Francisco Vicente Aguilera was a Cuban patriot born in Bayamo

Bayamo

Bayamo is the capital city of the Granma Province of Cuba, and one of the largest cities in the Oriente region.The community of Bayamo lies on a plain by the Bayamon River...

, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 on June 23, 1821. He had ten children with his wife Ana Manuela Maria Dolores Sebastiana Kindelan y Sanchez. He studied at the University of Havana receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

Aguilera had inherited a fortune from his father, and in 1867 he was the richest landowner in the eastern region of Cuba, owning extensive properties, sugar refineries, livestock, and slaves. He never bought any of the slaves that were regularly brought from the African coast and offered for sale. He only used the slaves he had inherited from his father. This required him to hire many free workers to plant and harvest the sugarcane and work the farms. He was mayor of Bayamo, and he was a freemason and the head of the Masonic lodge in Bayamo.

He traveled to many countries including the U.S., France, England, and Italy. On his travels he came into contact with governments that had chiefs of state who were not monarchs, leading him to embrace the progressive ideas to which he was exposed. He became an idealist who was always preoccupied with improving the conditions of his countrymen.

Insurrectionist

At the time, Spain remained in control of Cuba, but had lost control of several of its territories in Central and South America in the early 19th century. This was mostly due to the efforts of Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...

, who is credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia. Colonial rule had its pros and cons. The pros being that the controlling country helped to improve the standard of living in the territory by building out infrastructure, introducing new technologies and implementing systems of governance and organization. The cons were that the controlling country exploited the people under their control with unfair labor practices and exploited the land with little or no recompense to the natives. In Cuba, the Spaniards were forcing the native Indians to work under dreadful conditions in gold mines. In Aguilera's lifetime, the cons were far outweighing the pros and he was very much in favor of the separation of Cuba from Spain.
In 1851, when he was 30 years old, he began to conspire against the Spanish colonial rule, linking himself with a movement started by Joaquin Aguero in Camagüey

Camagüey

Camagüey is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third largest city. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province.After almost continuous attacks from pirates the original city was moved inland in 1528.The new city was built with a confusing lay-out of winding alleys that made...

, Cuba, and from then on, together with other landowners of the region, he continued to openly speak out against the colonial Spanish rule. He was the leader in an outbreak that occurred in Bayamo in 1867 and was made Chief of the General Committee of three appointed to carry out the plans of the insurrectionists. The two other members of this committee were Francisco Maceo and Pedro Figueredo. He actively participated in the creation of conspiracy groups in diverse regions of the country including the preliminary reunions that culminated in the revolt of October 10, 1868 led by Carlos Manuel de Cespedes

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo was a Cuban planter who freed his slaves and made the declaration of Cuban independence in 1868 which started the Ten Years' War...

. In this revolt, Aguilera took the position that the revolt should wait until they could raise more money before attacking, and although his viewpoint did not prevail, he deferred control of the insurrection to Cespedes, who became the leader of the independence movement from that point on. He supported Cespedes because his interest was not in becoming more powerful, but in improving the lot of his countrymen.

Aguilera put his money where his mouth was. At one of the conspiracy reunions he famously announced that he was prepared to sell all of his properties at market value in order to raise money to arm the revolutionary forces. He promptly put an ad in the newspaper of Bayamo offering for sale all of his properties, buildings, and livestock, which included 35,000 head of cattle and 4,000 horses.

Aguilera held many positions in the Cuban army including Major General, Minister of War, Vice President of the Republic, and Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern District. While in command of the army he was distinguished for courage and ability, taking part in person in many engagements and skirmishes.

Emancipation of slaves

In 1868, well after Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 declared the freedom of all slaves in 1863 in the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...

, Aguilera freed all 500 of his slaves, and marched with many of them to retake the city of Bayamo from the Spanish. Many of his ex-slaves became soldiers in the Cuban War of Independence against Spain fighting on the side of the Cubans, but it is unclear whether or not his freed slaves volunteered for their enrollment in the military. It is possible that their freedom was contingent upon Cuba gaining its freedom from Spain, because under Spanish law of the time it was illegal to grant freedom to slaves.

Death

In 1871, Aguilera went to New York City to raise funds for the war effort. Aguilera died penniless of throat cancer in his apartment at 223 West 30th Street in New York on February 22, 1877. His notoriety got his face on the Cuban 100 peso

Peso

The word peso was the name of a coin that originated in Spain and became of immense importance internationally...

bill (pictured above) that was in circulation prior to the 1959 communist revolution. }