Blackwell Reference Online

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From the 1790s the Haitian Revolution and the ambition of freedom for all echoed throughout the Atlantic world, providing comfort and hope for the abolition of slavery to Africans seeking freedom, equality, and self-determination from European colonial rule. José Leonardo Chirinos, or Zambo Chirinos, was eyewitness to the Haitian Revolution as a free Afro-Venezuelan in the employ of an affluent merchant. As a first-hand observer of the Haitian liberation, Chirinos found the experience a foundation for leading the movement to advance Afro-Venezuelan rights and establish universal principles of equality while freeing Venezuela from Spanish colonial rule. The son of an Afro-Venezuelan father and indigenous mother, Chirinos was not born into servitude. As a worker for José Tellería, a rich merchant and attorney of Coro, Venezuela, Chirinos was brought on the voyage to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1794 while African slaves in the colony were in open revolt against the French colonial slave system. During his visit, Chirinos was introduced to rebels fighting for the abolition of slavery, equality, and later, independence from France. Upon his return to Venezuela in March 1795, a highly politicized Chirinos sought to advance the goal of ending the slavery of Afro-Venezuelans and ending Spanish colonial rule, joining with fellow Afro-Venezuelan revolutionaries in Curimagua, Falcón, a farm ... log in or subscribe to read full text