Carlos Manuel de Cespedes (18 April 1819-27 February 1874) was a Cuban plantation owner whose 1868 proclamation of independence led to the Ten Years' War with Spain. He was killed in 1874.
Biography[]
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes was born in Bayamo, Spanish Cuba in 1819, and he was a landowner and lawyer before purchasing La Demejagua sugar plantation in 1844. On 10 October 1868, at Yala, he proclaimed Cuban independence from Spain, starting the Ten Years' War against Spanish rule; he freed his slaves that same day. He was the revolutionary leader until 1873, when he was deposed in a leadership coup. In February 1874, he was killed at his mountain refuge by the Spanish Army.