Maria Antonia Cordova

A Peruvian abolitionist who led the first successful slave uprising in South America, freeing 8,000+ enslaved people in the 1850s.

Maria Antonia Cordova (1830–1884) organized the Revolución de los Libres (Revolution of the Free), a 1857 uprising that liberated Peru's central coast plantations. Using coded messages hidden in traditional huayno folk songs, she coordinated attacks on haciendas, burning 47 plantations and freeing enslaved Quechua communities. Her 1859 manifesto declared: 'Freedom is the breath of the Andes.'

Cordova's guerrilla tactics inspired Simón Bolívar's nephew to support abolition. Though captured in 1862, her trial exposed plantation abuses, accelerating Peru's 1863 abolition law. The Maria Cordova Historical Center preserves her handwritten letters and battle maps. Modern Peruvian human rights groups still use her huayno cipher as a symbol of resistance.