Carlotta Lucumbi may have been enslaved on a sugar plantation, but in her mind, she was still free. She’d been forcibly kidnapped at 10 and forced into labor on a Cuban sugar plantation, but never accepted her circumstances. Now, she was about to snap.
The plan was to burn the plantation, kill any white person who tried to stop them, and escape. But things weren’t going to plan – they’d captured, beaten, and tortured her co-leader before they could even begin. It made sense for her to abandon her plans, but would she?
Absolutely NOT. Lucumbi still led the revolt! She freed her co-leader and, armed with machetes, they fought until they were captured and killed, their corpses put on display to send other enslaved people a message about what would happen if they tried to escape. But Lucumbi’s followers had a plan of their own!
They responded by killing every white person they saw. In the end, they freed enslaved people from at least five plantations and inspired a wave of revolts that would last for weeks.
Regardless of what white society tried to make Carlotta believe, she never accepted enslavement. We must remember that white society’s version of us has always been meant to keep us second-class, because they still seek to profit from us. But our history speaks for itself!