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Florida Fallen: Spanish East Florida, the Cuban Negro Militia

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Florida Fallen: Spanish East Florida, the Cuban Negro Militia FLORIDA FALLEN: SPANISH EAST FLORIDA, THE CUBAN NEGRO MILITIA AND THE FAILURE OF THE BOURBON REFORMS, 1812-1821 by ALEJANDRO JOSE GOMEZ-DEL-MORAL (Under the Direction of Thomas L. Whigham) ABSTRACT Throughout the eighteenth century, the Spanish Bourbon Crown ordered a series of reforms– the Bourbon Reforms –intended to strengthen Spain’s position both in Iberia and its colonies. Among the institutions reformed was the Cuban Negro Militia, which then served in Spanish East Florida shortly before its annexation by the United States. This study has two aims: first, it explores the underlying causes of Spain’s loss of Florida and, more broadly, the loss of its other New World colonies – the failure of the Bourbon Reforms – through the militia’s eyes. It develops a new model with which to view the limitations of the reforms and the fall of Florida. This study also considers the militia’s tenure in Florida, particularly its desertions, as a microcosm of a larger breakdown in race relations taking place in the Spanish Caribbean, and argues that, far from being criminals, militia deserters had compelling reasons to flee. INDEX WORDS: Cuban Negro Militia, East Florida, Spanish Florida, Bourbon Reforms, Race, History, Cuba, Spain, Caribbean Africans, Situado, New Spain, New Granada, Peru, Aponte FLORIDA FALLEN: SPANISH EAST FLORIDA, THE CUBAN NEGRO MILITIA AND THE FAILURE OF THE BOURBON REFORMS, 1812-1821 by ALEJANDRO JOSE GOMEZ-DEL-MORAL B.A., Amherst College, 2003 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2007 © 2007 Alejandro Jose Gomez-del-Moral All Rights Reserved FLORIDA FALLEN: SPANISH EAST FLORIDA, THE CUBAN NEGRO MILITIA AND THE FAILURE OF THE BOURBON REFORMS, 1812-1821 by ALEJANDRO JOSE GOMEZ-DEL-MORAL Major Professor: Thomas L. Whigham Committee: Benjamin Ehlers Reinaldo Román Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2007 DEDICATION For Kat, the love of my life, and for my mother, to whom I owe it. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first of all like to thank my fiancée and soon-to-be-wife, Kat Mahaney, who offered me incalculable moral support, held our house and lives together while I immersed myself in this project and has been entirely too patient with me. I would like to thank my parents, Alasdair Ritchie and María de Lourdes Guerra, for their crucial work in pushing me to work hard, think critically and be ambitious – I imagine that, without their influence, I might be in a very different and far less enjoyable line of work. I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Thomas Whigham, for his sense of humor, his forthright comments (they have been appreciated) and his periodic assurances that my thesis was, in fact, not worthless. I would like to thank Professor David Roberts for his guidance throughout my time at the University of Georgia; if I can be half the historian he is, I will consider myself fortunate. Finally, I would like to thank Carla Buss, James Cusick, Bruce Chappell and the rest of the staff at the University of Georgia Reference Desk and the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History without whose help I could not have done this. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS ....................................................................17 A History of Spanish Florida.......................................................................17 The Cuban Negro Militia and East Florida .................................................27 The Bourbon Reforms in Spanish America ................................................31 Conclusions .................................................................................................38 2 DESERTION: EAST FLORIDA’S PERNICIOUS TREND ..........................41 Desertion in the Spanish Colonies and Beyond ..........................................43 Desertion in the Cuban Negro Militia .........................................................49 Desertion among the White Regulars..........................................................55 Destinations.................................................................................................61 Conclusions .................................................................................................67 3 DISEASE AND WANT IN SPANISH FLORIDA .........................................69 Disease.........................................................................................................72 Material Conditions among the Cuban Negro Militia.................................88 vi Material Conditions and the White Garrison ..............................................95 Conclusions ...............................................................................................107 4 THE FAILURE OF THE BOURBON REFORMS.......................................109 Declining Finances in East Florida ...........................................................112 The Depósito de Subvención de Guerra....................................................133 Lenience and Desertion in East Florida ....................................................136 Financial Troubles, Lenience and the Spanish Caribbean ........................140 Conclusions ...............................................................................................145 5 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................149 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................158 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1: Third Battalion of Cuba Troop Size .................................................................57 Table 4.1: Treasury Monthly Ending Balances, June and December 1810.....................126 Table 4.2: Treasury Balances for Select Months, 1811...................................................127 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1: Conflicting Claims over Florida......................................................................20 Figure 2.1: Average Percentage of Desertions by Company (1813 excepted)..................51 Figure 3.1: Militiaman, Moreno Infantry Battalion of Havana .........................................70 Figure 3.2: Volunteer in White Infantry Regiment of Havana ..........................................70 Figure 4.1: Example of an Arcas Record, dated November 30, 1792 .............................116 Figure 4.2: Example of an Estado Mensual Record, dated 31 August, 1817..................117 Figure 4.3: Liquid Funds in St. Augustine Treasury, 1806-1817 ....................................119 Figure 4.4: Liquid Funds in St. Augustine Treasury, 1818-1821 ....................................120 Figure 4.5: Detail of Liquid Funds in St. Augustine Treasury, 1806-1817.....................121 Figure 4.6: Percentage of Liquid Funds Discounted, 1806-1818 ....................................124 Figure 4.7: Funds in the Depósito de Subvención de Guerra Fund, 1806-1818 .............125 ix INTRODUCTION JULIAN ACOSTA AND THE LOSS OF THE FLORIDAS On 9 July 1819, Julian Acosta faced trial. Acosta, a militiaman in the fourth company of the Battalion of Pardos of Havana, stood accused of repeated desertion: on the fifth of that month, he had abandoned his company’s post in St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish East Florida.1 Acosta, the court maintained, had also tried to flee military service on 1 October of the previous year, while still stationed in Cuba. His more recent desertion was undeniable - he had been caught twenty-two miles from the fort only three days before his trial began. Realizing, perhaps, that evasion would avail him little, Acosta offered his motives in lieu of a defense. He complained that he had been “shamed and abused” by a Sergeant Mauricio Gomes, and that he “lacked clothes”. As for the earlier desertion charge, Acosta suggested the possibility of a bureaucratic error, and argued that he could not possibly have deserted in Cuba on the alleged date, as he was en route to Pensacola then, and was later a prisoner in American New Orleans.2 The militiaman faced almost certain conviction on both counts. His defense against the charge of previous desertion did not hold: Acosta mentioned two fellow passengers aboard the Pensacola-bound gunboat María, Sub-lieutenants José Insunsa and 1 Several Spanish racial euphemisms pervade this study. In the interests of clarity, they should be defined before proceeding any further. Pardos like Julian Acosta were individuals of mixed white and black heritage, or mulattos. A moreno was a free individual of exclusively African descent. Finally, a casta was any individual of even partial non-white heritage, including both of the above categories as well as mestizos, mixed Amerindian-Europeans. 2 Testimony for Trial of Julian Acosta, Records of Court-Martials, 1785-1821, section 64, microfilm reel 120, East Florida Papers (hereafter cited as EFP), P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History,
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