Virginius Affair - Cuban Ten Years War

Cuban Ten Years War

After the American Civil War, the island country of Cuba under Spanish rule was one of only a few Western Hemisphere countries where the institution of slavery remained legal and was widely practiced. On October 10, 1868 a revolution broke out, known as the Ten Years War, by Cuban landowners led by Carlos Manual Céspedes. The Spanish, led initially by Francisco Lersundi, used the military to suppress the rebellion. In 1870, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish persuaded President Grant not to recognize Cuban belligerency and the United States maintained an unstable peace with Spain. As the Cuban war continued, international patriotic insurgency began to arise in support of the Cuban rebellion and war bonds were sold in the U.S. to support the Cuban resistance. One of the U.S. Cuban patriots was John F. Patterson who bought a former Confederate steamer Virgin at the Washington Navy Yard, renaming her Virginius. The legality of Patterson's purchase of the Virginius would later come to national and international attention. The Cuban rebellion finally ended in an 1878 armistice after Spanish general Arsenio Martinez Campos pardoned all Cuban rebels.