Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

Cuban revolutionary and plantation owner (1819–1874)

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo (18 April 1819 – 27 February 1874) was a Cuban revolutionary hero and First President of Cuba in Arms in 1868. Céspedes, who was a plantation owner in Cuba, freed his slaves and made the declaration of Cuban independence in 1868 which started the Ten Years' War (1868–1878). This was the first of three wars of independence, the third of which, the Cuban War of Independence led to the end of Spanish rule in 1898 and Cuba's independence in 1902.

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