As Americans prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, backyard barbecues, and patriotic tributes to the nation's Founding Fathers, few know that a group of women in Havana helped finance the military campaign that secured U.S. independence.
Their names have largely disappeared from history books, overshadowed by figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Yet historians say the women of Spanish Cuba played a remarkable role in helping fund the final stages of the American Revolution.
