[4][5] There are gaps in knowledge regarding his family and upbringing; the name of his mother is unknown and details about his childhood and adolescence are not recorded in many dominant narratives about him.

[7] His grandfather, Joaquín Aponte worked his way up the military hierarchy eventually becoming captain of the grenadiers and serving for 43 years in the free black militia in Havana.

[14] Thus, Aponte was motivated to lead a mass insurrection to abolish slavery, overthrow the colonial tyranny, and create an independent society free of discrimination.

[15] Aponte assembled a group of slaves and people of color to plan and burn sugar mills, attack the armories in Havana, and arm 400 men he amassed in order to revolt and overthrow the slavery system.

[16] As a warning against future slave insurrections, Aponte's severed head was displayed in an iron cage at the entrance of Havana.

[4] Aponte's rebellion was a movement that encompassed rebels burning plantations and killing whites in Havana and Puerto Príncipe, although the conspirators were captured by authorities before they could fulfill their plans in Bayamo and Holguín.

[24] Some consider his work a political and pedagogical tool, and highlight its recovery of the knowledge of the western Ethiopians to celebrate Africa's future in universal history.

"[4] A popular scholar in the late nineteenth century, Francisco Calcagno painted Aponte as a nightmare of black rule, at the expense of the destruction of white civilization.

[28] Most recently, Aponte has also been re-imagined as a national figure in Cuba, following a 2012 bicentennial that commemorated his death at the hands of colonial authorities.