Itineraries of Freedom Revolutionary Travels and Slave Emancipation in Colombia and the Greater Caribbean
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Itineraries of Freedom Revolutionary Travels and Slave Emancipation in Colombia and the Greater Caribbean. 1789-1830 by Edgardo A. Pérez Morales A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee: Professor Rebecca J. Scott, Co-Chair Professor Richard L. Turits, Co-Chair Professor Jean M. Hébrard, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Professor Javier Sanjinés Professor Julius S. Scott Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the help and friendship of individuals and institutions in Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Jamaica, Spain, and the United States, especially Ada Ferrer, Ángela Pérez Villa, Anthony Ross, Armando Martínez Garnica, Ben Cronin, Carly Steinberger, Daniel Gutiérrez Ardila, David Schlitt, Eric Schewe, Graham Nessler, Guillermo Bustos, Javier Sanjinés, Jean Hébrard, Jean- Frédérique Schaub, Jeremy Ledger, Juan David Montoya Guzmán, Juan Sebastián Gómez González, Julius Scott, Katerine Bolívar Acevedo, Luis Ervin Prado Arellano, Luis Miguel Córdoba Ochoa, Marial Iglesias Utset, Marisol Salamanca Guzmán, Michael Leese, Michael Zeuske, Natalie Zemon Davis, Orián Jiménez Meneses, Orlando García Martínez, Oscar Almario García, Paulina Alberto, Rebecca Scott, Reinaldo Funes Monzote, Richard Turits, Roberto Luis Jaramillo, Susan Juster, Zoraida Arcila Aristizábal, The University of Michigan, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii List of Figures v Introduction: From the Antilles to the Andes 1 Chapter 1. Landscapes of slavery, rumors of freedom 16 The French scare 19 Cartagena and the phantom of “French Negros” 27 Antioquia and the “candanga” affair 34 Popayán and the “Black Queen” in the Americas 47 Chapter 2. The unwritten pact 55 The land and the slaves 58 The unwritten pact unmade 65 Tribunes of the plebs 72 A double-edged sword 82 From emancipation to abolition 90 Chapter 3. The first blast of the cannons 96 Friend or foe? 98 The King’s slave 103 “Supreme obligation” 112 The revolution of Popayán 119 Chapter 4. Privateer Republics 128 Freedom at sea 132 The revolution of Cartagena 138 A privateer republic against Spain 149 From Cartagena to the Gulf of Mexico 153 Mutiny and fire 158 iii Chapter 5. “Bonded Freedom” 164 Young rebels 166 The revolution of Antioquia 171 “Free womb” 178 Patriots and royalists at war 186 The specter of re-enslavement 194 Crime and punishment? 204 Chapter 6. Itinerant citizens, agents of revolution 209 A thwarted conspiracy 213 Colombia: the idea and the Republic 221 Citizen and colonel 223 Soldier and sibling 229 The uses of citizenship 233 Unfulfilled prophecies 236 Chapter 7. “The colossus of aristocracy” 241 Republicanism and aristocracy 244 Marronage and collectivism 253 Seigneurial memories 258 The last hopes of the masters 264 Epilogue 272 Figures 276 Sources and Bibliography 285 iv List of Figures Figure 1. Tierra Firme and the Greater Caribbean 276 Figure 2. Caribbean Colombia 277 Figure 3. The Mining Districts of the Province of Popayán 278 Figure 4. Approximate Location of San Bartolomé de la Honda, South of Mompós 279 Figure 5. Privateer Vessels of the State of Cartagena 280 Figure 6. Petition of José María Martínez 283 Figure 7. The Magdalena River 284 v Introduction: From the Antilles to the Andes Colonel William Duane of Philadelphia, a Jeffersonian journalist, printer and bookseller, was one of the first foreigners to visit the Republic of Colombia. He traveled to this recently founded South American republic in 1822 to legally represent American businessmen in the justice tribunals. On his way back to the United States, as he glided down the Magdalena River on a wooden boat, Duane saw the physical and social landscape of a country born out of the ashes of war. En route, Duane passed by the town of Tenerife. The desolate aspect of the town impressed Duane. He later wrote in his memoir that Tenerife was “an utter wreck; the havoc of artillery was fresh as the day after the assault […] the timbers of the roofs stood in all directions, as if an explosion took place a week before, and of all lengths and magnitudes, doors and windows gave every attitude of which ruin, and military ruin especially, is so ingenious in forming.”1 A battle had taken place in Tenerife on June 25, 1820.2 The town was just one of the many places in northern South America, then known as Tierra Firme, where military confrontations occurred during the Wars of Independence (1811-1821) 1 William Duane, A Visit to Colombia, in the Years 1822 & 1823, by Laguayra and Caracas, Over the Cordillera to Bogota, and Thence by the Magdalena to Cartagena (Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas H. Palmer, for the author, 1826), 604. 2 José Manuel Restrepo, Historia de la revolución de la república de Colombia en la América meridional (Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia, 2009, 1st. ed., 1827, 2nd. ed., 1858), vol. II, 30-32. 1 (See Figures 1 and 2). This conflict transformed the Spanish viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada and the Captaincy General of Venezuela into the independent Republic of Colombia, which encompassed modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panamá, and Venezuela. Colombia held its first legislative congress, known as the Congress of Cúcuta, in 1821.3 Duane, who had lived in Ireland, England and had travelled to India, strongly supported the cause of Spanish American independence. While in Colombia, he spoke to many veterans of the war and gathered some of their stories. On board his boat, Duane saw an oarsman of African descent who had the experience of war inscribed on his body. As a slave, the man had fought with the revolutionaries, who promised freedom to those willing to join their cause. The former slave bore a scar on his abdomen from the battle of Tenerife. His body appeared as “if it had been ripped open from the left hip to beneath the right armpit.” Miraculously recovered from his wound, the veteran told Duane “here I am,” and laughed and expressed “gratitude and delight” as he retold his battle story.4 On May of 1823, just days before setting sail for the United Sates, Duane passed by the village of Ternera, not far from the Caribbean port city of Cartagena 3 José Manuel Restrepo, Historia, 2 vols.; Actas del Congreso de Cúcuta, 1821 (Bogotá: Biblioteca de la Presidencia de la República, 1989), 3 vols. The shorter name of “New Granada” was not in use until the revolutionary period. The viceroyalty, also referred to by people at the time as the New Kingdom, or simply the Kingdom, had been created in 1739. Also known as the viceroyalty of Santafé after the name of its capital city, this Spanish polity was described in detail before the revolutions by the Bourbon bureaucrat Francisco Silvestre, “Apuntes reservados particulares y generales del estado actual del Virreinato de Santafé de Bogotá […]”, 1789, Germán Colmenares, ed., Relaciones e informes de los gobernantes de la Nueva Granada (Bogotá: Biblioteca Banco Popular, 1989), vol. II, 35-152. For a comprehensive introduction to the history of the viceroyalty see Anthony McFarlane, Colombia Before Independence. Economy, Society, and Politics Under Bourbon Rule (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993). 4 William Duane, A Visit, 606. 2 de Indias. In Ternera, he saw washerwomen who offered their services to military personnel, “with their elbows in the suds narrating the battles of their lovers, or chanting an eulogistic canta or an aria on Bolívar.”5 Indeed, the name of Simón Bolívar, the President of the Republic, officially named El Libertador --the liberator--, was known by virtually everyone and celebrated by many. Those who could not read or write remembered Bolívar in their own way. They also recalled the founding events of the Republic, their participation in the battles, and other important events of the time. The scarred oarsman who spoke to Duane had obtained freedom after serving in the military and seemed happy to have participated in the war. But not all slaves had been emancipated after Independence. One of the foundational laws of the Republic, Law 7 passed by the Congress of Cúcuta on July 21, 1821, decreed that all children of slave women would henceforth be born free. However, this legislation did not grant freedom to those already living in bondage. In 1821, there were about forty-eight thousands slaves in Colombia. Around nineteen thousand of them (39%) achieved emancipation through the mechanisms established by Law 7. Around twenty nine thousand slaves (60%) never achieved emancipation. Most of them died while in slavery. A few hundred escaped or were sold into slavery outside of Colombia.6 5 William Duane, A Visit, 620. 6 “Ley 7-Julio 21 de 1821,” Recopilación de leyes de la Nueva Granada. Formada i publicada en cumplimiento de la lei de 4 de Mayo de 1843 i por comisión del poder ejecutivo por Lino de Pombo, miembro del Senado (Bogotá: Imprenta de Zoilo Salazar, por Valentín Martínez, 1845), 104; Jorge Andrés Tovar Mora and Hermes Tovar Pinzón, El oscuro camino de la libertad. Los esclavos en Colombia, 1821-1851 (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2009), 90. 3 For most slaves, lives remained much the same after Independence. A slave on a sugar cane hacienda, for instance, who was born in Africa and spoke “the dialect of the British West Indies,” lamented to Duane that his enslavement would continue, while his children were free according to the new legislation. The slave “thought every hour of his life a misery, of which he said he was tired -- «Why do I toil? -- To me this plantation is as the whole world -- and nothing to hope!».”7 However, many of those in bondage, ever since the late eighteenth century, had predicted that an end of slavery was on the way.