet in taped interviews carried out in 1963. Barnet edited the transcripts and published them in 1966, as Biografía de un cimarrón. An English translation has been published as Biography of a runaway slave and The autobiography of a runaway slave.

José Antonio Aponte, often known as “Black” José Aponte, (died April 9, 1812 in Havana) was a Cuban political activist and military officer of Yoruba origin who organized one of the most prominent slave rebellions in Cuba, the Aponte Conspiracy of 1812. He held the rank of first corporal (cabo primero) in Havana's black militia, and was the leader of his local Yoruba association. Aponte was a free black carpenter in Havana was proclaimed to be the leader of a plot to rebel against the Cuban government, free the slaves and uplift free people of color, and overthrow slavery in Cuba. The movement struck several sugar plantations on the outskirts of Havana, but it was soon crushed by the government.

Juan Francisco Manzano (1797–1854) was born a house slave in the Matanzas Province of Cuba during the colonial period. Manzano's father died before he was 15 and his only remaining family was his mother and two brothers. Manzano worked as a page through his whole life, which was a privileged job for a slave. He wrote two works of poetry and his autobiography while still enslaved. The Autobiography of a Slave is one of two only documented accounts of 19th-century Cuban slavery, the only existing narrative accounts of slavery in Spanish America. (The other is by Esteban Mesa Montejo.) Irish abolitionist Richard Robert Madden published his Poems by a slave in the island of Cuba in 1840. A second part to his autobiography was lost. He obtained his freedom in 1837 and later wrote a book of poems and a play Zafira. In 1844, Manzano was falsely accused of being involved in the conspiracy of La Escalera. After his release from prison in 1845 he did not publish again and died in 1854.

Pedro Antonio Díaz Molina was a Cuban general who was the only former slave that was a major general in the Cuban Liberation Army [es].