When authorities searched Aponte's place of residence they found a book of paintings and plan made by Aponte.[20] According to Spanish officials, the book of drawings contained maps of streets and military garrisons in Cuba, pictures of black soldiers beating whites, sketches of his father and grandfather, a drawing of George Washington, portraits of black kings, and episodes in Aponte's own life.[21] After interrogating Aponte, colonial officials asserted that he used the book of drawings as a blueprint for the revolution to illustrate and explain his plans for the rebellion, considering he allegedly showed the book to members of the free black militia and numerous others during meetings at his house.[22] It is proposed that he used images of black revolutionaries (like Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christoph) and drew inspiration from the Haitian Revolution to inspire his followers.[4][23] Because of Aponte's book of paintings, the officials declared José Antonio Aponte the leader of the islandwide rebellion.[24]
Unfortunately the book of paintings was lost, and the only knowledge we have about it is through the description Aponte gave to authorities while being interrogated.[4] Nevertheless, efforts have been made to reimagine the works of Aponte, one of which is called the Digital Aponte.[25] On this website, there is an annotated version of the trial record of Aponte's description of the book of paintings, a simulation of Aponte's library and the text books that he owned, and an image gallery to investigate the visual culture of turn of the nineteenth-century Havana and the types of visual art, architecture, and printed materials that Aponte may have seen.[25]
Many scholars and historians have studied Aponte's book of paintings.[26] 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.[27] Others think that Aponte wanted the book to be read as a meditation on black sovereignty, an intellectual and subversive representation of imagining a black kingdom—one in which he was trying to create in Cuba.[3] In addition, it can be seen as a remnant of intellectual history of the Black Atlantic, as a source for exploring the worldview of a black artist and revolutionary.[3]
Unfortunately the book of paintings was lost, and the only knowledge we have about it is through the description Aponte gave to authorities while being interrogated.[4] Nevertheless, efforts have been made to reimagine the works of Aponte, one of which is called the Digital Aponte.[25] On this website, there is an annotated version of the trial record of Aponte's description of the book of paintings, a simulation of Aponte's library and the text books that he owned, and an image gallery to investigate the visual culture of turn of the nineteenth-century Havana and the types of visual art, architecture, and printed materials that Aponte may have seen.[25]
Many scholars and historians have studied Aponte's book of paintings.[26] 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.[27] Others think that Aponte wanted the book to be read as a meditation on black sovereignty, an intellectual and subversive representation of imagining a black kingdom—one in which he was trying to create in Cuba.[3] In addition, it can be seen as a remnant of intellectual history of the Black Atlantic, as a source for exploring the worldview of a black artist and revolutionary.[3]
