“Slavery in Cuba on the whole was a rural phenomenon. Nevertheless, the average sugar mill in the Havana area relied on twenty to thirty slaves.” (Garcia). French, English, and Dutch sea marauders recognized its strategic advantage early when they attacked the city during the 16th century. It wasn’t until 1762 that Havana was actually captured by British
Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean, off the coast of the United States was discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus and his entourage, who claimed the small island for Spain. Unlike any other nation in the Western hemisphere that was involved in the slave trade, Puerto Rico initially began with the African freemen who came with the Spanish conquistadors. Originally populated by about sixty thousand Taino Indigenous people, benign diseases and attempted sucides soon decreased the population. As a result, African peoples were forced into slavery to help build fortifications, work the fields, and carryout slave owner’s domestic work thus entering Puerto Rico in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. However, the enslaved African peoples didn’t just contribute to the development of this new island; their traditions are what inspired the culture that Puerto Rico is built upon today.
Rebellions in Colonial America Rebellions in colonial North America proliferated during times when the white majority was divided against itself. In 1739, the deadliest revolt in Colonial America takes place in Stono, SC. at least 20 whites and more than 40 blacks are killed. In 1773, Massachusetts’ slaves petitioned legislature for freedom, Jan. 6. There is a record of 8 petitions during Revolutionary War period.
The ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic and the colony was abandoned, leaving the escaped slaves behind on North American soil. In 1565, the colony of Saint Augustine in Florida, founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, became the first permanent European settlement in North America. It included an unknown number of free and enslaved Africans that were part of this colonial expedition. The first recorded Africans in British North America (including most of the future United States) arrived in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia.
Nefatia Montrose 2/17/12 US History 2 Black History Month Report Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (also known as Gustavus Vassa) was born in what is now Nigeria in 1745. At the feeble age of Eleven he and his sister were kidnapped from his African village, Eboe, forced to march to the coast and put on board a slave ship. They were shipped “through the arduous Middle Passage of the Atlantic Ocean”, and sold to a British planter. He was eventually resold to Captain Pascal, a British naval officer, as a present for his cousins in London. After ten years of enslavement, assisting as a merchant, and working as a seaman, Equiano purchased his own freedom.
Spanish-American war * In Cuba, then a Spanish colony, angry nationalists known as the insurrectos began a revolt against the ruling Spanish colonial regime. When Spain sent in General "Butcher" Weyler to stabilize the situation in Cuba, he put much of the population in concentration camps. The US, which had many businessmen with investment interests in Cuba, became concerned. * In 1898, the US dispatched the USS Maine on a "friendly" mission to Cuba. The ship was to wait, ready to rescue US citizens who might be endangered by the conflict in Cuba.
That was until Spanish navigators Juan Díaz de Solís and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón touched on part of the Honduran coast in 1508 and devoted most of their efforts to exploring the area. After the Spanish discovery and speedy conquest, Honduras became part of Spain's large empire in the New World. The Spanish ruled Honduras for about 3 centuries. Honduras became a state in the United Provinces of Central America in 1821 and an independent republic with the fall of the union in 1840. By 1968 the Lopez Arellano regime seemed to be in serious trouble.
Dominican Republic History: 1821-1916 In 1821 the once-vibrant economic powerhouse known as the Colony of Santo Domingo began its fight for what is known as the Ephemeral Independence, but this was not to last. By 1822 the newly independent Haitians were fearful that the French would use the eastern portion of the island to mount an attack on Haiti, and re-establish slavery. Under the leadership of Jean Pierre Boyer, the Haitians invaded the eastern side of Hispaniola, outlawed slavery, and unified the island once again. However, conditions under Haitian rule were no better than they had been under the Spanish, and a growing part of the population became dissatisfied with the situation. In response, Juan Pablo Duarte, together with fellow patriots Juan Isidro Perez, Pedro Alejandro Pina, Jacinto de la Concha, Felix Maria Ruiz, Jose Maria Serra, Benito Gonzalez, Felipe Alfau and Juan Nepomuceno Ravelo, formed a secret society called La Trinitaria on July 16, 1838, aimed at undermining Haitian rule on the island.
The population of the white man took a major increase when there were 47,000 immigrants (43,000 of which were Dutch)(RD 95). The British took it into their own consideration to make the Africans their slaves and change their way of life forever. The British had only been in Africa for a couple of years before they started to scheme their way into the government. They started changing the social and physical features of the African way of life in replace with the English way of life. With newspapers, debating societies, horse racing, village-green cricket matches, and even their buildings and architecture (RD 95).
The largest of all Cuba holidays is Revolution Day (July 26). Revolution Day is the day that commemorates Fidel Castro’s raid on the Batista dictatorship’s barracks in 1953 as well as the birth of the revolutionary writer Jose Marti in 1853. Other major Cuban holidays include Independence Day (May 20), the anniversary of Cuba’s independence from Spain in 1902; Children’s Day (April 4); and New Years Day, the anniversary of the fall of the Batista regime in 1959. Cuba is also known for hosting the largest International Jazz Fiesta, which takes place every February in Havana. The main sport in Cuba is baseball.