Emancipation of Slaves
Upon the outbreak of war in 1868, Aguilera freed all 500 of his slaves, an illegal action under the Spanish law in effect in Cuba at that time, and joined ranks with many of them to retake the city of Bayamo from the Spanish. Many of his ex-slaves became soldiers and officers in the War of Independence, but it is unclear whether or not his freed slaves volunteered for their enrollment in the military. It could be that their freedom was contingent upon Cuba winning the war.
Read more about this topic: Francisco Vicente Aguilera
Famous quotes containing the words emancipation of, emancipation and/or slaves:
“... women learned one important lesson—namely, that it is impossible for the best of men to understand women’s feelings or the humiliation of their position. When they asked us to be silent on our question during the War, and labor for the emancipation of the slave, we did so, and gave five years to his emancipation and enfranchisement.... I was convinced, at the time, that it was the true policy. I am now equally sure that it was a blunder.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“In a seriously intended intellectual emancipation a person’s mute passions and cravings also hope to find their advantage.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)