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Zoom afrodiaspores: A page from Antonio Parra’s Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natural las mas del ramo maritimo, published in Havana in 1787. This catalogue of Caribbean fish was the first scientific treatise printed in Cuba. Its author, Antonio Parra, was a Portuguese amateur naturalist and long-term resident of Havana. At the end of the book he decided to include three engravings illustrating a case of elephantiasis in an African slave. It is clear that these images were added to the text in an attempt to capitalize on their shock value. Identified as Domingo Fernández, 32, coachman, born in the Congo, this was one of the first Caribbean slaves to be portrayed in purely clinical terms. Exploited as a medical specimen, Fernández’s status within our story of transatlantic circulations remains ambiguous. In 1812, the Spanish colonial authorities launched an offensive against a group of free blacks who were planning a slave uprising in Cuba. In the house of José Antonio Aponte, accused of leading the rebellion, they found a copy of this book alongside portraits of Toussaint Louverture, Henri Christophe, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

afrodiaspores:

A page from Antonio Parra’s Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natural las mas del ramo maritimo, published in Havana in 1787.

This catalogue of Caribbean fish was the first scientific treatise printed in Cuba. Its author, Antonio Parra, was a Portuguese amateur naturalist and long-term resident of Havana. At the end of the book he decided to include three engravings illustrating a case of elephantiasis in an African slave. It is clear that these images were added to the text in an attempt to capitalize on their shock value. Identified as Domingo Fernández, 32, coachman, born in the Congo, this was one of the first Caribbean slaves to be portrayed in purely clinical terms. Exploited as a medical specimen, Fernández’s status within our story of transatlantic circulations remains ambiguous. In 1812, the Spanish colonial authorities launched an offensive against a group of free blacks who were planning a slave uprising in Cuba. In the house of José Antonio Aponte, accused of leading the rebellion, they found a copy of this book alongside portraits of Toussaint Louverture, Henri Christophe, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

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