The Cuban lawyer and revolutionary Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1819-1874) initiated Cuba's Ten Years War of Independence against Spain in 1868, and the following year he became the first president of a provisional rebel government.

On April 18, 1819, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes was born in Bayamo, Oriente Province, the son of a wealthy landowner. In 1834 the young Céspedes went to Havana to attend secondary school and later enrolled in the University of Havana. After a short trip to Bayamo to marry his cousin, Maria del Carmen Céspedes, he traveled to Spain. There he received a bachelor of law degree from the University of Barcelona and a doctorate of law from the University of Madrid.

In Spain, Céspedes had his first taste of revolution. The Iberian nation was undergoing a period of political turmoil, and Céspedes joined the conspiratorial...