The Manifesto of October 10 is a document proclaimed by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo (Father of the Fatherland) on October 10, 1868, which expressed the reasons why Cubans wanted to separate from Spain.
Céspedes had traveled across part of Europe and forged a revolutionary consciousness and an academic and political formation that allowed him to organize the armed struggle against Spanish colonialism and conceive a guide to lead the necessary war, which was this valuable document, that became the Program of the Revolution of 1868.
It expresses the causes or reasons why Cubans engage in struggle by stating: “… Spain governs Cuba with a bloody iron arm…”. He also denounced that Cubans were not granted the right to assemble except in the presence of a Spanish official, they were deprived of freedom of expression and religious beliefs.
The Manifesto of October 10 states that Cubans had no personal ambitions, that the war is not against Spain, but against Spanish colonial exploitation, so they only aspired to independence of Cuba. It also stated that they aspired a gradual emancipation and under the compensation of slavery.
On the other hand, this document proclaimed the unshakable decision of Cubans to die rather than to give up being free; and in it the people gathered were called brothers, recognizing the equality without distinction of color prevailing at that time.
The Manifesto of October 10 was a stimulus for all patriots in their fight against Spanish colonial rule.