Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, I'm Aaron Haynes. I'm the editor at large
Speaker 1: for The Nineteenth News, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender
Speaker 1: politics and policy. We look at where our democracy remains unfinished,
Speaker 1: where women, people of color, and queer people are still
Speaker 1: not included. And later this month, I'll be your host
Speaker 1: for a brand new podcast from the Nineteenth News and
Speaker 1: Wonder Media Network, call The Amendment. More on that soon,
Speaker 1: but for now, I'm excited to be your guest host
Speaker 1: for this month of Womanica, this Black History Month, we're
Speaker 1: talking about revolutionaries, the black women who led struggles for
Speaker 1: liberation from violent governments, colonial rulers, and enslavers. These women
Speaker 1: had the courage to imagine radically different worlds, and they
Speaker 1: use their power to try and pull those worlds into view.
Speaker 1: On some nights, in the humid air of eighteen forties Cuba,
Speaker 1: there was a sound drifting on the wind. To the
Speaker 1: untrained ear, it sounded like music, the beating of a
Speaker 1: West African talking drune. But a trained ear could hear
Speaker 1: the sound for what it truly was. Those drum beats
Speaker 1: were a hidden code. Their rhythms were a way of
Speaker 1: speaking information about an incoming slave revolution. And the hands
Speaker 1: tapping out those rhythms belonged to a woman named Carlotta Lakumi.
Speaker 1: Karlata Lakumi was most likely born somewhere in Yorba Land,
Speaker 1: a region in West Africa that was home to the
Speaker 1: Yorba ethnic group. She spent her early childhood there, growing
Speaker 1: up amidst Yurba culture and tradition. When Carlotta was about
Speaker 1: ten years old, slave traders kidnapped her, forced her onto
Speaker 1: a ship, and took her to Cuba. There, Carlotta was
Speaker 1: forced to work on the Triumferrato sugar plantation in the
Speaker 1: Matanzas province in Cuba. Around the time Carlotta was enslaved
Speaker 1: in Cuba in the early to mid nineteenth century, the
Speaker 1: country was one of the biggest sugar producers in the
Speaker 1: world and one of the wealthiest colonies in the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: Britain had already outlawed the Transatlantic slave trade and abolished
Speaker 1: slavery in all its territories, but Spain, the country of
Speaker 1: the colonized Cuba, was still in the slave trading business.
Speaker 1: In fact, between eighteen oh one and eighteen fifty, more
Speaker 1: than half a million people were brought to Cuba and enslaved.
Speaker 1: In rural matanzas where Carlotta was enslaved, black people made
Speaker 1: up a majority of the plantation workers. Plantations like the
Speaker 1: one Carlotta worked on, were known for their enormous sugar
Speaker 1: harvests and their violent treatment of enslaved people. People like
Speaker 1: Carlotta were expected to work long hours on almost no food,
Speaker 1: sometimes with shackles on their hands, feet, and neck. In
Speaker 1: eighteen forty three, Carlotta began to organize a rebellion. She
Speaker 1: worked with other instead people, including another woman named Ermena,
Speaker 1: all across Cuba, and slaved people were finding ways to
Speaker 1: meet and speak in secret. They were building a resistance
Speaker 1: movement that was entirely underground, invisible to the Spanish colonizers.
Speaker 1: They were plotting their rebellion. At one point, Fermena's plans
Speaker 1: were discovered by a plantation owner. He had her beaten
Speaker 1: and sent to prison, but Carlotta continued plotting. She sent
Speaker 1: coded messages through a talking drum to other enslaved people nearby. Finally,
Speaker 1: on November fifth, eighteen forty three, Carlotta's plans came to fruition.
Speaker 1: That night, the Trianvirato rebellion began more than three hundred
Speaker 1: people rose up in rebellion against their enslavement. Carlotta led
Speaker 1: the charge with a machete in hand. They burned the
Speaker 1: main house where the overseer lived. At one point, Carlotta
Speaker 1: was said to have attacked the overseer's daughter with her
Speaker 1: machete and encouraged those around her to do the same. Eventually,
Speaker 1: the revolutionaries moved on to neighboring plantations, killing white colonists
Speaker 1: they encountered along the way. Over the course of one night,
Speaker 1: they destroyed five sugar plantations, but by the morning of
Speaker 1: November sixth, armed Spanish colonial authorities overtook the revolutionaries at
Speaker 1: the San Rafael sugar milt and violently ended their uprising.
Speaker 1: Carlotta was killed in the struggle eighteen forty four. The
Speaker 1: year following Carlotta's uprising was called the Year of the Lash.
Speaker 1: The Cuban colonial government became even more brutal in their
Speaker 1: treatment of enslaved people in retaliation against slaver bolts. The
Speaker 1: surviving participants of the train Viato rebellion were imprisoned and
Speaker 1: eventually publicly executed in Cuba, Carlotta's revolutionary spirit lived on
Speaker 1: some academics see her actions as a precursor to Cuba's
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine socialist revolution. In nineteen seventy five, Cuba
Speaker 1: launched a military attack and support of a Golan liberation
Speaker 1: from colonial control. The operation was called Operation Carlotta. Today,
Speaker 1: at the site of the former tree in Viato Plantation,
Speaker 1: there's a statue of Carlotta standing tall and strong, wielding
Speaker 1: a machete. All month, we're talking about revolutionaries. For more information,
Speaker 1: you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to co creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for
Speaker 1: having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.