The Year of the Lash
The Year of the Lash: Free People of Color in Cuba and the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World
MICHELE REID-VAZQUEZ
Series: Early American Places
Copyright Date: 2011
Published by: University of Georgia Press
Pages: 208
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46nn3d
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Book Info
The Year of the Lash
Book Description:

Michele Reid-Vazquez reveals the untold story of the strategies of negotia­tion used by free blacks in the aftermath of the "Year of the Lash"-a wave of repression in Cuba that had great implications for the Atlantic World in the next two decades. At dawn on June 29, 1844, a firing squad in Havana executed ten accused ringleaders of the Conspiracy of La Escalera, an alleged plot to abolish slavery and colonial rule in Cuba. The condemned men represented prominent members of Cuba's free community of African descent, including the acclaimed poet Plácido (Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés). In an effort to foster a white majority and curtail black rebellion, Spanish colonial authorities also banished, imprisoned, and exiled hundreds of free blacks, dismantled the militia of color, and accelerated white immigration projects. Scholars have debated the existence of the Conspiracy of La Escalera for over a century, yet little is known about how those targeted by the violence responded. Drawing on archival material from Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and the United States, Reid-Vazquez provides a critical window into under­standing how free people of color challenged colonial policies of terror and pursued justice on their own terms using formal and extralegal methods. Whether rooted in Cuba or cast into the Atlantic World, free men and women of African descent stretched and broke colonial expectations of their codes of conduct locally and in exile. Their actions underscored how black agency, albeit fragmented, worked to destabilize repression's impact.

eISBN: 978-0-8203-4180-4
Subjects: History, Sociology
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Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-viii)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. ix-x)
  3. Acknowledgments
    Acknowledgments (pp. xi-xvi)
  4. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. 1-16)

    At dawn on June 29, 1844, a firing squad in Havana executed ten accused ringleaders of the Conspiracy of La Escalera, an alleged plot among free people of African descent (libres de color), slaves, creoles, and British abolitionists to end slavery and colonial rule in Cuba. The group of condemned men represented some of the most prominent artisans, property owners, and militia officers within the colony’s free community of color, including the acclaimed poet “Plácido” (Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés).¹ Convinced that recent rebellions involving slaves and free blacks formed part of a larger conspiracy, officials sought out its leaders...

  5. 1 “Very Prejudicial”: Free People of Color in a Slave Society
    1 “Very Prejudicial”: Free People of Color in a Slave Society (pp. 17-41)

    “You will be surprised to observe the number of free blacks and mulattoes,” wrote Abiel Abott, a Massachusetts minister who visited Cuba from February to May 1828 in a quest to improve his lung condition.¹ Numerous travelers, primarily North Americans and Europeans, who regularly selected Cuba as a destination point for enhancing their health, promoting business, comparing slave systems, and sightseeing in the 1820s and 1830s, reiterated Abbot’s observations. In the thriving port city of Havana, visitors noted the black stevedores, sailors, and day workers clustered near the wharf attending disembarking and departing ships and passengers.² They passed artisans and...

  6. 2 Spectacles of Power: Repressing the Conspiracy of La Escalera
    2 Spectacles of Power: Repressing the Conspiracy of La Escalera (pp. 42-67)

    As guards led Plácido (Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés), celebrated Cuban poet, to his death before a firing squad, he reportedly recited verses from his final work, “A Plea to God.”¹ The above excerpt from the poem highlights his grief over the repression of the Escalera revolts and the suffering it caused himself and others. Official allegations and witness testimonies, which accused Plácido of leading a conspiracy, left an “inominous stamp” for all to see. Using words that could be interpreted as either a statement of innocence in the plot or as confirming his actions to abolish slavery and end...

  7. 3 Calculated Expulsions: Free People of Color in Mexico, the United States, Spain, and North Africa
    3 Calculated Expulsions: Free People of Color in Mexico, the United States, Spain, and North Africa (pp. 68-97)

    On March 19, 1844, José Falgueras, president of the Cuban Military Commission, condemned free blacks Anastasio Ramirez, José Castillo, Mateo carabalí, and Alonso lucumí to imprisonment in Ceuta, Spain’s presidio in North Africa. Moreover, the Commission prohibited them from returning to Cuba or Puerto Rico.¹ These men represented the first of hundreds charged as accomplices in the Conspiracy of La Escalera who would suffer the same fate: overseas incarceration and banishment. Colonial authorities did not stop there. Emboldened by torture and terror, the Leopoldo O’Donnell administration unfurled broader plans to further expunge the island of free blacks. In addition to...

  8. 4 Acts of Excess and Insubordination: Resisting the Tranquillity of Terror
    4 Acts of Excess and Insubordination: Resisting the Tranquillity of Terror (pp. 98-116)

    As the Military Commission sentencing came to a close in January 1845, Captain General O’Donnell had begun sending carefully crafted correspondence to the Ultramar affirming Cuba’s peaceful state of affairs. Twenty-two of the twenty-five letters he penned between January and December 1845 asserted the island’s “tranquillity”; all was safe in the colony.¹ Cuban elites especially desired a return to a state of affairs that would further subordinate blacks to whites and displace free black workers, particularly in skilled and domestic urban labor sectors. With this characterization of colonial “normalcy” in mind, Escalera era legislation limited geographic mobility between urban and...

  9. 5 The Rise and Fall of the Militia of Color: From the Constitution of 1812 to the Escalera Era
    5 The Rise and Fall of the Militia of Color: From the Constitution of 1812 to the Escalera Era (pp. 117-145)

    In March 1844, the same month the O’Donnell administration initiated the targeted expulsion of libres de color from Cuba, officials also disarmed moreno and pardo battalions. Over the next few months, the Military Commission trials convicted or detained an array of militiamen as co-conspirators in the Escalera rebellions. Judges accused Ciriaco Consuegra, first corporal in Havana’s moreno battalion, of using subversive language to help foment the conspiracy and had him expelled.¹ They also sentenced African-born Francisco Abrahantes, a lieutenant in the moreno militia, to banishment, but he died in prison before he could be sent into exile. Because of Félix...

  10. 6 Balancing Acts: The Shifting Dynamics of Race and Immigration
    6 Balancing Acts: The Shifting Dynamics of Race and Immigration (pp. 146-172)

    In April 1844, Captain General O’Donnell urgently reminded officials in Spain of the political importance of “sustaining an equilibrium of the castes” in Cuba. In particular, he sought to undermine the positions of “black skilled craftsmen, maids, cooks, and coachmen” and replace them with white workers. He held the same attitude about the agricultural sector, although he conceded that “only Africans” could tolerate Cuba’s harsh, tropical climate. These sentiments, however, would change within a few years. Overall, O’Donnell asserted that augmenting the white population offered two solutions to the problems exacerbated by the Escalera rebellions. First, expanding Cuba’s white sector...

  11. Conclusion
    Conclusion (pp. 173-180)

    “Every visitor to Havana notices the variety in appearance, as well as the numbers of the negro population,” noted American writer Samuel Hazard, who traveled to Cuba in late 1860s. Englishman Henry Latham not only reiterated these sentiments but offered a positive appraisal of black residents. After touring American East and Gulf Coast port cities in 1867, he observed, “The condition of the negro population in this city [of Havana] strikes one at the first glance as being better, as far as material comfort goes, than in any part of the United States…. The splendid apparel of some of the...

  12. Notes
    Notes (pp. 181-222)
  13. Bibliography
    Bibliography (pp. 223-244)
  14. Index
    Index (pp. 245-251)
  15. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 252-252)
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