Around this time some Seminole families flee Florida and take refuge in Guanabacoa, a small town outside of Havana which is a center of African culture in Cuba today. Doug Sivad is researching this and would appreciate any info you may have (dougsivad@usa.net).

The British vessel H.M.S. Romany arrives in Havana to take on a load of freed slaves, carrying a regiment of black soldiers. Cuban authorities refuse to allow these men to land in Havana, and the British refuse to withdraw the vessel. After over a year, the Spanish government gives ground.

White Cubans enforce segregation in public places as a means of stressing their claim to superiority. 

April 10. A self-appointed assembly proclaims a constitution for Cuba, and elects Céspedes as president. The new republic seeks annexation to the U.S.

José Martí, now 17-years old, is sentenced to six years of hard labor for expressing his opposition to colonial rule.

Máximo Gómez. sends Guillermo Moncada on a special mission to finish with slave catcher Miguel Perez.

AfroCubans form the backbone of the Liberation Army ("Los Mambises"), and are estimated to comprise as high as 92% of that army. See Photos of the Liberation Army from Gloria Rolando's film "Roots of My Heart."

March 13. Antonio and José Maceo land in eastern Cuba from Santo Domingo.

April 11. José Martí and Máximo Gomez land in eastern Cuba from Costa Rica.

May 18. In his last letter, José Martí writes that it is his duty "to prevent, by the independence of Cuba, the United States from spreading over the West Indies and falling, with that added weight, upon other lands of our America. All I have done up to now, and shall do hereafter, is to that end… I have lived inside the monster and know its insides."

May 19. José Martí is killed in his first appearance on the battlefield at Dos Ríos in eastern Cuba. He is 42 years old. The rebels try to recover his body, but are unable to do so.

In 1895: Antonio Maceo was betrayed in Havana, but the members of Bacoco Efo, an Abakwá potencia in Belen, of which Lino D'ou was a member, hid and protected him. Many Abakwá members fight in the Mambi Army and composed an elite corps in the Mambi Army from Matanzas.

December 24. J.C. Breckenridge, U.S. Undersecretary of War, authors what becomes known as The Breckenridge Memorandum, which outlines U.S. policy towards the Hawaiian islands, Puerto Rico and Cuba. The memorandum went to Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles, Commander of the U.S. Army.

February 15.The US battleship Maine explodes in Havana harbor, giving the US a pretext for intervention.

April 25. The U.S. blames Spain and enters the Spanish-Cuban-American War. In Cuba, this is regarded as an intervention in Cuba’s War Of Independence.   The US and Spain fight a war in Cuba, the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.  The Spaniards are officially kicked out of Cuba, having been worn down and defeated by years of struggle with the Mambises, the Cuban independence fighters, many of whom (92%) are of African descent.

August 12. Spain and the U.S. sign a bilateral armistice. Cuba is not represented at the negotiations.

July 1. The Buffalo Soldiers (Ninth and Tenth Cavalry) take San Juan Hill. Teddy Roosevelt takes the glory.

December 10. Spain and the U.S. sign the Treaty of Paris. The U.S. is granted control of four new territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. Although the treaty officially grants Cuba independence, the U.S. flag, not the Cuban flag, is raised over Havana, and Cuban representatives are not allowed at the signing.

New York Public Library on the Spanish American War: http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/epo/spanexhib/index.html