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xi Acknowledgments I started writing this book many years ago. I began my research in the Archivo Nacional de Cuba in Havana thinking about writing a conference paper and ended up visiting document repositories all over the Atlantic looking for pieces of information that would allow me to put together the history of the great African rebellion of 1825. Throughout the years, many friends and colleagues gave me advice and suggestions on how to improve it and moral support that enabled me to finish it. I was only able to complete this book thanks to a University of Leeds Faculty of Arts Research Grant, which gave me the necessary time to write the final draft of the manuscript and then to respond to the readers’ comments. I am equally grateful to the personnel of the archives and libraries I visited; without them this book would never have seen the light of day. I owe a particular debt to Jorge Macle, at the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, who was always available to help me find documents that had gone astray. He is also the author of all the maps in this book. Matt Childs and I worked side by side, sharing the joys of finding archival “golden nuggets” and the disappointments of realizing that some important documents may have been lost forever. Karen Robert graciously helped me get hold of a number of documents from the Massachusetts Historical Society. Continual discussions with Gloria García over the years helped me rethink my ideas about the 1825 movement and, more generally, about slave rebellion in Cuba. Ada Ferrer gave me advice, references, and a copy of an important map, with a dinosaur sticker as a bonus, the work of one of her then very small daughters. Paul Lovejoy guided me through the intricacies of early nineteenthcentury West African history, and his son Henry was always happy to talk about Cuba, West Africa, or whatever else came up, including baseball. Rafael Marquese and Dale Tomich encouraged me to transform the original text, written in Spanish, into a book in English, and Matthias Röhrig Assunção discussed with me many times some of the ideas and problems that I deal with here. María del Carmen Barcia fueled my interest in the 1825 uprising and was xii · Acknowledgments always ready to comment on new findings and theories that I came up with. I am also indebted to Rosanne Adderley, Camillia Cowling, Mary Ellen Curtin, Lisa Earl Castillo, David Eltis, Leida Fernández, Alejandro de la Fuente, Reinaldo Funes, John Garrigus, Dick Geary, Alejandro Gómez, Lillian Guerra, Gwendolyn Hall, Jane Landers, Javier Laviña, Robin Law, Adrián López, Gillian McGillivray, Robert Paquette, José Antonio Piqueras, Joel Quirk, David Richardson , Inés Roldán de Montaud, Stacey Sommerdyck, Bill Van Norman, Claudia Varella, David Wheat, and Michael Zeuske for listening to my arguments time and again and for offering good suggestions for improving this study. Other colleagues and friends who offered academic and personal support and who must not be forgotten here are Gregorio Alonso, Nir Arielli, Monica Baar, Anastasia Belina, Robin Blackburn, Ben Bollig, Vania Celebicic, Paul Garner, Rachel Gillis, Stuart Green, Bettina Hermoso, Marial Iglesias, Ananya Kabir, Michelle Kelly, Cara Levey, Milagros López-Peláez, Isabelle Mudge, Oliver Murphy, Kristina Plá, Ricardo Quiza, Yasmin Reyes, Lisette Roura, Erna Von der Walde, and Duncan Wheeler. Both the first, anonymous reader and the second reader, Professor Sherry Johnson, made insightful observations that helped me to make the manuscript stronger and more accurate. Once again, Alisa Plant, at Louisiana State University Press, worked with me to make the best possible book out of my manuscript, and copyeditor Joanne Allen did a fantastic job tracking down and correcting my many mistakes. My family in Cuba and Greece have continued to be a source of inspiration and love, and my wife, Effie Kesidou, has been by my side all these years and has always believed in me. I owe her so much that I have literally run out of words to convey what she really means to me. This book is dedicated to my good friend and colleague Paul Glenister, who passed away suddenly in January 2008. I learned more from him about British culture and life than from anybody else. He introduced me to the likes of Red Dwarf, Men Behaving Badly, and Blackadder, all of which still make me laugh quite often. He, perhaps more than anyone, was at all times aware...

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