Rumors of Change Repercussions of Caribbean Turmoil and Social Conflicts in Venezuela (1790-1810)

by

Mara Cristina Soriano

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History New York University September, 2011

_____________________________________ Sinclair Thomson, Dissertation Advisor

UMI Number: 3486820

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 Mara Cristina Soriano All rights Reserved, 2011

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DEDICATION

For Julio

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In a project ranging over six years and innumerable sites of research and discussions, more debts have been incurred that I can possibly hope to acknowledge. I have benefitted from the support of many institutions and individuals. This project has been made possible thanks to the support of the Centro de Estudios Hispnicos e Iberoamericanos that allowed me to travel to Seville to pursue part of the archival research. I am also grateful for receiving the support of the Warren Dean Fellowship of the History Department at New York University, and a fellowship from the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. I am especially grateful with the Frank Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Award, which supported me during the lasts years of writing. My Committee members have been inspiring models of scholarship and teaching, and I am grateful for their patient and thoughtful mentorship. My advisor Sinclair Thomson has been supportive and challenging in his guidance, he has been a thoughtful coach, providing me encouragement and assistance throughout my whole career. Ramn Aizpura was the first teacher I actually met at a History department, he has seen this project evolve from my undergraduate interests in the history of reading in Caracas and has given me incredible support as it has transformed. I wish to be able to replicate his generosity and honest research. Ada Ferrer and Sybille Fischer have been wonderful sources of inspiration; they have helped me, directly and

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indirectly, to hone my ideas into stronger arguments. Greg Grandin has been an amazing teacher and an incredible example of an engaged Latin Americanist researcher. I very much appreciate the professionalism, knowledge, and assistance of librarians and archivists in the following repositories: the Archivo General de Indias in Seville and the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, the Archivo General de la Nacin, Archivo Arquideocesano, and the Biblioteca Nacional in Caracas. In the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, I had the pleasure to meet the historian and curator of the Latin American collection, Ken Ward who was and continues to be particularly generous and supportive. I have also contracted numerous debts at New York University. I had the fortune of sharing graduate courses with a wonderful group of people, including Michelle Chase, Marcela Echeverri, Michelle Thompson, Aisha Finch, Edwina AisheNikoi, Tanya Huelett, Natasha Lightfood, and Ramn Suarez. All of them made my New York phase a wonderful experience at a personal and academic level. While at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, I found support, comprehension and generosity in my colleagues at the Department of Archeology and Historical Anthropology, Professors Emanuele Amodio, Kay Tarble, Luis Molina and Rodrigo Navarrete. During the last five years I have had the great opportunity of sharing my findings, interpretations, and thoughts with a wonderful group of students that have been tremendously generous and have allowed me to enjoy the experience of

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teaching. I am especially thankful to Rommy Durn, Germn Daz, Dejaneth Ruza and Steven Schwartz. Dejaneth and Steven participated as research assistants in two different moments of this project, their support came in when I needed it the most, and I am grateful for the opportunity of having such great young researchers working with me. The entire dissertation was written in Caracas, and although I enjoyed been close to the archives, I did struggle with my English grammar and writing style, I highly appreciate the generous and detailed editing of Professor Dick Parker. My friends have often saved me from the isolation and loneliness typical of dissertation writers. I especially thank Krisna Ruette, Yoly Velandria, Marcia Lpez, Gabriela Sucre and Claudia Cordido for their emotional support, patience and enduring friendship. My parents-in-law, Irving and Ins Pea, have been amazing grandparents and have offered their help whenever I needed it. My sisters and brothers: Luis and Rebeca, Carolina and Luis Alfredo, Coco and Valentina, always brought joy to my existence in the last six years, I cherish their company and fraternal love. I owe a profound gratitude to my parents, Amilcar and Myriam Soriano, for their support, thoughtful guidance and help taking care of my children whenever I needed it. I also thank them for not asking too often when I was going to finish this project, they knew I would. Julio already knows the place he holds in my heart, but I want to publicly thank him for the many choices he has made that have allowed us to be a two-career family. He has been the most supportive partner I could have ever wished for, and I

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am grateful for every day we share together. My kids, Vicente and Lucia were born at the beginning of this project, and have grown with it. They have taught me to cope with motherhood and research, and today I found both experiences nourishing and compatible, I profoundly thank them for teaching me this great lesson. With them I have become a bedtime storyteller; today I am convinced that these are the stories I want to tell: the stories of the men and the women of my country, Venezuela, that have lived, dreamed, and struggled with the hope that someday their stories would be told. This is my contribution.

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ABSTRACT My dissertation explores the effects of Caribbean rumors of revolution in the political culture and social setting of Venezuelas slave-based society during the late colonial period. I explore how Venezuelan masters, free-blacks, and slaves received, transformed, and circulated representations of the turbulent Caribbean in the Province of Venezuela and analyze the multiple ways through which this knowledge in the form of rumors, gossip, verbal enunciations, illustrations, and pamphlets transformed social relations among diverse social groups, and prompted violent responses, rebellions, and political instability. My dissertation examines the sources of information, webs of communication, and media that contributed to the development of collective movements against the political elite and the colonial government, such as the black rebellion of Coro in 1795 and the Conspiracy of La Guaira in 1797. I argue that new practices and media created more open and contested spaces for dominant groups and subalterns to express their political ideas, social values and to negotiate. I have found that in the confrontational social setting of the late eighteenth century, the turbulent Caribbean was a discursive fulcrum that allowed coloreds to challenge elites, using white fear to advance their demands. It also gave the elites cause for exercising tighter control over subalterns, and made them reconsider their relations with them, undermining their confidence in their slaves. The colonial authorities, in particular, became more aware of the need of keeping blacks of the region contented while controlling the potential

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emergence of new subversive movements, and restricting their participation in the political sphere.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES iii iv viii xiv xv

CHAPTER I 1. An Unthinkable Event became possible: The Haitian Revolution, was it really silenced? 2. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution and Social Mobilizations: Historiographic Trends 3. A Fragile Harmony: Social Frictions in Colonial Venezuela (1770-1810) 4. Methodological Approach and Historical Sources

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26 45

CHAPTER II The Revolutions on Paper: Transmission of Political Knowledge and the Interfaces Between the Oral and the Written Communication in Colonial Venezuela 54

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1. Transmission of Political Knowledge: From the History of Books to the History of Reading 2. Books, Readers and Reading Practices in Colonial Venezuela 3. Prohibited Readings, the State and the Inquisition 4. Social Control of Plebian Reading 5. The Written Expansion of a Revolutionary Disease: Texts from France and Saint-Domingue in Venezuela, 1789-1810 6. Forbidden Texts and Readers of Color 92 116 54 63 83 86

CHAPTER III Voices and Rumors in Tierra Firme: Visitors, Fugitives and Prisoners of the French Caribbean in Venezuela (1789-1799) 1. Caribbean Communication Networks during the Age of Revolution 2. Controlling Suspicious French Visitors 3. The Presence of Fugitive Slaves and Maritime Maroons 4. The Impact of French Caribbean Militiamen and Colored Prisoners in the Coast of Caracas (1793-1796) 158 124

124 132 144

CHAPTER IV The Menace: Representations of Saint-Domingue in the Black Rebellion of Coro, 1795 1. The Historiography of the Rebellion of Coro 2. La Serrana de Coro in 1795 180 181 193

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3. Narratives of an Event: The Rebellion 4. Saint-Domingue as a Language of Contention

208 235

CHAPTER V Texts, Readings and Social Networks in the Conspiracy of La Guaira, 1797 1.The Revolutionary Port of La Guaira: Social Groups, Reading Circles, and the Emergence of a Conspiracy 2. Books and Manuscripts in the Conspiracy of La Guaira, 1797-1799 2.1. Prohibited Books in the Libraries of the Conspirators 2.2. The Texts Produced by the Conspirators of La Guaira, 1797 253 276 278 290 243

CHAPTER VI The Intensification of the Haitian Revolution and its Impact in Venezuelan Colonial Society 1. We can not trust black slaves anymore Contestation and Negotiation between White Elites and Black Subalterns 2. Toussaint Invades Santo Domingo: The Presence of Spanish Dominican Families in Venezuela and their Stories of Chaos 323 303 303

Epilogue The Political Use of The Haitian Revolution in Colonial Venezuela 348

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

354

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LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3.

Map of the Venezuela and the Caribbean Map of General Captaincy of Venezuela (1777 1810) Map of the Province of Caracas or Venezuela (1777 1810)

6 30 41

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.

Number of Dominicans in Maracaibo, January 1801 March 1801

336

CHAPTER I

1. An unthinkable event became possible: The Haitian Revolution, was it really silenced?

In December 1789, the members of the Real Audiencia of Caracas met in order to discuss the advantages and disadvantages that the Cdigo Negrero of 1789 would bring to the Province of Venezuela.1 In the opinion of some of the members of the Audiencia, the slaves of the Province were well attended and the treatment of them could hardly be improved. In fact, they believed that the recent slave uprisings had more to do with the generous attitude of local masters than with any harsh treatment. They thought that slaves rebelled because they wanted freedom and not because of unfair or improper treatments from their masters. 2 The white elite of Caracas, represented by the Audiencia, concluded that improving the treatment and education
1

The Cdigo Negrero was a Royal Decree that sought to regulate and control the treatment of slaves by their Spanish American masters. See Real Cdula sobre Educacin, trato y ocupaciones de los esclavos en todos los dominios e Islas de Filipinas (Mayo, 1789), Archivo General de Indias (AGI-Sevilla), Indiferente General, 802. For an understanding of the repercussions of the Edict in Colonial Spanish America see Jos Torre Revello, Origen y aplicacin del cdigo negrero en Amrica Espaola (17881794), Boletn del Instituto de Investigaciones histricas XI, Vol. XV, no. 53 (1932): 42-50. For a comprehension of its effects in colonial Venezuela see Ildefonso Leal, La aristocracia criolla y el cdigo negrero de 1789, Revista de Historia 26, no. 1 (1961): 61-81. During the decade of 1780 some uprisings and cumbes of free-blacks and slaves took place in diverse regions of the Province of Venezuela, especially in the coastal region where many haciendas were established; these uprisings preoccupied elites and officials who discussed all the possible circumstances and reasons that motivated blacks to rebel. See Lucas G. Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1981) and Lucas G. Castillo Lara, Curiepe, orgenes histricos (Caracas: Biblioteca de Autores y Temas Mirandinos, 1981). This latter work is based on a chapter in the first book.

of the slaves would give them greater hope for freedom, and that finally the abolition of slavery would mean the end of the elites social order and economic privileges. In an interesting document, the members of the Cabildo (City Council) stated that if they applied the Black Code:
The economy would perish, slaves would definitely lose all respect and consideration for their masters, and it would not be surprising if a general uprising occurred, because this [the code] would awake in them a sort of independence and libertinage that would lead to a general uprising in the Province, with the killing of all the whites, and with the slaves becoming masters of the country.3

Apparently, the spread of rumors about the consequences of the application of the Black Code provoked the different reactions among diverse social groups: the white elites feared the loss of the province and of their lives, while the slaves wanted their definitive freedom.4 Many white landowners and masters sought out members of the Audiencia to discuss the negative consequences of applying the Black Code. The Audiencia, then, decided to apply the Royal Decree but without any hurry, and making use of measures capable of slowly cooling down the ardent spirits.5 However, rumors about the Royal Decree and the Audiencia resolutions spread in the city of Caracas. Free blacks and slaves not only heard about the benefits
3

La economa perecera, los esclavos definitivamente perderan todo respeto por sus amos. Y Nada extrao tendra que ocurriera un levantamiento general, pues se despertara en ellos una especie de libertinaje e independencia que no tardar mucho se alcen en la Provincia, acaben con todos los blancos, y se hagan seores del Pas, in Leal, La aristocracia criolla, 68. Representacin de la Real Audiencia al Rey sobre Real Cdula de trato de esclavos de 1789, Diciembre, 1789 AGI-Sevilla, Caracas, 167, no. 44. El Tribunal se propuso llevar adelante la execucin decretada de la Real Cdula, pero sin apresuramiento, y por unos medios capaces de resfriar lentamente el ardor, Ibid.

fictitious or not of the code, they also knew that the elites were emphatically rejecting it. In June 1790, three pamphlets were found in the central plaza of Caracas and another close to the Church of San Francisco, all of them reproducing the same message with a childish and clumsy calligraphy:
The Real Cedula that has come from His Majesty in favor of us, the slaves, will be published more by obligation than by the willingness of the whites and the Real Audiencia.6

In the pamphlet, there was an illustration showing a black man with a machete in his right hand, and a small white man in his left hand. Members of the Audiencia debated the possible authorship of these written messages, wondering if they were written by blacks or by idle and evil people insisting in provoking a black uprising, introducing mistrust, where it should not exist. This pre-Haitian Revolution image, created or not by black authors, reflects in my opinion the unstable and tense relations that existed in the Province between masters and slaves - and more generally between whites, free blacks and mixed-race pardos - during the last decades of the eighteenth century. It is interesting to note that these pamphlets circulated a year before the first uprisings in Saint-Domingue. Evidently, the idea of a slave uprising with

The complete original text says: Que desgracias, Que de llantos, que de muertes, la culpa yo bien la se hellace declaraba. Se ace saber al publico como hestamos citados para que la Real Cedula que a venido de S.M. a favor de nosotros los esclavos ce publique mas a fuerza que con voluntad de los blancos y de la Real Audiencia cin senalar dia ni hora a pesar de todos los blancos y blancas de esta ciudad de Caracas, (9 de mayo de 1790). See AGI, Caracas, 167.

revolutionary consequences7 in Spanish America was not as unthinkable as Michel Trouillot has presented it: in the Province of Venezuela, white masters indeed imagined a scenario in which slaves could rebel, exterminate all whites, and become masters of the country, while slaves could have distributed written messages and illustrations implying violent threats to their white masters. The events of SaintDomingue in 1791 would later reinforce these violent images in the minds of whites, blacks, and pardos, radicalizing their tensions and social interactions.8 During the last decade of the eighteenth century, there were various slave, freeblack rebellions and other mixed-race conspiracies in the Province of Venezuela that revealed the vulnerability and unstable character of the colonial regime, together with

7 8

Such as the assassination of all whites and blacks assuming the rule of the Province.

In his book Silencing the Past, Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997), historian Michel Trouillot argues that in spite of eighteenth century philosophical debates and the rise of abolitionism, the Haitian Revolution was unthinkable in the West because it challenged slavery and racism in unexpected ways. Sybille Fischer, on the contrary, argues that in Europe a slave revolution was not as unthinkable as Trouillot has argued; in her opinion, utopian novels, such as Lan 2440 (Louis-Sebastien Mercier, 1771) show that the idea of a slave revolution was perfectly available but expressed itself,, largely in utopias, fears, and fantasies. See Sybille Fischer, Modernity Disavowed, Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 291292. Following Fischer, I suggest that this characterization of an unthinkable event becomes even more implausible in colonial America, where slavery was a tangible reality and masters and slaves every-day lives and representations were shaped by the slavery system itself. There are documents, as the one I mention here, that show how white masters feared a possible slave revolution. However, from a subaltern perspective, we must inquire if a slave revolution was also thinkable for the slaves themselves. Most of them could not write at all, and could not leave any records, but this does not mean that they could not have imagined a revolution. As Sybille Fischer comments: If we truly believe that Haiti was unthinkable, we implicitly (and paradoxically) accept that the history of the West can continue to be written without Haiti and revolutionary slaves. See Sybille Fischer, Unthinkable History? Some Reflections on the Haitian Revolution, Historiography, and Modernity on the Periphery, in A Companion to African American Studies, vol. 2, eds. Lewis Gordon and Jane Gordon (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2006), 360-379, 365.

the slavery system and its racial order.9 The colonial society of the Province of Venezuela was structured upon a hybrid slave/free labor force, and racial struggles complicated its internal relations, promoting a tense social and political environment.10 At the end of the eighteenth century, international circumstances also jeopardized the stability of the Province of Venezuela and fueled social violence.

The black rebellion of Coro (1795), the plot of Gual and Espaa in La Guaira (1797), and the conspiracy of Miranda (1806) are the best known and documented movements against local governments in the Province of Venezuela. Traditional historiography has frequently denominated them as pre-independentist movements, but recently many historians have argued that this retrospective denomination oversimplifies their nature and characteristics. Peter M. McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia (Caracas: Edit. Montevila, 1993); Ramn Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro en 1795: una revisin necesaria, Boletn de la Academia Nacional de la Historia (Caracas), no. 283 (1983): 705-23; Federico Brito Figueroa, El problema tierra y esclavos en la historia de Venezuela (Aragua: Asamblea Legislativa del Edo. Aragua, 1973); Miquel Izard, El miedo a la revolucin: la lucha por la libertad en Venezuela (1777-1830) (Madrid: Tecnos, 1979).

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Figure 1.

The colonization of the Lesser Antilles by non-Iberian European nations during the second half of the seventeenth century allowed the establishment of diverse commercial, social, and information networks that connected different ports and cities

in the circum-Caribbean region.11 As Julius Scott has showed, when the first revolutionary events erupted in France in 1789, European liberal ideas and information about the conflicts generated in the Caribbean islands circulated throughout these networks between different slave societies of the region.12 The events of the French Revolution and its Republican principles were obviously not well received by the Spanish Crown, which developed multiple mechanisms in order to prevent and control the entry of revolutionary books, pamphlets, and news, as well as limiting the access of visitors from France and its colonies to the vast Spanish American territories. In addition, the events of Saint-Domingue in 1791 increased the fear among Spanish authorities and local elites of a slave revolution and gave the opportunity to thousands of slaves and free blacks to imagine different possibilities. Slaves may have seen in Saint-Domingue a model to follow, but pardos, free-blacks, and slaves could also have used these violent events as a powerful reference to reinforce their demands and threaten Spaniards and local whites in order to produce revolutionary transformations, or at least significant reforms. In Venezuela, the flow of information about the first events of the SaintDomingue rebellion was frequent and varied. However, during the first two or three years, the information tended to be vague and repetitive. There were no detailed

11

Robert L. Paquette and Stanley L. Engerman, eds., The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996). Julius Scott III, The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution (PhD diss., Duke University, 1986).

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descriptions of the events, just brief comments that highlighted the violent character of the Guarico uprisings. As Ada Ferrer argues in relation to the news from of SaintDomingue in the island of Cuba, these references suggest that there was a particular type of language for referring to Haiti: it was synthetic and brief, reproduced and repeated over and over again regardless of what may have been going on locally, and regardless of what was going on in Haiti.13 From the beginning, Haiti was decontextualized, used and re-used as a reference for slaves upheavals, black insurrection, material destruction, rape and extreme violence. This decontextualization of Haiti has been often assumed as an act of silencing, since this was the strategy that the colonial powers and local elites used to evade the presence and influences of the revolution.14 However, for other groups, such as the pardos militia members and freeblacks, Haiti represented an opportunity to discuss political agendas and opportunities. Therefore, we should ask: how exactly was Haiti silenced? What did the Haitian Revolution in fact mean in Spanish America for different social groups? These are questions that remain partially unanswered and need to be addressed by Caribbean, Latin American, and Atlantic historians.

13

See Ada Ferrer, Cuba en la sombra de Hait: noticias, sociedad y esclavitud, in Ma. Dolores Gonzlez-Ripoll and others (eds.), El rumor de Hait en Cuba: temor, raza y rebelda, 1789-1844, (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 2004), 179-231. In his book, Michel Trouillot implies that the many and ubiquitous discourses that mentioned and used Haiti also generated silences about it. He proposes that history is as much a matter of silences as it is a matter of mentions, that the operations of imbalanced power relations become written into the very source materials from which historical narratives are produced. See Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 95-107.

14

Ada Ferrer and Sybille Fischer have taken great interest in dissecting this purported silence, and have invited us to consider whether these silences were not quite complete. They have also shown that Haiti spoke through many voices that, in the end, transformed it into a political and historical denial.15 This dissertation delves into the heart of this debate and seeks to analyze what discourses and representations about Haiti circulated in colonial Venezuela, and to illustrate how these led to social and political violence in the local context. In its broadest sense, this study explores the repercussions and effects of Caribbean rumors of rebellion and revolution in the social setting of Venezuelas slave-based societies during the final years of the colonial period. I propose to look into how Venezuelan white masters, pardos, free-blacks, and slaves received, transformed and circulated representations of the turbulent Caribbean in their local context, producing interpretations suited for their own realities. I argue that the external - but nearby - revolutionary circumstances affected the local world of the Province of Venezuela, functioning as a mirror that reflected the significance of its own internal social problems. In my view, the Haitian Revolution and its multiple images and representations reinforced social and racial tensions in the province,
15

See Ada Ferrer, Noticias de Hait en Cuba, Revista de Indias LXIII, no. 229 (2003): 675-94; Temor, poder y esclavitud en Cuba en la poca de la Revolucin Haitiana, in Jos Piqueras (ed.) Las antillas en la Era de las Luces y la Revolucin, (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2005), 67-83; and Cuba en la sombra de Hait: noticias, sociedad y esclavitud. Sybille Fischer, for her part, goes beyond the confines of disciplinary fragmentation and offers a lucid interpretation for understanding the different forms denial can take before there can be any silence. See Fischer, Modernity Disavowed, Introduction, and Unthinkable History? Some Reflections on the Haitian Revolution, Historiography, and Modernity, 365-66.

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changing the way whites saw their slaves, how slaves perceived their masters, and the relations between them. From 1791 to 1799, the anxiety of local authorities increased as news about the insurrection in Saint-Domingue arrived through various channels. Regardless of the different mechanisms of state control, the flight of slaves from the Antilles to Venezuela was common and led to the ongoing formation of relatively isolated and rebellious free black communities in the coastal region.16 Written information coming from Saint-Domingue and other islands of the Caribbean was another problem that mortified local officials and elites. Menacing and pestilent written materials were circulating throughout the province, promoting discomfort, and threatening the political elites who prohibited them.17 The question is: how would mostly non-literate slaves and free coloreds get to know these writings? To answer this question, in this study, I argue that the boundaries established between the written and oral worlds in this kind of semi-literate society were not clearly defined or delimited.18 I have found that in the Province of Venezuela, the oral reading of brief

16

This is evident in the black rebellion of Coro and different movements of free blacks, slaves, and maroons in Barlovento, and in the Valleys of Curiepe, Capaya, and Caucagua. See Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento, and Curiepe, orgenes histricos. Archivo General de la Nacin (AGN-Caracas), Gobernacin y Capitana General, Tomo LIX, folio 224; and Tomo LIX, folio 270. See William J. Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela, 1780-1796, Boletn histrico 14, (mayo, 1967): 177205, and Elas Pino Iturrieta, La mentalidad venezolana de la emancipacin (1810-1812) (Caracas: Instituto de Estudios Hispanoamericanos, Facultad de Humanidades, UCV, 1971), Chapter 1. An interesting approach to slaves relation to written culture can be found in Jos Ramn Jouve Martn, Esclavos de la ciudad letrada. Esclavitud, escritura y colonialismo en Lima (1650-1700) (Lima: IEP, 2005), Chapter 4.

17

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written materials such as pamphlets and newspapers was a common practice, which provided a way for non-literate people to access the written world. 19 By combining approaches from the history of reading and the history of the systems of modes of communication, this dissertation illustrates the ways in which social groups which were in conflict, nevertheless communicated with each other, and constructed a common frame of reference about Caribbean turmoil at the end of the eighteenth century within which they added their own concerns, interpretations, and visions of the colonial world. Representations of Haitian violence circulated orally and in writing, and created an environment of mistrust and hostility between the elites and the subaltern groups. The colonial state and white elites used Haiti to justify control, persecution and repression, while free blacks and slaves used Haiti to promote insurrections as a response to perceived social injustice. Ironically, the knowledge that elites and subalterns produced about Haiti was, in my opinion, a common political-cultural frame that was shared by these groups: elites feared the violence of Haiti, while slaves and colored people recognized white fear and used the representations of Haiti to express their anger and make demands, not only for freedom and equality, but also for

19

There were literate artisans (barbers, small surgeons, silversmiths) who read newspapers and pamphlets to others in public places (plazas and barber-shops); they also offered their literacy services to the non-literate people by writing and/or reading personal letters in exchange of money or other services from the listener. See my undergraduate thesis, Cristina Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas durante el siglo XVIII (Undergraduate diss., Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, 1999).

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the modification of living conditions. The processes of negotiation, transaction, imposition, and contestation in which these social groups engaged in their struggle for power, economic benefits, and social privileges should also lead us to look for more common spaces of communication.20 In spite of the existence of a common knowledge, information about Haiti evoked contradictory interpretations from elites and subalterns, while both groups tended to perceive each others actions and perceptions in terms of a process of radicalization and polarization.

2. The Impact of Haitian Revolution and Social Mobilizations: Historiographic Trends

My dissertation is nourished by, and interacts with, the voluminous body of literature that has been produced on resistance and rebellion in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since the 1960s, the academic world has seen a growing production of works on all aspects of subaltern groups lives and their relations with dominant groups. The subject of resistance in particular has received significant attention
20

From a cultural approach, historians Roger Chartier and Robert Darnton, among others, have suggested that the modes of communication and diverse media that people have used to transmit knowledge and share information in each society should also be the focus of historical analysis. They argue that knowledge transcends social limits and flows among diverse social groups. Chartiers approach to the circulation of knowledge among diverse social groups is compatible with Gramscian approaches to hegemony, as a form of relationship between the dominant and dominated groups in which processes of contestation and negotiation coexist. William Roseberry follows this path when defining hegemony not as [a] finished and monolithic ideological formation but as a problematic, contested, political process of domination and struggle. See William Roseberry, Hegemony and the Language of Contention, in Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and Negotiations of Rule in Modern Mexico, eds. Joseph, G. and D. Nugent (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994), 358.

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during the last forty years, and has made great strides since the pioneering work of C.L.R. James in the 1930s. Within the large body of literature that discusses resistance and rebellion in colonial Latin America, one of the most fruitful areas of analysis emerges from an understanding of the extent to which local political dynamics, and larger international trends affected the oppositional movements of free blacks and slaves as well as indigenous and mestizo peasants. William Roseberry, Steve Stern, and Florencia Mallon have been among the most vocal discussants on this question, emphasizing the importance of local fields of power for understanding resistance in Latin America.21 In recent decades, Latin American scholars have paid close attention to local power fields, concentrating on traditional, and long-contested issues of oppression between elites and subalterns. Recently, historians studying slave conspiracies and rebellions in the Caribbean argue that one must indeed consider the ways in which slaves responded to newly-opened rifts in the ranks of ruling classes, while arguing that the origins of conspiracies and plots were often overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, internal.22 In most cases, these Caribbeanist historians have begun

21

See William Roseberry, Anthropologies and Histories: Essays in Culture, History and Political Economy (New Brunswick: Rutgers University, 1989); Steve Stern, Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th Centuries (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987) and Perus Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993); Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). David Barry Gaspar, Bondmen and Rebels: A Case Study of Master-Slave Relations in Antigua, with Implications for Colonial British America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985).

22

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locating the origins of black conspiracy and rebellion in the violent master-slave relationships of these colonial societies, and the battle between the slaveholders desire for social control, and the slaves attempts to resist that control.23 In a similar manner, historians studying Spanish colonization and indigenous and peasant participation in resistance movements direct our attention toward local indigenous communities, and the internal dynamics of cultural autonomy and political integrity that were being played out amongst various actors. Their narrative is clearly aware of wider events and intersections with Creole struggles, but often these historians argue that it was this set of more localized concerns, including inherited and ancestral conflicts, communal and territorial rights, rather than the larger anti-Spanish, state-building projects of Creole elites, or abstract notions of human rights and individual citizenship, that preoccupied mestizo and Indian peasantries in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.24 By focusing explicitly on the long-term perspective, I believe that such analyses allow us to understand the ways in which particular cultural and political

23

See, for example, Gaspar, Bondmen and Rebels: A Case Study of Master-Slave Relations in Antigua; Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti, The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1990); Emilia Viotti Da Costa, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood. The Demarara Slave Rebellion of 1823 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); and Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation and Revolution, 1868-1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). See, for example, Eric Van Young, The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810-1821 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001); Sergio Serulnikov, Subverting the Colonial Authority, Challenges to Spanish Rule in Eighteenth-Century Southern Andes (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003); Sinclair Thomson, We Alone Will Rule. Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002).

24

15

clashes determined the nature of resistance in different localities. Eugene Genovese, in a similar vein, has argued for the importance of understanding how slaves exploited and made use of political opportunities and rifts in the larger white power structures.25 A number of scholars of Latin America and/or the Caribbean have devoted significant attention to external factors in rebellions -- in particular, the Enlightenment discourses and political changes of the eighteenth-century, and the liberal-bourgeois revolutions of the Atlantic World.26 The recent work of David Geggus has shown the undoubted influence that the Haitian Revolution had on slaves throughout the Americas. Geggus places a great deal of emphasis on the French Revolution, and the manner in which its ideological influence impacted slave resistance in the French Caribbean. His work is clearly important for illuminating, on the one hand, the manner in which wider political currents shaped subaltern resistance in Latin America and the
25

Eugene Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution, Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern World (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992). In her discussion of eighteenth century Andean rebellions, Scarlett OPhelan, demonstrates how the fiscal reforms of the Spanish Bourbon monarchy galvanized a wide-range of Andean actors, bringing them together in common cause against the Spanish, and sparking the notorious rebellion of Tpac Amaru. Yet she also argues that Indian peasants continued to resent the ongoing, and oppressive systems of labor and tribute that had been instituted two centuries earlier. OPhelan aptly acknowledges the way in which moments of unrest and rebellion overlap, yet she pays scant attention to some of the more deeply-rooted cultural and messianic aspects of the rebellion that we see in the work of Steve Stern, Sergio Serulnikov, and Sinclair Thomson. See Scarlett OPhelan, Un siglo de rebeliones anticoloniales: Per y Bolivia 1700-1783 (Cusco: Centro de Estudios Rurales Andinos "Bartolom de Las Casas", 1988); Steve Stern, Perus Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest, Humanaga to 1640, (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1993); Sergio Serulnikov, Subverting the Colonial Authority; Sinclair Thomson, We Alone Will Rule. In Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood, Viotta da Costa argues for a more polyphonic analysis of the 1823 slaves rebellion in Demerara, attributing the causes to the new demands on slaves time and labor prompted by the colonys recent incorporation into the British empire, a new language of universal rights being circulated by Age of Revolution rhetoric, along with slaves traditional conception of their own rights, and the influence of Christian missionaries.

26

16

Caribbean, and, on the other, the way in which Black/African slaves took advantage of these openings. And yet, as we have seen above, these texts only succeed in painting part of the picture. This is particularly so if we acknowledge, as many authors have, that cultural components and social dynamics form an integral part of the way that African, Indians, Afro-Creoles, and mestizos rebelled. Authors such as Carolyn Fick demonstrate how blacks and mulattos in Saint Domingue made use of liberal humanistic discourses emanating from French republican projects in order to argue for their own political rights and eventually create their own nation. She also demonstrates how slaves were consciously aware, and actively exploitative of political machinations between the imperial powers. But Fick also makes a bold attempt to recover the consciousness of slave insurgents by centering on African cultural elements, in particular, the religion of Vodun. I would argue that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to isolate abstract cultural or ideological factors from the more concrete economic and material factors of indigenous peasant resistance, and of slave rebellions as well. Venezuelan historical studies of the rebellions and conspiracies of the late colonial period perceive social movements such as cumbes (maroon communities), black insurrections, and indigenous mobilizations on the basis of two contrasting perspectives. On one hand, there are the traditional historical studies that (often reproducing colonial discourses) perceive rebellions and conspiracies as sporadic movements responding merely to ideological forces coming from abroad; these studies

17

tend to exaggerate the impact of the Enlightenment Age and the French Revolution in the province and to underestimate subalterns capacities to think and act politically.27 On the other hand, there are a number of relatively recent works that provide an analytical approach to colonial socio-economic dynamics and perceive these movements more as products of local systems of exploitation than as consequences of ideological contamination.28 Although many of these studies provide interesting information and opinions about the participation of Indians, free-blacks, and slaves in the conformation of the colonial political scenario, they pay scant attention to a number of non-political factors, such as the circulation of political and ethno-racial discourses, friendship, and kinship dynamics, that could lead subaltern individuals into insurgency.29 Here, I argue that ideological factors played just as an important role as material grievances. My dissertation seeks to examine the sources of information, networks of communication, and media that contributed to the development of collective
27

See Pedro Manuel Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro (Caracas: Instituto Panamericano de Geografa e Historia, 1949); Eleazar Crdova Bello, La independencia de Hait y su influencia en Hispanoamrica (Caracas: Instituto Panamericano de Geografa e Historia, 1967); Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela, 177-205; Pino Iturrieta, La mentalidad venezolana de la emancipacin. See Javier Lavia, Revolucin francesa y control social, Tierra Firme VII, no. 27 (Julio-Sept., 1989): 272-85; and Indios y negros sublevados de Coro, in Poder local, poder global en Amrica Latina, eds. Dalla Corte and others (Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona, 2008), 97-112; Izard, El miedo a la revolucin. See Antonio Arellano Moreno, Orgenes de la economa venezolana (Mxico: Ediciones Edime, 1947); Brito Figueroa, El problema tierra y esclavos, and Las insurrecciones de los esclavos negros en la sociedad colonial venezolana (Caracas: Edit. Cantaclaro, 1961); Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento; Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro; Lavia, Indios y negros sublevados.

28

29

18

movements against the political elite and the colonial government. Rebellions and conspiracies represent an important focus of my project.30 I am particularly interested in uncovering the network of communication and sources of information that fed them and that created an environment of political dispute, which has not been yet fully explored. This project analyzes the multiple ways in which the information from and about Saint-Domingue including rumors and gossip, songs and discourses, images, drawings, documents and pamphlets influenced and transformed social relations among white elites, pardos, free blacks, and slaves, promoting violent discourses, rebellions, and political instability, but also opening common spaces for communication and negotiation. In his book Silencing the Past, Michel Rolph Trouillot contends that silences have permeated methodological approaches to the study Haitian events. He argues that the historiography of the Haitian Revolution is itself marred by two unfortunate postures. First, Haitian historical literature remains too respectful of the revolutionary leaders who led the black masses to freedom, recreating a revolutionary past as a means of legitimizing the political present. Secondly, a sophisticated and empirically rich body of historical work produced outside of Haiti presents a discursive framework that is excessively western, misunderstanding certain political and social aspects of
30

I follow approaches that argue that rebellions represent particularly revealing contexts in which social conflicts, political language, and dynamics of power - that are frequently concealed in every-day social interactions -, rise to the fore. They also generate practices that bear comparison with everyday forms of resistance and contestation. See, for example, Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999); Viotti Da Costa, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood; and Sinclair Thomson, We Alone Will Rule.

19

the Haitian cultural context. The solution, says Trouillot, may be for the two historiographical traditions that of Haiti and that of the foreign specialists to merge or to generate a new perspective that encompasses the best of each.31 The increasing attention that scholars are paying to the effects of the Haitian Revolution in the circum-Caribbean region and the Spanish colonies has been particularly stimulating.32 In general, studies of uprisings in the circum-Caribbean region argue that while subalterns regarded rebellion as an arduous collective enterprise, colonial authorities and elites described it and dealt with it as a contagious disease that would spread destroying slave innocence and loyalty.33 However, there is substantial disagreement among historians about the role of the Haitian Revolution in the history of slave rebellions in the circum-Caribbean region. While Genovese and

31 32

Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 105.

See Crdova Bello, La independencia de Hait y su influencia en Hispanoamrica; Scott, The Common Wind; David Barry Gaspar and David Patrick Geggus, eds., A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, 1789-1815 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); David Patrick Geggus, ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001); David Patrick Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002); Ma. Dolores Gonzlez-Ripoll and others, eds., El rumor de Hait en Cuba: temor, raza y rebelda, 1789-1844 (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 2004); Fischer, Modernity Disavowed; Jos A. Piqueras, Las Antillas en la Era de las Luces y la Revolucin (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2005); Doris L. Garraway, ed., Tree of Liberty, Cultural Legacies of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008); Nick Nesbitt, Universal Emancipation. The Haitian Revolution and the Radical Enlightenment (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008); David Patrick Geggus and Norman Fiering, eds., The World of the Haitian Revolution (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009). Scott, The Common Wind, and Geggus, ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic. In The Common Wind, Scott argues for the important role played by communication networks in the Caribbean diffusion and imagining of Haiti and its revolution. Throughout his work, Scott presents ample evidence of the presence of Haiti in the British, Spanish, and French colonial discourse during the nineteenth century.

33

20

Davis, among others, insist on the great influence that the revolution in SaintDomingue had in the Atlantic World, because it propelled a revolution in black consciousness throughout the New World34 and hastened or delayed the multiple emancipations of the following century,35 others historians such as Drescher and Geggus believe that the influence has been exaggerated and that, depending on the geographical and temporal scope of ones analysis, the impact of the Haitian revolution varied. Geggus is concerned to identify and document evidence, finding direct influences of the Haitian Revolution in particular cases; Drescher suggests moving from symbolic discourse to reality, showing that despite the eruption of diverse rebellions in the circum-Caribbean region, within the Americas as a whole, the slave population continued to increase steadily another half-century.36 A closer look at the word influence could help us find another way to analyze the presence of Saint-Domingue and its Revolution in the Atlantic world. Sybille Fischer claims that
a very narrow notion of influence may unwittingly prevent us from recognizing the ideological and symbolic impact of the Haitian Revolution and thus make it impossible to recognize the cultural

34 35

Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution, 96.

David Brion Davis, Impact of the French and the Haitian Revolutions, in The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic, 5. Seymour Drescher, The Limits of Example, in The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic, 11.

36

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formation in which knowledge of Haiti was taken for granted and which we know existed.37

Even if it could be imprecise to talk about the direct influence of the Haitian Revolution everywhere, there should be a way to categorize all the images, representations, rumors, and violent discourses (fictitious or not) that emanated from Saint-Domingue and that repeatedly circulated in the Atlantic world. In her work, Fischer proposes using notions capable of capturing the psychological, affective, and ideological operations that have produced silences and gaps in the historical and cultural records. As she says: Imaginary scenarios became the real battlegrounds.38 Ada Ferrer suggests that we talk about repercussions rather than influence, since Saint-Domingue represented a complex landscape of heterogeneous effects that did not respond to particular events or detailed causes. Going beyond the problem of how silence and fear of Haiti explains concrete historical actions and events, Ada Ferrer insists on analyzing news and information about Haiti that entered the island of Cuba and created particular interpretations of the events. She believes that Haiti was used by slaves, masters, and government agents in different ways and with varied

37 38

Fischer, Modernity Disavowed, 292.

Ibid, 2. Fischer adopts an interdisciplinary approach, thinking of a political and cultural landscape beyond the confines of disciplinary fragmentation and national categories of history and literature. With a similar intention, Elzbieta Skolodowska studies the impact of the Haitian Revolution in the social and political imaginary of Cuba. Her study focuses on Cuban literature of nineteenth and twentieth centuries, trying to comprehend the complex web of meanings through which the Haitian revolution was re-created in the Cuban context. See Elzbieta Skolodowska, Espectro y espejismo. Hait en el imaginario cubano (Madrid: Veuvert, 2009).

22

purposes. In the end, Ferrer shows the consolidation of binary and apocalyptic images that would become the prevailing symbols of Haiti and its revolution in Cuba.39 My work also offers revisions of Venezuelan historiographic debates dating back to the mid-twentieth century about whether or not the information regarding Haiti had a real impact on masters and slaves during the last decades of the eighteenth century. Did Haiti promote black revolts and rebellions or were such ideas merely fabricated by the Spanish government and local elites? Traditional Venezuelan historiography shows evidence of a direct influence of the Haitian Revolution in the Province of Venezuela. Historian Eleazar Cordova Bello studied the impact that the Haitian Revolution had on different Spanish American colonies, such as Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The author presents Haiti as a focal point of French revolutionary ideas and as source of diffusion of these ideas to the Spanish American colonies.40 He provides us with multiple and detailed historical accounts that allow us to register the mentions of the Haiti Revolution in the Province of Venezuela and how different social groups perceived these revolutionary events. In his opinion, the Haitian Revolution introduced new problems and features to colonial social realities.41 However, Cordova Bellos study adheres to a traditional view that

39

Ferrer, Noticias de Hait en Cuba, Temor, poder y esclavitud en Cuba en la poca de la Revolucin, and Cuba en la sombra de Hait: noticias, sociedad y esclavitud. Crdova Bello, La independencia de Hait y su influencia en Hispanoamrica.

40 41

Crdova Bello highlights the presence of the fear of Haiti for governors and elites of the different colonies and shows how the Spanish Crown and elites designed different strategies to control the entry of revolutionary ideas from Haiti. He also gives examples of how the Haitian Revolution was used as a

23

understands historical realities as consequences produced by pure and clear-cut causes, and that perceives discourses as mirrors of reality rather than as strategies and instruments of social legitimization and power. This traditional historiography asserts that the various insurrections and conspiracies taking place in Venezuela during the last decade of the eighteenth century aimed not only at abolishing commercial taxes, freeing slaves and bringing social equality to the Province, but also at creating a republic and/or at applying French liberal principles. Consequently, this narrative argues that the Haitian Revolution directly influenced black rebellions and pardo conspiracies in the province. Recent works have focused more on understanding social frictions and local dynamics of exploitation, suggesting that some of these rebellions and conspiracies have been misunderstood, and that the historical narrative about them has been strongly contaminated by the official colonial discourse. Historians Ramn Aizpurua, Javier Lavia, Mikel Izard, Angel Sanz and Alejandro Gmez42 invite us to re-imagine

model by the Creole insurrects in order to justify the need for freedom and independence of the colonies. See Crdova Bello, La independencia de Hait y su influencia en Hispanoamrica.
42

ngel Sanz Tapia, Los militares emigrados y los prisioneros franceses en Venezuela durante la guerra contra la revolucin: un aspecto fundamental de la poca de la pre-emancipacin (Caracas: Instituto Panamericano de Geografa e Historia, 1977); Izard, El miedo a la revolucin; Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, and La conspiracin por dentro: un anlisis de las declaraciones de la conspiracin de La Guaira de 1797, in Gual y Espaa. La independencia frustrada, eds., Juan Carlos Rey, Rogelio Prez Perdomo, Ramn Aizpurua and Adriana Hernndez (Caracas: Fundacin Polar, 2007); Lavia, Revolucin francesa y control social and Indios y negros sublevados de Coro; Alejandro Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento, revolucin y contrarevolucin en las Antillas Francesas en la experiencia de algunos oficiales emigrados a tierra firme 1790-1795 (Mxico: Siglo XXI, 2004), La Ley de los franceses: una reinterpretacin de las insurrecciones de inspiracin jacobina en la costa de Caracas, Akademos VII, no. 1 (2006), and El sndrome de Saint-Domingue.

24

the diverse and complex political and social landscapes from which these social movements emerged, and to re-examine the discourses produced and reproduced during and after the social movements. Some of these historians contend that rebels in these movements aimed more at solving socio-economic problems exoneration from taxes, and alcabalas, for example than at imposing a new political-ideological regime. Others suggest that the Haitian Revolution was not explicitly and directly evoked by rebel discourse but rather by the perturbed and apprehensive discourse of the elites, later reproduced by historians. To contribute to this debate, my work analyzes the different discourses and representations that connect the formation, development, and understanding of these political movements with Saint-Domingue. However I also look into situations and circumstances that show the presence and significance of Saint Domingue in the daily life of the inhabitants of the ports and cities of the Province. Everyday conversations and discussions transformed the turbulent Caribbean into a common reference for racial and social conflict, vengeance and violence, creating an open space for contestation, negotiation, and social challenges. My hypothesis is that the Haitian Revolution became a shared knowledge, an everyday reference that became stronger during rebellions; this knowledge was used by rebels such as slaves and free-blacks to threaten elites and negotiate their economic (exoneration from commercial taxes, for

Percepciones y sensibilidades de la Revolucin Haitiana en el Gran Caribe (1791-1814), Caravelle, no. 86 (2006).

25

example) and social demands (freedom), and by the elites to justify harsh repression. In this sense, I argue that Haiti was not necessarily a product of elites imagination, but a common language used by both rulers and subalterns; a meaningful framework more significant and powerful than has been acknowledged by Venezuelan social historiography. Through my work, I argue that the perceived violence of Saint-Domingue and the turbulent Caribbean blurred the particular character of local conflicts in Venezuela, merging them into the overall confrontation between masters and slaves in the colonial Caribbean. In this sense, I argue that Haiti functioned as a mirror that local subaltern actors used to reinforce their demands, and that elites employed to justify repression or to negotiate concessions. Haiti was invoked by people of color in different circumstances: sometimes it was used to threaten the elites and ask specifics demands such as the exoneration of commercial taxes, the elimination of alcabalas, or the replacement of a local authority, but it was also used by some colored leaders as a way of presenting other possibilities to their fellow subalterns: to show them that there were people of color in other places that have gotten rid from the tyranny of their masters and have achieved freedom. On their part, white elites used Haiti as a reference to undermine people of color and justify new measures of control, they were convinced of the importace of keeping people of color controlled in order to avoid a second Saint-Domingue, therefore they employed several strategies to avoid subversive movements. These strategies varied significantly: from prohibiting the use

26

of firearms to people of color to controlling the intensity of the punishments imparted by the white masters. In this sense, the elites strategies were two-pronged: on the one hand, they sought to tightening control and the submission of the slaves and free blacks, while at the same time improving living conditions which did not necessarily endanger the due subordination and order. In the ocassions that elites confronted social conflict and uprisings, they used Haiti as a powerful reference to harshly repress and punish the instigators. By studying both political representations and practices in a slave-based society, this study will shed light on how subaltern actors in colonial Venezuela responded not only to local circumstances of exploitation but also to representations of planter domination and slave resistance circulating in the region. In fact, I will show that the messages that circulated in times of Caribbean turbulence had the simultaneous functions of imparting information, provoking fear among white elites, and stirring mobilization on part of the people of color.

3. A Fragile Harmony: Social Frictions in Colonial Venezuela (1770-1810)

Europeans first encountered Venezuelan territory in 1498, during the third voyage of Columbus to the Reinos de Indias. In 1499, a year later, Spanish explorers and conquerors Alfonso de Ojeda and Americo Vespucci sighted the mainland near the mouth of the Orinoco River, and after arriving at Trinidad, discovered the eastern

27

coast of what is now known as Venezuela. During the first years of expedition and conquest, intensive extraction of pearls in the Islands of Cubagua and Margarita, and an incessant search for gold in the northwestern regions of Venezuela, were the main goals of Europeans who enslaved Indians to undertake the dangerous tasks associated with this plunder. In 1528, Charles V granted the Wesler Company vast territories in the western region with the purpose of searching for gold mines. During the entire sixteenth century, Europeans founded scattered cities and established unstable settlements across this region, especially in the northern area where a long coast open to the Caribbean Sea permitted frequent communication and exchange of products with the islands, especially with La Espaola.43 During this initial period of colonization, the economic activities of the region shifted from the extraction of pearls and gold, to the cultivation of tobacco, cacao and wheat, the raising of cattle, and the production of leather and cloth for export to the Caribbean. However, by the eighteenth century, the colonial economy based on an important exportation of indigo and tobacco, but mostly of cacao and the number of inhabitants of the province of Venezuela experienced an important growth and consolidation. By the end of eighteenth century, Venezuela was a stable but not necessarily a peaceful province of small importance in the Spanish Empire. The colony formed a province within the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada (modern Panama and Colombia) and Quito (modern Ecuador). Despite being under the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada,
43

Miguel Izard, Tierra firme, historia de Venezuela y Colombia (Madrid: Alianza, 1986).

28

Venezuela enjoyed virtual autonomy and had become accustomed to little administrative control from Nueva Granada. The creation, in 1777, of the General Captaincy of Venezuela, which incorporated six provinces (Maracaibo, Cuman, Margarita, Trinidad, Guayana and, later, Barinas) to the jurisdiction of the Province of Caracas (also known as Province of Venezuela)44 confirmed the need to centralize the region administratively and politically, and acknowledged the economic and commercial primacy of the nuclear region of Caracas.45 Some historians believe that it was the significant economic growth of the Province of Venezuela that put the region at the center of the imperial interests, and that this economic interest stemmed largely from the growing popularity of cacao in Europe during the middle of the eighteenth century. The region, known from the seventeenth century as an ideal place for cultivating cacao, drew the attention of the Monarchy when it received reports describing contraband activities between
44

During most of the colonial period, the Province of Venezuela, often called Province of Caracas, was established as a Gobernacin, with the Governor as the most important representant of the Spanish Monarchy in the region. In 1777, when the General Captaincy was established, the Governor of the Province of Caracas also became the Captain General of Venezuela. This change created confusion about the political jurisdictions of the Captaincy of Venezuela, and the territory of the Province of Venezuela. The traveler Jean Franois Dauxion-Lavaysse commented on this: Almost all European geographers confound the General Government of Caracas or Venezuela, with the province, of which the town of Saint Leon de Caracas is the capital. This town was residence of the President, Captain general, Intendant, and Audiencia (a supreme administrative and judicial court), on which depended the respective governors of the provinces of Cumana and New Andalusian, Maracaybo, Varinas, Guiana, and the Island of Trinidad. Then, he adds: Venezuela is the national name adopted at present by the confederated provinces, and Caracas is their metropolis: the province of Venezuela has taken the name of Province of Caracas. This province is bounded on the west by the sea, on the north-west by that of Maracaybo, on the north by that of Cumana, and to the east and south-east by that of Varinas. See Jean Franois Dauxion Lavaysse, A Statistical, Comercial and Political Description of Venezuela, Trinidad, Margarita y Tobago (London: G. and W.B. Whittaker, 1820), 55. Mckinley, Caracas antes de la independencia.

45

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Venezuelan merchants and the Dutch. For this reason the Crown authorized in 1728 the consolidation of the Compaia Guipuzcoana de Caracas, a Basque commercial company that undertook the important task of commercializing local goods, while also managing the importation of manufactured goods, cloth and textiles, iron, agricultural tools, alcohol, and foodstuff from the Peninsula to the province, and curbing contraband activities.46

46

In fact, the companys emergence in Venezuela was closely related to the Dutch presence in Curaao and their important illegal trade of cacao and other products with the province, although the commercial relations between the province and the Dutch were illegal, it has a profound impact that allowed stable and regular economic relations between the two regions only partially interrupted by the activities of the Caracas Company. Wim Klooster defines this relation as a symbiosis. Wim Klooster, Illicit Riches: Dutch Trade in the Caribbean, 1648-1795. (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998). See also Jos Mara Aizpurua, Relaciones de trabajo en la sociedad colonial venezolana. (Caracas: Coleccin Bicentenario, Centro Nacional de la Historia, 2009); Roland Dennis Hussey, The Caracas Company, 1728-1784. A Study in the History of Spanish Monopolistic Trade (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934); Eugenio Piero, The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas and the Spanish Cacao Market, The Hispanic American Historical Review 68, no. 1 (1988): 75-100.

30

Figure 2.

During the eighteenth century, the economy of the Province was divided between two main productive activities: the raising of cattle, horses and mules, and the production of leather in the western plains and shores of the country, and the plantation of the export crops of tobacco, cacao, indigo, sugar and coffee in different geographical areas, especially on the littoral coast. In the 1780s, the production of cacao in the coastal area and the southern slopes of the cordillera represented a

31

significant 70 percent of total legal exports and probably more of the illegal trade.47 The primacy of cacao cultivation in the province of Venezuela implied the frequent introduction in the region of African slaves, whose labor force was fundamental for the production of this crop. By the end of the century, the labor population in the Province was dominated by pardos and free blacks in the plains - for whom the frontier offered the possibility of escaping from slavery - and domestic labor, hired workers and slaves in the coastal areas. Therefore, late colonial Venezuela was a diversified and commercialized slave society dominated by a hybrid and heterogeneous labor system.48 Most historians of colonial Venezuela agree in asserting that the slave system in this region did not follow the ideal plantation model mainly described in nineteenth-century accounts about the Caribbean slave system.49 McKinley, in particular, comments that unlike other regions of the Caribbean, the exportation of slaves to the Province of Venezuela decreased during the last decades of the
47

Federico Brito Figueroa, Historia econmica y social de Venezuela, 2th ed. (Caracas: Ediciones de la Biblioteca Central- Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1976), Arellano Moreno, Orgenes de la economa venezolana (Caracas, 1982), and Eduardo Arcila Faras, Comercio de cacao en el siglo XVII, Revista Nacional de Cultura, no. 43, Caracas, 1944. Jos Mara Aizpurua notes that one of the most fundamental characteristics of the labor system in colonial Venezuela was its heterogeinity: The enslaved labor force, the free worker, the peasant tenant, the small independent producer and the indigenous cultivator overlapped and were involved in a complex network of production relations. But this aspect was not necessarily exceptional or anormal. Rather it was the essence of the colonial economic organization. Aizpurua, Relaciones de trabajo en la sociedad colonial venezolana, 181-2. John Lombardi, People and Places in Colonial Venezuela (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976); McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia. This plantation system model was more characteristic of the ninteenth-century Caribbean plantations, rather than the eighteenth century. Ramn Aizprua, personal communication, December 2010.

48

49

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eighteenth century, precisely and contradictorily when the economic situation was improving. The reasons for this decrease are not fully explored, but the author comments that the hacendados (owners of landed estates or plantantions) seemed comfortable employing free jornaleros (day-laborers) and having some slaves working on their lands; in his opinion, the large majority of the haciendas were too small to require a great number of slaves.50 Relying on this hybrid nature of labor, many historians have commented that master/slave relations in the Province of Venezuela seemed less harsh and violent than in other regions of the Caribbean. Venezuelan landowners seemed more willing to liberate their slaves as a reward for their services.51 They also gave their slaves better living conditions: allowing them to

50

McKinley affirms: In any case, the hacendados, were much less interested in the importation of slaves than it seems, and the scarcity of them, if it existed, was more apparent than real. If the agricultural infrastructure of Caracas had needed more slaves and would have responded to the stimulus for absorbing them, it is doubtless that, despite the war with Great Britain, a great importation of slaves would have occurred. McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia, 38. Traveler, Dauxion Lavaysse commented: The slaves in Venezuela, and the other Spanish possessions, enjoy a privilege unknown in the French and English colonies: it is that of obliging their masters to liberate them, on their paying the sum of 300 dollars. The slave treated with injustice or cruelty by his master, has a right to carry his complaint to the judge, who may order that he be sold to some other master of known humanity. See A Statistical, Commercial and Political Description of Venezuela, Trinidad, 178. Slaves in Spanish America had the right often called coartacin or manumisin - to buy freedom by paying his/her price to the master through a system of periodical deposits. This situation created a significant population of free blacks in Spanish America. For a detailed account, see Felipe Salvador Gilij, Ensayo de historia americana, estado presente de la tierra firme (Bogot: Edit. Sucre, 1955 [1784]). For a historical discussion on this topic, see Manuel Lucena Salmoral, El derecho de coartacin del esclavo en la Amrica espaola, Revista de Indias LIX, no. 216 (1999): 357-74 and Jos Mara Aizpurua, Relaciones de trabajo en la sociedad colonial venezolana. Interestingly, manumission could have been used as a useful tactic or subterfuge to maintain slavery during the colonial and republican periods, see John Lombardi, Decadencia y abolicin de la esclavitud en Venezuela (1820-1854) (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 2004).

51

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posses, rent or use smalls plots of land to grow crops, but contradictorily, did not assume the obligations of providing them with housing, food, and clothing.52 The hybrid nature of labor and the relatively reduced importance that slaves had within the overall labor force did not mean that Spanish and creole elites were more prone to the general abolition of slavery. On the contrary, the elites of Caracas rejected the abdition of slavery because they felt that freeing their slaves implied the loss of an important labor force on which their economic privileges rested, and also because it implied a disruption on the traditional notions of order, subordination, and social harmony. In fact, the clear rejection of the cdigo negrero of 1789 by the Caracas elites allows us to perceive this significant dependence that the elites had on their slaves.53 Likewise, the response of some slaves to this rejection of the code gives

52

About this, French visitor De Pons noted: The Spanish negroes receive from their master only a supply of prayers, since they are very scantily provided with food and clothes; and the law is silent on this project. The consequence of which is, that except from a few proprietors, whose hearts are not altogether steeled against the feelings of humanity, they receive no other provisions than what they cultivate on spots of ground allotted to them for that purpose, whether the harvest be productive or not, and they are suffered to go about literally covered with rags. See, F.J. de Pons, Travels in Parts of South America, During the years 1801, 1802, 1803 & 1804: Containing a Description of the CaptainGeneralship of Caracas, with an Account of the Laws, Commerce, and Natural Productions of that Country; as Also a View of the Customs and Manners of the Spaniards and Native Indians (London, Richard Phillips, 1806). Laws in Spanish America allowed slaves to exchange water, wood, land, and their own crops. In Venezuela this situation developed in a hacienda pattern in which masters often did not supervise the process of production and established sharecropping arrangements with their slaves, some of whom eventually earned enough to buy their freedom. See Miguel Acosta Saignes, Vida de los esclavos negros en Venezuela (Caracas: Vadell Hermanos, 1984); Jos Mara Aizpurua, Relaciones de trabajo en la sociedad colonial venezolana; and Robin Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery. From the Baroque to the Modern 1492-1800 (London: Verso, 1998), 497. See Real Cdula sobre Educacin, trato y ocupaciones de los esclavos en todos los dominios e Islas de Filipinas (Mayo, 1789), AGI-Sevilla, Indiferente General, 802. Also see Leal, La aristocracia criolla.

53

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us reason to believe that master-slave relations in the Province were not as smooth, gentle, and harmonic as some historians have presented them.54 By the end of the eighteenth century, approximately 800,000 inhabitants occupied the provinces of the Capitana General de Venezuela. In the Province of Caracas there were almost 490,000 inhabitants. The nature of social divisions during the colonial period have sparked complex and significant debates regarding the preeminence of racial, juridical, or class divisions. While traditional historians believed that colonial social stratification relied on caste categories based on racial or physical distinctions, other historians demonstrate that social divisions were founded on social estates, defined by feudal criteria of occupation, honor, and juridical status. Marxist authors have also argued that, by the end of eighteenth century, differentiated access to the colonial means of production created different forms of exploitation and accumulation, similar to those of class societies. 55

54

Traditional Marxist historiography studied late eighteenth-century Venezuela focusing primarily on political conflicts (in the forms of rebellions, plots and conspiracies) that revealed frictions among imperial reforms and local controls or tensions due to internal social divisions and rivalries. By way of contrast, a more recent historiography describes this period as the golden years of colonial Venezuela, a period in which the province expanded economically and reached an unprecedented political maturity that reflected a harmonious and stable society. Michael McKinley, for example, suggests that a new perspective should focus not merely on the conflicts, but on conflict-resolution and negotiation that took place during this period. In his opinion, the conflicts expressed in rebellions and conspiracies were not reactions to contradictory interests between the empire and the colony, nor were they responses to the unequal access to power by different social groups. They were rather processes of adaptation to the new political and economic transformations triggered by Bourbon reforms. By analyzing economic and political dynamics, McKinley argues that the Province of Caracas was stable and relatively quiescent during the last decades of the eighteenth century. In an introductory paragraph, this author comments: The economic growth was accompanied by political stability and social peace See McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia, 12. There is abundant literature regarding this issue. See, for example, Carlos Irazbal, Venezuela esclava y feudal (Caracas: Pensamiento vivo editores, 1964); Brito Figueroa, Historia econmica y social de

55

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Nevertheless, more contemporary approaches have argued that in order to understand the complexity of the colonial social stratification system it is necessary to combine traditional feudal notions of social condition and juridical status with the racial system of classification and incipient class divisions. These works suggest that the structure of Venezuelan colonial society, like others in Spanish America, resulted from continued, simultaneous, and overlapping relations between racial, estate and class criteria.56 One of the most important criteria of classification in colonial Venezuelan society was, precisely, racial distinction. Historians recognize three basic groups: whites57, blacks (free, slaves, and maroons) and Indians. A large and heterogeneous group - product of the continued relations among the three basic groups Venezuela; J. Salcedo Bastardo, Historia fundamental de Venezuela (Caracas: Fundacin Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, 1977); McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia, Chapter, 1; Graciela Soriano, Venezuela 1810-1830: aspectos desatendidos de dos dcadas (Caracas: Lagoven, 1988); Luis Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la provincia de Venezuela, 1774-1809, estudios de casos (Caracas: Fundacin Polar, 1996); Alejandro Gmez, The Pardo Question. Political Struggles on Free Coloreds Right to Citizenship during the Revolution of Caracas, 1797-1813, Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, Materiales de seminaries (2008): http://nuevomundo.revues.org/index34503.html., and Ciudadanos de color?, Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, BAC - Biblioteca de Autores del Centro (2007): http://nuevomundo.revues.org/index9973.html.
56

Some historians of Spanish America basing themselves strictly on categories used in colonial times to characterize the divisions of society, argue that these were caste societies (sociedades de castas). Nevertheless others reject this denomination because Spanish American colonial societies (like Venezuela) did not follow the classical caste system in anthropological terms used in South Asian ethnography. In colonial Venezuela, for example, social strata were not hermetic. Instead each division was permeable, to the extent that peoples status could vary according to honor, wealth, education, and prestige. See Soriano, Venezuela 1810-1830: aspectos desatendidos; and Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la provincia de Venezuela. The category of whites includes: Spaniards, creoles, and poor whites such as the blancos de orilla white spaniards from the Canary Islands who, because of their origin, artisanal activities and education, occupied lower strata than the Spaniards, and local creole whites -.

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progressively increased during the colonial period; this group was denominated pardos and was integrated by all the mixed-races, such as morenos, mulatos, and zambos.58 However, there is considerable disagreement among historians about the definition of this social group, a discrepancy that reflects colonial contradictions. In this regard, historian Frderique Langue has explained that in the Province of Caracas the word pardo was used for non-whites, in conceptual and practical terms.59 But, historians Alejandro Gmez and Luis Pellicer believe that this conception reproduces the perspectives of whites who tended to lump together the free blacks with all the mixed races. In their opinion, pardos had a different perception of themselves: they believed that belonging to their group improved the condition of the mixed-raced. According to them, only those who had some degree of European blood (such as the mulatos, tercerones, cuarterones, etc.) could have been considered pardos, as distinguished
58

Mulattos and morenos were the products of the mix between whites and blacks, while zambos were the product of the mix between Indians and blacks. The latter were despised as a bad race because theu supposedly concentrated the worst aspects of Indians and blacks, and lacked the white component. The French agent Dauxion Lavaysse commentted in 1807 In this metropolis, the word zambo is synonymous with worthless, idler, liar, impious, thief, villain, assassin, and etc. Of ten crimes that may be committed in the province, eight are said to be done by the zambos. He then continued: These individuals are born of clandestine and adulterous unions, of natives who have contracted only vices of civilization and of African slaves: what can be expected of the children born of such parents, whose minds are totally neglected, and in a climate that invites sloth and indolence? Jean Franois Dauxion Lavaysse, A Statistical, Commercial and Political Description of Venezuela, Trinidad, 72-3. Another observer, the British agent George Dawson Flinter, observed in 1816: Sambos, a name which, to the people of this country Venezuela , comprehends every vice that is degrading to human nature; indeed, they are stigmatized for the commission of the blackest crimes. See George Dawson Flinter, A History of the Revolution of Caracas: Comprising an Impartial Narrative of the Atrocities Committed by the Contending Parties, Illustrating the Real State of the Contest, both in a Commercial and Political Point of View. Together with a Description of the Llaneros, Or People of the Plains of South America (London: T.& J. Allman, 1819). Frdrique Langue, La pardocratie ou litineraire dune classe dangereuse dans le Vnezuela des XVIIIe et XIXe sicles, Caravelle, no.67 (1997).

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from other groups such as free-blacks and zambos. Also, if a pardo married a black merging the lineage back again with African-descendants their offspring could lose their status as pardos.60 The boundary between the terms pardo and mulato is also unclear. Sometimes they were used as synonyms. Other times, pardo represented a broader category that includes mulatos, but pardo was also used to refer to an educated mixed-race. 61 In this latter case, the limits between pardos and mulatos were not determined in racial or lineage terms, but more so in terms of calidad (quality).62 According to Manuel Lucena Salmoral, at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the Province of Caracas, free-coloreds (including pardos) represented more than the 44 percent of the population. There were almost 190,000 morenos or negros

60

Alejandro Gmez, La revolucin de Caracas desde abajo, Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, Debates (2008): http://nuevomundo.revues.org/index32982.html. This contradiction becomes clear in the case of Juan Bautista Olivares, a pardo inhabitant of Caracas who was accused in 1796 of influencing others of his class by reading seditious papers to mulattos. While the authorities described Juan Bautista as belonging to the same class as the mulattos, they also refer to him as a pardo because he was educated enough to read and write. See Declaracin y Expediente de Juan Bautista Olivares, AGI-Sevilla, Caracas, 346. In Spanish America, calidad was a valorizing category, used to denote ethnic status and identity. Some historians of colonial Latin America have characterized calidad as a racial status defined by legal color; but others argue that calidad was an extensive category reflecting ones reputation as a whole, which took into consideration: color, occupation, education, and wealth, as well as purity of blood, honor, integrity, and even place of origin. In regions inhabitated by Spanish, creoles, Indians, and Blacks, calidad was configured not so much by the somatic signs of color but more by the cultural indices and icons of a civilized status versus a barbariccondition and style of life. See Ramn Gutirrez, Sex and Family: Social Change in Colonial New Mexico, 1690-1846 (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, 1980); Robert McCaa, Calidad, Clase and Marriage in Colonial Mexico: The Case of Parral, 1788-1790, Hispanic American Historical Review 64, no. 3 (1984): 477-501; Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la provincia de Venezuela; and Ana Alonso, Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution and Gender in Mexicos Northern Frontier (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1995).

61

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libres (ex-slaves and descendants), zambos (products of the mix between blacks or pardos with Indians), and pardos, while this last group represented 37.83 percent of the population. There were almost 99,000 whites (Spanish, creole and poor whites), representing 25.62 percent of the total of the population; 60,000 slaves (15.65 percent); and 47,000 indios tributarios (12.24 percent).63 In comparison with other Caribbean and Spanish American societies, the proportion of free coloreds in the Province was particularly high. This demographic aspect allows us to understand the menace this group represented for whites who feared the aspirations of pardos to equality. 64 These societies were also structured by criteria of social estates. In feudal Europe, the civil social body was imagined as a composition of different estates or members, each having particular functions and purposes which served to maintain social order. Social estates in Spanish America corresponded to the principal orders of the European societies of the Old Regime: nobility, clergy, peasantry and militias. The complex juxtaposition of ones origin, occupation or profession, and juridical status (privilege) determined colonial Venezuelans social estates. In this sense, the people

63

Manuel Lucena Salmoral, La sociedad de la provincia de Caracas a comienzos del siglo XIX, Anuario de Estudios Americanos, Vol. XXXVII (1980): 8-11. French voyager, Franois De Pons, noted this particularity of the Caracas human landscape. In 1794, he wrote: In proportion to other social classes, probably there is not in the West Indies a city with as many as emancipated or descendants of emancipated See Franois De Pons, Viaje a la parte oriental de tierra firme en la Amrica meridional, Vols.2. (Caracas: Banco Central de Venezuela, 1960 [1806]), 233.

64

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who shared same social condition (marked by education, racial type, origin, and economic situation) were organized within every rank of these social estates. Dignity, honor, purity of blood, and the intersection of juridical status with racial categories defined, according to historian Graciela Soriano, three main social groups in the province.65 In first place, there was the status of the Leading people (Personas Principales), a social group made up of whites that represented the highest strata of society. They were usually local nobles, hacendados (plantation or landed estate owners), and possessed diverse privileges due to their lineage and dignity. High ranking officials and authorities of the Crown (like the Captain General, the Governors and Magistrates of the Audiencia) also belonged to this privileged group. Not in the same position as nobles and hacendados, but important enough to be considered within this group, we find some white merchants (comerciantes) dedicated to major international commercial activities, possessing significant capital and able to afford commodities and lifestyles similar to those of nobles and landowners. This group made up of Spaniards and white creoles (whites of Spanish descent born in America) were usually referred to as mantuanos.66

65

See Luciana De Stefano, La sociedad estamental de la baja Edad Media espaola a la luz de la literatura de la poca (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, s/f); Soriano, Venezuela 1810-1830: aspectos desatendidos; and Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la provincia de Venezuela. This word, meaning one with a shawl, was a reference to identify only those social groups who were allowed to wear head shawls in the Church and during religious festivities. People of color or of lower conditions were not allowed to wear them.

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In a lower stratum, we find the people of standing (personas de condicin), a social group integrated by white Spaniards, white creoles, and a limited number of pardos. This category included those who, although not having substantial capital or economic influence, had sufficient education or level of isntruction to be part of the University or Seminary professors or lettered body. They usually assumed bureaucratic posts, and some were doctors, lawyers, justice officials, university or seminar professors, notaries, secretaries, and public accountants. In the bottom stratum, a heterogeneous group, in terms of races, made up the group of people of lower standing (personas de baja condicin). This group was formed by poor whites, blancos de orilla, pardos, Indians, and free blacks who dedicated themselves to artisanal activities (carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, silversmiths), or people who performed services (such as small surgerons, muleteers, masons, and barbers). Small merchants, such as shopkeepers and hardware traders, also belonged to this group.67 Mixed-race peasants and free blacks working on plantations and haciendas were also considered people of lower condition in the rural areas.

67

The visitor Robert Semple commented about pulperas: Pulpera is the name given in this country to establishments which are at the same time shops, farms, and inns. These [small shops] are generally kept by natives of Biscay or Catalonia who begin their career in this country with the selling of liquors, cloths, and iron, or whatever they could collect, at the same time. In the town it is easy to trace the prosperity of the owners in the gradual change with takes place in these inventories. The proportion of manufactured goods increases in degrees, until a length they form the whole, and the master becomes a respectable merchant. See Robert Semple, Sketch of the Present State of Caracas; Including a Journey from Caracas through La Victoria, and Valencia to Puerto Cabello (London: Robert Baldwin, 1812), 67.

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Figure 3.

Evidently, below this category we find the black slaves. Of the 60,000 slaves who lived in the Province of Caracas, almost the 70 percent was concentrated in a relatively small area in the coastal region, often called Costa de Caracas, where the majority of plantations and haciendas were located. In the main cities and ports like Caracas, La Guaira, and Puerto Cabello, we also find slaves who did not perform agricultural tasks; instead they worked as domestic slaves, sailors, or artisans.

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Although estate categories were abstract constructions of social distinctions, these classifications represent interesting forms of objectification and of subjectification of central importance to the rhetoric of the colonial administration, and were constantly used for legal legitimization of occupational and social segregation.68 During the eighteenth century, the relationship between and within these social groups was subject to stress by changing political, social, and economical conditions. Peninsular Spaniards occupied political positions that were not open to white creoles. However, the considerable improvement of the economy, evidenced in the increased participation of the province in international commercial networks and the stabilization of the local market, allowed different social groups, such as the white creoles and some members of a pardo elite (often called pardos benemritos), to improve their economic situation and have access to particular institutions, such as the Real Consulado (a colonial Instituion created to protect and promote the productive and commercial activities in the General Captaincy). These groups, which had traditionally been confined to the margins of the political scenario, often challenged
68

See Peter B. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1967); and Michel Foucault, Between Structuralism and Hermeneutics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1983). For an interesting discussion on how colonial documents reproduce and legitimize social categories see Nicholas Dirks, Annals of the Archive: Ethnographic Notes on the Sources of History, and Ann Laura Stoler, Developing Historical Negatives: Race and the (Modernist) Visions of a Colonial State, both in From the Margins: Historical Anthropology and Its Futures, ed. Brian Keith Axel (Durham, Duke University Press, 2002). In her latest book Along the Archival Grain. Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), Stoler discusses how colonial administrators were prolific producers of social categories as she deals with these categories and their enumeration, focusing on the ways that documentation gathered these representations.

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colonial institutions such as the Real Audiencia, disobeyed Royal Orders that went against their economic interests, and even confronted the General Captaincy.69 On the other hand, there was a clear tension between whites and pardos. White Spaniards and creoles had educational privileges and occupied important functions in the clergy and military academies regarded as not suitable for pardos, despised by the Spaniards and the local whites as the worst of all social groups. Their African blood and the estate of bondage of their ancestors, the brown color of their skin, and their supposedly bastardized origin constituted negative social features that justified a stereotyped perception, affecting pardos in everyday life through various forms of social, spatial, and legal segregation.70 However, by the end of the eighteenth century, pardos especially the lighterskinned and wealthy elite found strategies to pressure whites, using legal instruments to gain access to positions from which they had traditionally been excluded. One of these instruments was a Royal Edict (Real Cdula de Gracias al Sacar) which, in
69 70

Soriano, Venezuela 1810-1830: aspectos desatendidos, 56-57.

In general, pardos were regarded as illegitimate sons and daughters, with no traceable origins. A document written by members of the Cabildo stated: Pardos, mulattos, and zambos have also the defect of illegitimacy, because it is rather bizarre to find a pardo, mulatto, or zambo with legitimate parents. See Informe que el Ayuntamiento de Caracas hace al Rey de Espaa referente a la Real Cdula de 10 de febrero de 1795. Caracas, 28 de noviembre de 1796, in Santos Rodulfo Corts, El rgimen de las gracias al sacar en Venezuela durante el perodo Hispnico, Vols. 2 (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1978), Vol. 2, 93-94. In colonial Venezuela, as in other provinces of Spanish America and the Caribbean, pardos were not allowed to enter the clergy, did not have access to education in public schools or universities, could not occupy any post in public office, and were not allowed to marry whites or carry certain arms. Laws forbade pardas to wear certain clothes and accessories such as pearls, silk, and gold. In Caracas, pardos could not walk along certain streets and sidewalks, and were restrained from sitting in certain sections inside the church or in the government houses. See Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la provincia de Venezuela.

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theory, allowed the wealthiest pardos to acquire an expensive dispensation of quality (dispensa de calidad) that granted them white status.71 White creoles ferociously opposed the introduction of this royal edict, because it went against the policy of control of social mobility imposed by the Crown with the establishment of the Real Audiencia in Caracas in 1786. Also, the multiple documents emanated during this conflict show that the royal edict also challenged Spaniards and white creoles perceptions of order and honor as fundamental values of the colonial social structure. In a document presented by the local Cabildo (city hall) to the King of Spain at the end of 1796, white creoles expressed that the honor of whites could not be extended to the pardos, because honor and tradition were values that allowed societies to develop in the proper order and subordination. Members of the cabildo pleaded for
guarding the honor of their ancestors and the thoughts of their elders, saving them from the outrage of having to mix with pardos favored by a Royal Decree that promises elevation for them, that announces equality, disorder, and corruption72

Venezuelas eighteenth century society was a society founded on social privileges, differences, and internal struggles that jeopardized its apparent stability. During the last decade of the eighteenth century, international circumstances also

71

For a comprehensive study and a documentary compilation of this Royal Decree, see Rodulfo Corts, El rgimen de las gracias al sacar. Conserve con el honor de sus ascendientes y con los pensamientos de sus mayores ahorrndoles el ultraje que les resulta de la mezcla con los Pardos con las gracias que ofrece la Real Cdula de la elevacin que les promete, de la igualdad que les anuncia, y del desorden y corrupcin See Informe que el Ayuntamiento de Caracas hace al Rey de Espaa referente a la Real Cdula de 10 de febrero de 1795. Caracas, 28 de noviembre de 1796, in Rodulfo Corts, El rgimen de las gracias al sacar, Vol. 2, 93-94.

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jeopardized the stability of the Spanish colonies and its social orders. The events of the French Revolution and especially Caribbean turmoil increased fears and social frictions. In my work, I argue that, although this period is characterized by a political and economic reorganization of the province in accordance with the Bourbon reforms, society was divided among different social and racial groups that were in permanent rivalry and segregation from each other. These groups used multiple webs of knowledge transmission to pursue diverse political agendas, creating conspiracies against the local government, and questioning some aspects of the political, economic, and social orders. The different plots and rebellions that took place during the last decade of the eighteenth century force us to question the harmonious picture that some historians have depicted of this period, and motivate us to adopt a more nuanced perspective that understands social struggles as open fields for negotiations and contestation.

4. Methodological Approach and Historical Sources

This dissertation deals with a vast number of sources that are not restricted to the analysis and interpretation of the violent events or social movements per se, but that serve to illustrate the transmission of political knowledge and social categories during a longer period. A history of social movements and cultural practices, in this sense, draws on neglected sources that shed light on the everyday forms of

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communication through which social subjects offered representations of themselves and of the others: the emergence of new reading practices, the proliferation of tertulias and public debates, the spread of anonymous hand-written documents in the city and in rural regions, the spread of revolutionary songs, books and pamphlets. All such practices were involved, in one way or another, in the emergence of subaltern rebellious movements and the colonial state responses, and understanding their dynamics helps us comprehend the formation and dynamics of the social events themselves. When I began this research I was cautioned that I would probably not find much material on the circulation of information about the revolutionary Caribbean in Venezuela. However my research has yielded documentation that contains ample references to the circulation of French and Caribbean mostly Haitian news and revolutionary ideas among the Venezuelan population. Among the sources from which valuable data has been obtained during my research are: Haciendas inventories and accounts, planters correspondence, correspondence between colonial officers and the home government, official correspondence between Caribbean colonial officers and Venezuelan authorities, royal decree, correspondence of immigrants coming from Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo to Venezuelan ports and cities, extracts of wills, ship inventories, post-mortem inventories, legal actions and proceedings between masters and slaves, and travelers accounts and chronicles.

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My research on the movement of the black rebellion of Coro in 1795, the Gual and Espaa conspiracy of la Guaira in 1797, and other lesser revolts in the coastal towns of Venezuela, were drawn from court records housed in the Archivo General de la Nacin in Caracas and the Archivo General de Indias in Seville. The Archivo General de la Nacin in Caracas, specifically the sections Gobernacin y Capitana General, Intendencia y Ejrcito, Registro de Aragua, Reales Provisiones, Reales Ordenes, Reales Cdulas, and Diversos, contain large numbers of records related to these rebellious events and also valuable information about the different measures and controls that local authorities adopted in order to control the introduction and spreading of revolutionary materials. The Archivo Arquideocesano de Caracas, another important Caracas resource, has several valuable records generated by the Holy Inquisition in Caracas, which contain interesting data regarding the prohibition and control of books, pamphlets, and other written materials in the city. A critical reading of these sources enabled me to situate readings and webs of information within a larger context involving state-church control and revolutionary forces, and to consider how political dislocation and unexpected alliances opened up possibilities for resistance and rebellion during these years. This dissertation does not concentrate on one historical event in particular. It rather studies cultural practices and representations that emerged in diverse contexts of the Venezuelan province during the Age of Revolution. In Chapter Two, I study different written materials concerning the political and social circumstances of the

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revolutionized Atlantic - Spain, France, and the Caribbean - that circulated and were being read, shared, and discussed in the ports and urban centers of the Province of Venezuela during the end of the eighteenth century. I also seek to analyze the ways in which diverse social groups came into contact with these written materials and developed strategies to spread the ideas contained in them. The origin, nature, motivations, characteristics, and intentions of these written materials differed. However, colonial institutions, such as the Church, the Holy Inquisition and the General Captaincy, established regulations controlling the circulation of printed materials that contained precepts against the Catholic Church, Christian morality, the monarchical state, and the social order. In this chapter, I will analyze what kind of materials were transmitted through multiple media and practices (hand-written copies, public readings, and recitations), and were transformed into meanings that framed the political and social debates taking place during this period. Most of these texts raised questions about the monarchical regime, the social order, and the abolition of slavery that attracted the attention of local elites and subalterns. Chapter Three studies the impact that the mobilization of people from the Revolutionary Atlantic had in the Province of Venezuela during the first years of the French Revolution and the Saint-Domingue rebellions. Despite all the mechanisms that the government established and executed in order to control the entry of foreigners in the ports and urban centers of the province, between 1791 and 1796, French and Caribbean people entered the province and brought news and information

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about the Revolutions. This wave of rumors seriously preoccupied the officials who found it hard to control the oral transmission of information. During the years of 1793 and 1794, for example, the Governor of Spanish Santo Domingo sent more than 1,000 French prisoners and slaves from Santo Domingo, Martinique, and Guadeloupe to the port of La Guaira. At the outset, local authorities thought that this would be a temporary situation and that those slaves could be easily sold among the local hacendados, or could be sent to other cities and ports of Spanish America. However, these two solutions did not come as easily and quickly as they expected and problems began to arise as the voices of the prisoners permeated the walls of the prison and circulated in the streets of La Guaira and Caracas. In this chapter, I seek to analyze some of the stories of the revolution and the wave of rumors that erupted from this situation, in order to understand the several versions of the Haitian Revolution that circulated in the province and that contributed to white paranoia and repressive behavior, as well as to black rebelliousness and hope. In Chapter Four, I explore one social movement in particular: the black rebellion of Coro of 1795. Here, I offer a description of the social and labor landscape of the region, and the everyday rhythms of plantation culture, paying particular attention to the manner in which state control, work regimes, and social relations became critical to the evolution and dissemination of insurgent ideas and designs. In this way, free and enslaved blacks created crevices in the mantle of control, and some used these opportunities to plan the rebellion in the region. To address the underlying problem of

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confroting the external and internal influences that promoted rebellion, this chapter analyzes the different sources of information that linked the events of Saint-Domingue with the rebellion of Coro and opened a space for contestation and rebellion. My hypothesis is that Saint-Domingue became a shared knowledge that was used by the Coro rebels to threaten elites and negotiate their economic and social demands, and was used by the elites to justify repression and control. This chapter pays special attention to the ambiguous and manipulative official narratives that emerged to justify judicial irregularities, but also confronts them with other narratives constructed from the subaltern perspective, which allow us to question the motivations and agendas of the black rebels of Coro. In 1797, a subversive republican movement emerged in the city of La Guaira under the leadership of Manuel Gual and Jose Mara Espaa. The movement, which started forming in 1794, stood for liberty and equality and the Rights of Man and established a plan of action contemplating the downfall of Spanish control and the introduction of a Republican government. Its main goals were to introduce freedom of trade, the abolition of slavery and Indian tributes, and the elimination of taxes, while pleading for harmony between whites, Indians, and blacks. Gual and Espaa obtained remarkable support from a group of pardos and whites, small merchants, royal officials, soldiers, and artisans of La Guaira and Caracas with whom they shared a rich network of information related to ideas of revolution, equality, and republican principles. The historiography that has studied the conspiracy of Gual y Espaa asserts

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that the conspirators produced a considerable number of texts intended to instruct their followers. Among those documents are proclamations of insurrection, poems, stories, songs, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, along with other interesting revolutionary documents from France and Spain that represent fundamental sources for understanding the political knowledge supporting this conspiracy. In Chapter Five, I analyze the different ways in which these actors produced a common language and information webs for political opposition. I am interested in understanding the communicational strategies they adopted in order to recruit people of different races and social status, as well as the circulation of the political ideas coming from the Revolutionary Caribbean that supported this socially unique movement. Most historians contend that rich white creoles and landowners did not support the conspiracy of La Guaira because it was considered too Jacobin and revolutionary, and they disliked the involvement of pardos and free blacks in the movement. Therefore, the elites remained loyal to Spanish rule, seeing it as the most effective guarantee of order and hierarchy. However, this loyalty of the Venezuelan white aristocracy would be eroded during the first decade of nineteenth century when the crisis of the Spanish monarchy led them to make a bid for independence. The Province of Venezuela felt the impact of the slave insurrection of Saint Domingue almost as soon as it began; however from 1798 to 1804, this impact became stronger as boatloads of Saint-Domingues and Spanish Santo Domingos refugees were disembarking on Venezuelan shores. Thanks to the controversial circumstances

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surrounding their flight, Spanish and French Saint-Dominguans attracted great attention from the authorities and the locals who carefully listened to the stories of chaos and terror they repeatedly told. The last chapter examines the character and nature of these representations of the Haitian Revolution in order to understand also the Venezuelan responses to these characterizations of violence. Saint-Dominguan exiles not only raised feelings of terror and fear in white elites, but also raised questions about slavery, freedom and equality among free blacks and slaves, and about the relationship between masters and their slaves. The stories, rumors, and debates that these exiles brought with them created more open and contested political spaces for dominant groups and subalterns to express their political ideas and social values, and to negotiate the terms slaves labor conditions. 73 Through this work, I have found that within the emerging spaces for political debate during the last years of the eighteenth century, the representations of the Haitian Revolution were crucial to the ways free blacks and slaves gave shape to their social agendas and movements, as well as to the ways the colonial state and the white elites justified vigilance and persecution of the colored population. In the confrontational social setting of the late eighteenth century, Haiti was a discursive fulcrum that allowed coloreds to challenge elites, using white fear to advance their
73

See, for example, Vctor Uribe-Urans The Birth of Public Sphere in Latin America during the Age of Revolution, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 42, no. 2 (April, 2002): 425-457. For an interesting discussion on the independence movement and Public Sphere in Venezuela, see Rodolfo Ramrez- Ovalles, La opinin sea consagrada. Articulacin e instauracin del aparato de opinion pblica republicana 1810-1821 (Caracas: Fundacin Bancaribe y Academia Nacional de la Historia, 2009).

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demands. It also gave fearful elites cause for maintaining colored population contented, and for exercising tighter control over them, especially restricting their access to the public political sphere in subsequent years as the independence movement gained ground in Venezuela. 74

74

Studies focusing on the emergence of independence movements in Latin American contend that during the crisis of the Spanish monarchy in 1808, the demand for information regarding the monarchical crisis had an impact on the emergence of public spaces for political debate in different cities of Latin America. Francois-Xavier Guerra, for example, explores the emergence of an early form of public opinion in Latin American countries during the years of 1808-1814, at a time which saw the promulgation of the free-press and the proliferation of newspapers and gazettes in the Hispanic world. See Franois Xavier Guerra, Modernidad e independencias: ensayos sobre las revoluciones hispnicas (Madrid: Fundacin Studium y Ediciones Encuentro, 2009), Chapter 8. Christopher Conways study of the Gaceta de Caracas also pays particular attention to the diffusion of political ideas through written channels and the proliferation of public spaces for reading and intellectual gatherings in Caracas and La Guaira at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Christopher Conway, Letras combatientes: relectura de la Gaceta de Caracas, 1808-1822, Revista Iberoamericana, 214 (2006): 77-92. However, other authors, such as Vctor Uribe-Uran, provide comparative evidence that at least an incipient public sphere emerged within colonial Spanish America's civil societies in the late colonial period. His perspective, although not entirely revisionist is an argument that challenges the view that intellectual debate and critique took place in a mostly private spaces at that time. See Uribe-Uran, The Birth of Public Sphere in Latin America during the Age of Revolution.

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CHAPTER II

The Revolutions on Paper: Transmission of Political Knowledge and the Interfaces Between the Oral and the Written Communication in Colonial Venezuela

1. Transmission of Political Knowledge: From the History of Books to the History of Reading.

One June night in 1794, a British Captain, William Gisborne went to the house of the Governor and Captain General of the Province of Venezuela, Don Pedro Carbonell, and told him that after he arrived with a load of 100 African blacks in the Port of La Guaira - the most important port of colonial Venezuela - an official and guardian of the port visited his ship, and asked him if he was carrying newspapers or written materials. Captain Gisborne provided him with one english gazette and the guardian confiscated it. The captains translator requested the official to return the gazette but he refused and left. After hearing Gisbornes account, the governor became concerned about the destiny of the gazette, and ordered the commander of La Guaira to find out who took the gazette, and to collect it immediately along with all the

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copies that could have been made of it.75 Days later, the commander found out that the official who made the visit and seized the gazette was Don Juan Joseph Mendiri, a resident of La Guaira, Royal Interim accountant and guard of the port, who returned the gazette and stated that no copies were made of it. At this point, although there seemed to be a certain mistrust between the high-level government and their subalterns the need to maintain the tranquility and calmness of the region prevented Carbonell from proceeding with further inquiries. Three years later, in July 1797, a republican conspiracy led by the white creoles Manuel Gual and Jos Mara Espaa was uncovered in the city of La Guaira. The Official Guard, Juan Joseph Mendiri, was among the people who collaborated in this conspiracy that stood for liberty and equality and the Rights of Man, and that established a plan of action that contemplated the establishment of a republican government.76 What is extremely interesting to note here is that it was Mendiri, the main guard of the port and the person responsible for the task of controlling the entry of revolutionary papers and gazettes, who finally was accused of participating in the creation of an archive of gazettes, pamphlets, manuscripts, and books about republicanism and abolitionism that intellectually fed a conspiracy in which hundreds of people from different races, education, professions, and economic statuses

75

Expediente formado con las disposiciones referents a evitar la introduccion en esta Provincia de papeles procedentes de la Francia, que contengan seales de especie alucivas a la libertad, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 290-293. Juan Jos Mendiri, 42 years old, was the Guardamayor of the Port and royal accountant. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

76

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participated. How did these texts circulate among this diverse population? How were they received? These are some of the questions I will try to address in this chapter. Based on my studies on the history of reading and modes of communication, political knowledge, and popular groups, this chapter aims at understanding the semi-literate world of colonial Venezuela, as well as the social dynamics involved in processes of knowledge transmission that could have allowed the social expansion of such knowledge and the emergence of insurgency movements. Historians of ideas, on the one hand, and historians of political movements, on the other, have often assumed a straightforward causal relation between the circulation of certain ideas in particular periods of time and the emergence of social movements. Latin American historiography provides different examples of this. In order to understand, for example, the ideological origins and inspirational sources for the independence movements emerged, historians have frequently relied on data provided by the social history of printed materials (and especially of the books) and intellectual history, establishing unquestioned connections between the expansion of Enlightened French political ideas and Spanish reformism and the emergence of political agendas against colonial governments and the Spanish monarchy.77 Generally

77

See Richard Herr, Espaa y la revolucin del s. XVIII (Madrid: Aguilar, 1964); Jos Torres Revello, El libro, la imprenta y el periodismo en Amrica durante la dominacin espaola (Buenos Aires: Facultad de Filosofa y Letras, 1940); Guerra, Revolucin francesa y revoluciones hispnicas: una relacin compleja and La difusin de la modernidad: alfabetizacin, imprenta y revolucin, in Modernidad e independencias. In Venezuela there has been abundant historical work that studies the influence of revolutionary books and readings in the independence movement (1810-1824). See Manuel Prez Vila, La biblioteca del Libertador (Caracas, 1960), Bibliotecas coloniales en Venezuela, Revista de Historia 3, no. 12 (1962): 15-25, Los libros en la colonia y en la independencia (Caracas:

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speaking, these historians assume clear threads between the content and circulation of certain printed materials among the political elite, and the content of political agendas.78 However, many of these works do not consider or question the ways and the practices through which the knowledge contained in these books and printed materials circulated among different social groups and created an environment of political debate in which not only elites but subaltern groups engaged with and produced contested discourses. These debates have not always found their way into historical records and historiographical narratives. Arguing that historians cannot reconstruct the cultural and intellectual history of social groups and communities by considering exclusively material objects, Roger Chartier contends that it is necessary to create a history that can capture the gesture that transforms the texts into knowledge and ideas.79 Certainly, it is important to know how many or what kind of books were sold in bookstores or which books were found in private libraries or ship inventories, since this information allows
Oficina Central de Informacin, 1970); also Pedro Grases, La biblioteca de Francisco de Miranda (Caracas: Chromotip, 1966), Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela hasta el fin de la primera repblica, 1812 (Caracas: Ediciones de la Presidencia de la Repblica, 1967), and Libros y libertad (Caracas: Ediciones de la Presidencia de la Repblica, 1974); and Idelfonso Leal, La cultura venezolana en el siglo XVIII (Discurso de incorporacin a la Academia Nacional de la Historia) (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1971).
78

It is quite common to read in Simn Bolivars and Francisco de Mirandas biographies, for example, that these leaders were avid readers of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Ferguson, Voltaire and other enlightened thinkers, and that these reading tastes defined their political agendas and actions in favor of Latin American independence. See Prez Vila, La biblioteca del Libertador, and La formacin intelectual del Libertador (Caracas: Ediciones del Presidencia de la Repblica, 1979); and Grases, La biblioteca de Francisco de Miranda. Roger Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).

79

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us to have a general idea of intellectual tastes and interests. However, cultural historians, such as Roger Chartier, Robert Darnton and Guglielmo Cavallo, believe that these studies do not provide a satisfactory understanding of the impact of printed materials in a given historical period. For them it is necessary to understand how those materials were read. It is crucial to analyze the cultural practices through which those texts were digested and integrated into everyday life and into the frame of social movements and rebellions. Therefore they propose a history of reading.80 The act of reading a written text should not be perceived as a simple submission to a textual machinery. On the contrary, reading should be seen as an act of interpretation: a practice out of which meanings and perceptions emerge. It is also a learned cultural practice with uses certain instruments and objects, which takes place in specific places and times, and which generates motivations, representations, and images among readers and listeners. Therefore, historians of reading recommend adopting a perspective that allows us to capture the gestures and social practices that transform knowledge into ideas and then, sometimes into collective and political actions. Following this approach, I understand reading as an appropriation of the

80

There is abundant bibliography about the History of Reading and its historiographic repercussions. See, for example, Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print; Cultural History: Between Practices and Representations (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988), The Order of Books: Readers, Authors and Libraries in Europe Between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), and Roger Chartier and Guglielmo Cavallo, A History of Reading in the West (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999). See also Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995), and An Early Information Society: News and the Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris, The American Historical Review 105, no. 1 (2000): 1-35.

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text, both because it actualizes the texts semantic potential and because it creates a mediation for knowledge of the self through comprehension of the text.81 From 1791 to 1800, written revolutionary information from different cities of Europe and America, but especially from Saint-Domingue and Spanish Santo Domingo, filtered into Venezuela, mortifying local officials and elites, and prompting the curiosity of the population. In this chapter, I aim to provide a general idea of the diverse written revolutionary and abolitionist materials that circulated and were read, shared, and discussed in the ports and urban centers of Venezuela during the last years of the eighteenth century. 82 But more importantly, I also seek to analyze the ways through which diverse social groups came into contact with these written materials and developed strategies and media, such as hand-written copies, public readings, and composing of songs and dialogues to spread the information. These practices have allowed me to perceive a widening and social expansion for the transmission of political knowledge, as more social groups became interested in accessing and

81

See Roger Chartier, ed., The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 157. Recently, there has been an emerging interest in exploring literacy, revolution, and the public sphere in Latin America in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. See, for example, Sara Castro-Klarn and John Charles Chasteen, eds., Beyond Imagined Communities, Reading and Writing the Nation in NineteenthCentury Latin America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003); Guerra, La difusin de la modernidad: alfabetizacin, imprenta y revolucin, in Modernidad e independencias, and Forms of Communication, Political Spaces, and Cultural Identities in the Creation of Spanish American Nations, in Beyond Imagined Communities, 3-32; Claudia Rosas Lauro, La imagen de la Revolucin Francesa en el virreinato peruano a fines del siglo XVIII (Undergraduate diss., Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per, Lima, 1997); Vctor Peralta Ruiz, Prensa y redes de comunicacin en el virreinato del Per, 1790-1821, Tiempos de Amrica 12, (2005): 1-20; Ferrer, Noticias de Hait en Cuba, and RamrezOvalles, La opinin sea consagrada.

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responding to new information about the revolutionary movements and the political debates implicit in these movements. Here, I argue that during times of revolutionary struggle, more sectors of the Venezuelan society engaged in the political sphere in different ways: from the acquisition of more books about politics and the configuration of discussion groups to discuss these, to the development of strategies to stir mobilization and conspire against the government, challenging the colonial state and its structures of power. Eighteenth-century Caracas, as I will show here, was a semi-literate society where different social groups had differentiated and unequal access to the written word. Literate people normally belonged to upper social groups, while the vast majority of the non-literate population belonged to subaltern groups and transmitted their knowledge in an oral culture, influenced though by writing and texts.83 In the colonial province of Caracas, the boundaries established between the written and oral worlds were not always clearly defined or limited. For instance: the oral reading of brief written materials such as pamphlets and newspapers in private or public settings was a common although not necessarily extensive practice used to spread

83

For a rich discussion on the ways that non-literate people position themselves vis-a-vis the lettered bureaucracy, colonization, state formation, and state power, see James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed, An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009); Donald F. McKenzie, Orality, Literacy and Print in Early New Zealand, in Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 77-130; Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency, Chapter 6; and Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing, the Organization of Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

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information.84 Considering these practices, we could assert that non-literate people found different ways within oral channels to access the written world and its texts, to make them circulate orally among their family members, neighbors, and friends.85 During turbulent revolutionary times, social actors found more ways to spread political knowledge among the non-literate, as a way of promoting their participation on discussion groups and political awareness. In this sense, my work seeks to challenge the idea that only the colonial elites followed the revolutionary political debate, and that subaltern groups such a pardos, free-blacks and slaves also developed their own visions about revolutionary values such as liberty and equality. The history of reading and of modes of knowledge transmission is a history of cultural practices. I follow approaches that do not assume strict and linear correspondences between cultural cleavages and social hierarchies.86 In this line of thought, I prefer to analyze how cultural practices, such as reading, produce a fluid diffusion of ideas and shared practices that cross social boundaries. Throughout this

84

There were literate artisans who read newspapers and gazettes to others in public places (barbershops, streets, squares and shops). See Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas. For an assesment of the diffusion of political ideas through written channels and the proliferation of public spaces for reading and intellectual gatherings in Caracas and La Guaira at the beginning of the nineteenth century, see Christopher Conways study of the Gaceta de Caracas, Letras combatientes. At times, the dichotomy literate/non-literate seems problematic for understanding semi-literate societies, where individuals could have had reading skills, but could not write at all, or viceversa. They could be excellent copyists, without knowing how to read a sentence of their manuscripts. See for example, Rosamond McKitterick, The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). See Chartier, ed., The Culture of Print; Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980); and Van Young, The Other Rebellion.

85

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chapter, I will not privilege one social group in particular; on the contrary, I will try to understand how different texts and sources of information generated particular significance and connections between diverse social groups that have often been considered distant and even opposed to each other. However, my analysis will try to avoid simplifications about common worlds of meaning shared by different social groups. The common spaces of interaction and communication should help us understand the processes of negotiation, transaction, imposition, and contestation in which different social groups engaged in their struggles for social and economic power, as well as over the meaning of politics. Studying how texts were read and spread will give us the opportunity to explore what images and representations of the revolutionized Atlantic were being developed and used in the Province of Venezuela. In this chapter, I aim to analyze which texts related to France and its turbulent colonies were circulating in diverse ports and cities of the Province of Venezuela, trying also to discover how those texts entered the province, who circulated them, and who read, consumed, and talked about them. It is particularly interesting to study also how the colonial institutions, such as the Real Audiencia, the local government, the Church and the Inquisition, tried to control the circulation and spread of these texts. The origin, nature, motivations, characteristics, and intentions of these written materials differed, however colonial institutions established clear regulations regarding the circulation of printed materials

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that contained chanllenges to the Catholic Church, Christian morality, the Monarchical State, and the social order.87 During the eighteenth century the colonial state and the Catholic Church tried to control the existence and circulation of excessively enlightened texts that could easily confuse subaltern actors, who were usually perceived by elites as simple minded. By the end of the century, however, these institutions became even more concerned about the spread of the revolutionary disease through written channels and activated new mechanisms of control and vigilance. Understanding the nature and direction of these concerns, as well as the dynamics of control, allow us to comprehend elites representations of French and Caribbean revolutionary movements and the proliferation of feelings of fear and terror among those who sought at all cost to avoid suffering the fate as Saint-Domingue.

2. Books, Readers, and Reading Practices in Colonial Venezuela.

During the month of February 1800, members of the Real Consulado of the Province of Venezuela addressed a letter to the King of Spain in which they sought for permission to have a printing press in the city of Caracas. In this letter, they argued
87

Indexes containing lists of prohibited books and papers were read aloud at Sunday Masses and were fixed on the doors of the Church. Agents of the Inquisition visited private houses in order to collect prohibited books and/or to censor chapters and extracts of some of them. During Sunday sermons, priests reprimanded readers of seditious papers and alerted them about divine punishments they could suffer for reading prohibited materials. These sermons showed the Churchs interest in controlling readers consciences precisely when institutional control over the heterogeneous and flexible information networks was increasingly inefficient. See Cristina Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas.

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that the establishment of such a press was fundamental for the development of agriculture, commerce, and the arts in the province:
With it, the experienced farmers will communicate with other fellow countrymen all the knowledge they have obtained in their fields in order to improve crops; artists will do the same for the benefit of their class, and other citizens will feel encouraged to share the product of their chores.88

This petition not only confirms the well-known difficulty that most inhabitants of the province faced in trying to acquire printed materials and books from the peninsula. It also shows the interest that members of the Consulado had in disseminating a local knowledge that, in accordance with the spirit of the Enlightenment and Spanish reformism, could produce positive educational, economic, and commercial transformations in the Province. 89 The importance they afforded to local knowledge may also be understood as a realization of the differences between the peninsular and the American worlds, and of the need for Spanish Americans to

88

Con ella comunicarn los experimentados labradores quanto conocimiento hayan adquirido sobre los respectivos ramos de su aplicacin, los demas sus compatriotas a fin de mejorar el cultivo; los artistas ejecutaran lo propio beneficio de los de su clase; y los demas ciudadanos se animarn dar a luz el fruto de sus tareas, in Carta del Real Consulado al Rey de Espaa, Febrero 1800, AGI, Caracas, 914. Most books arriving in the cities of the Province of Venezuela came from the Spanish Peninsula. Spanish books were very expensive for Venezuelan readers who had to wait several months to read them. See Idelfonso Leal, Libros y bibliotecas en Venezuela colonial (1633-1767) (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1978); and Cristina Soriano, El correr de los libros en la cotidianidad caraquea. Mercado y redes de circulacin de libros en Caracas durante el siglo XVIII, in Mezclado y sospechoso: movilidad e identidades, Espaa y Amrica (siglos XVI-XVIII), ed. Gregoire Salinero (Madrid: Casa de Velzquez, 2005), 229-49.

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be not only receptors, but also producers of knowledge concerning their own realities.90 The permission for a printing press was denied without further explanation, and the city of Caracas, capital of the Province of Venezuela, was one of the last cities in Spanish America to receive royal permission to possess the technology.91 It was not until the first decade of the nineteenth century and in the midst of the crisis of the Spanish monarchy with Napoleons invasion, that the city finally obtained permission to have one, in order to print texts supporting the rights of Fernando VII and to legitimate the Juntas.92 Nevertheless, the lack of printing-presses during this

90

For an interesting discussion of the problem of similarities and differences between the American and the peninsular worlds, see John Elliot, Mundos parecidos, mundos distintos, in Mezclado y sospechoso, XI-XXVIII. Regarding the exchange of knowledge between Spaniards and the indigenous, Jorge Caizares-Esguerra presents an interesting approach regarding the mutual process of transmission of knowledge. He proposes a critical reassessment to understand the complex dynamics of indigenous and Spanish interactions in the New World. This critical assessment looks for the ways that Europeans of the sixteenth century incorporated or adapted indigenous knowledge to their histories and compilations, and Caizares argues that sixteenth century Spanish historians in the New World exhibit willingness to listen to the voices of non-European subalterns, recognizing their proficiency in producing knowledge. See Jorge Caizares-Esguerra, How to Write the History of the New World, Histories, Epistemologies and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001). In New Spain, for example, the printing press arrived as early as 1539; in the Viceroyalty of Peru it arrived in 1581. By the end of the eighteenth century the cities of La Habana, Bogot, Quito, Buenos Aires, and Santiago, all had printing presses. The reasons why it came late to Venezuela are a subject of an interesting historical debate. Some argue that by the time the Province of Venezuela acquired administrative, political, and commercial interest on the peninsula, the menace of the circulation of revolutionary ideas in the Atlantic world increased and eroded the motivations for establishing printing presses in port cities and urban centers where could become dangerous machines for disseminating their revolutionary propaganda. See Pedro Grases, La imprenta en Venezuela (Caracas: Seix Barral, 1981) and Libros y libertad. Agustn Millares Carlo, Introduccin a la historia del libro y de las bibliotecas (Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1986); Jos Luis Martnez, El libro en Hispanoamrica. Origen y desarrollo (Madrid: Fundacin Germn Daz Snchez Ruiprez, 1987); Cristina Soriano, Buscar libros en una

91

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intelectually dynamic period did not necessarily affect public access to and interest in books. On the contrary, it was the reason why an original and heterogeneous market for books and networks for the circulation of printed and hand-copied materials developed in different cities and ports of the Province of Venezuela. During the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, these networks for the circulation of written materials served to spread information about anti-monarchical propaganda, political violence, ethno-racial confrontations, and liberal values such as equality and liberty. Little has been done on the study of literacy in the Province of Venezuela during the eighteenth century. Nevertheless there are a few studies that provide some information about private libraries and lists of books arriving on ships. They can be used to shed light on reading tastes and practices in the province toward the end of the eighteenth century, when the first written materials on political and social upheavals in France and the Caribbean started to circulate in the Atlantic World. 93 We need to bear in mind that the studies of private libraries and ships inventories in the main cities do not allow us to draw definitive conclusions about literacy levels in any given community. If, for example, we take into consideration the number of wills that contained library inventories, we could infer that by the end of

ciudad sin imprentas. La circulacin de los libros en la Caracas de finales del siglo XVIII, Litterae. Cuadernos de Cultura Escrita (forthcoming, 2011); and Ramrez- Ovalles, La opinin sea consagrada.
93

Leal, La cultura venezolana en el siglo XVIII, and Libros y bibliotecas en Venezuela; Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas and El correr de los libros en la cotidianidad caraquea.

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eighteenth century almost 13 percent of the population of the city of Caracas possessed books in their homes and knew how to read them.94 We should be aware, however, of some methodological difficulties. First, not everyone who possessed books in their homes had the possibility of counting on a post-mortem inventory. Second, not everyone had books or written materials expensive enough or important enough to be included in a will. Third, not everyone having a library necessarily knew how to read those books. Therefore, in order to have a clear idea of literacy levels, the information contained in post-mortem inventories should be complemented with other sources such as marriage registers signatures and censuses.95 However, if we consider some broad characteristics of private libraries and their owners, we may form a general idea of the social composition of readers and their literary tastes. The literate world of the Province of Venezuela, as in other urban centers of America, was a complicated one. The societies in the main urban centers of the

94

In a previous work, I show that of 727 testaments (registered in the city of Caracas from 1770 to 1810), only 92 (12.5percent) contained library inventories. See Cristina Soriano, Bibliotecas, lectores y saber en Caracas durante el siglo XVIII, in Idalia Garca and Pedro Rueda (eds.) El libro en circulacin en la Amrica colonial: produccin, circuitos de distribucin y conformacin de bibliotecas en los siglos XVI-XVIII, (Mxico: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, forthcoming, 2011). For interesting discussions regarding methodological problems with analyzing literacy and nonliteracy in past societies, as well as the concept of literacy itself, see classic works such as Roger Schofield, The Measurement of Literacy in Pre-Industrial England, in Literacy in Traditional Societies, ed. Jack Goody (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968); Carlo Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West (London: Penguin Books, 1970); David Cressy, Literacy and the Social Rrder. Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); and Franois Furet and Jacques Ozouf, Reading and Writing: Literacy in France from Calvin to Jules Ferry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), Sara T. Nalle, "Literacy and Culture in Early Modern Castile," Past and Present, no. 125 (1989): 65-96. For a critical review of the impact of literacy on popular culture over time see David Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture, England 1750-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

95

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Province of Venezuela, such as Caracas, La Guaira, Valencia, and Puerto Cabello, were mostly semi-literate communities where social groups had differential access to the written word. Based on my research with testaments, post-mortem library inventories, and ship importation lists, I have found that traditionally, the clergy, followed by members of the local nobility, government authorities, and landowners were the social groups best trained to read and that possessed the largest libraries. In the city of Caracas, for example, the clergy possessed almost 20 percent of the private libraries registered in post-mortem inventories, while the white nobility and planters together possessed another 25 percent. Together, both groups possessed almost the 70 percent of all books titles registered in those private libraries. Other social groups, such as the men of letter such as lawyers, seminar and university teachers -, and government functionaries - official secretaries, tax agents, and even scribes possessed 10 percent of the libraries registered in Caracas inventories. People dedicated to commercial activities such as merchants, petty traders, and shopkeepers had 14 percent of the registered libraries.96 I have found that some poor whites left small libraries and I have not found any record of libraries possessed by pardos, free blacks or slaves, however it is important to note that very few inventories belonged to pardos and none to free coloreds and slaves. The question, in this case, is whether this meant that pardos, free blacks and slaves did not read or did not have access to books and written materials. As I will show later in this chapter, this was not the case.
96

See Soriano,Bibliotecas, lectores y saber en Caracas.

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The European Enlightenment and Spanish reformism were deeply felt in the cities and main ports of Spanish America where new scientific knowledge and intellectual interests spread, and where the colonial state promoted the need for increasing literacy among the population and highlighting the importance of expanding useful sciences in order to improve the economic and commercial potential of the region. The Province of Venezuela was no exception: from 1760 until 1810, several containers with a great numbers of books arrived every month in the port of La Guaira, where the Compaia Guizpuzcoana received, commercialized, and distributed numerous editions among avid readers, shopkeepers, and owners of pulperas. By the end of the eighteenth century, a great variety of books on diverse topics circulated in the cities of Caracas and La Guaira. Compared to previous decades, I have found that the last four decades of the eighteenth century witnessed a substantial increase in the number of books brought from Spain to the Province of Venezuela. Consequently the number of private libraries in the cities of the province especially Caracas - increased, and the diversity of the titles contained in these private libraries was also significantly greater.97 I have also found that the books that came from Spain to the Province of Venezuela during the last decades of the colonial period were quite diverse. In the main cities of Venezuela, reading practices expanded beyond the limits of religious
97

Leal, La cultura venezolana en el siglo XVIII, and Libros y bibliotecas en Venezuela; Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas, El correr de los libros en la cotidianidad caraquea, and Bibliotecas, lectores y saber en Caracas. See also Prez Vila, Bibliotecas coloniales en Venezuela, and Vicente Amzaga, Los libros de la Caracas colonial, El Farol 30, no. 28 (1969): 10-13.

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education institutions. Readers experienced the openness that the modern book offered as an instrument to acquire knowledge, to mediate between the empirical reality and the reason of men.98 Of course, not all readers and library owners became modern readers. Venezuelan readers continued to buy classic texts, such as Virgil, Cicero, Titus Livy, and Seneca, and maintained their taste for religious texts such as the Bible, breviaries, catechisms, mass books, the lives of Saints, and theological literature. History, law and medicine continued to be popular among readers who bought illustrated and expensive editions on these subjects. But also during this period, new kinds of books appeared and revealed interesting transformations of literary tastes and of the uses of reading. By the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century I find that the importation of religious books decreased drastically, while there was a significant and growing presence of books about politics, government, administration, commerce, education, agriculture, mathematics, military engineering, history, manuals for artisans, as well as newspapers and gazettes.99 This new configuration of Caracas private libraries went hand in hand with the reformist and Enlightened discourse that
98

On the shift of reading tastes and practices during the Modern period see Chartier, The Order of Books, and Chartier and Cavallo, A History of Reading in the West. My previous study on private libraries shows that the presence of religious books decreased from 53 percent in 1770-1780 to 26 percent in 1800-1810, while other subjects such as military engineering, agriculture, mathematics, politics, and administration doubled their numbers during the last decade of the eighteenth century. This data shows a transformation in the literary tastes of Caracas readers, who seemed to experience a process of re-categorizing books as instruments of knowledge, and as useful media to debate the particular circumstances of the colonial world, the government, and economic development. See Soriano, Bibliotecas, lectores y saber en Caracas.

99

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sought to promote progress and development in the Spanish American region in terms of better knowledge and exploration of the region and its natural resources, labor diversification, increase of the slave trade, wiser administration, and the improvement of commercial activities. Several editions of books written by European and Spanish reformist authors such as Pedro Rodrguez de Campomanes, Melchor de Jovellanos, Nicols de Moratn, Fray Benito Jernimo Feijoo, Jernimo Uztriz, Bernardo Ward, and Juan Sempere y Guarinos, among others, arrived in the Province of Venezuela during the last decades of the eighteenth century.100 All of these authors brought new light and ideas to the Spanish monarchical system, its administrative and legal structure, its agricultural and commercial development, and educational and social progress.101 These Enlightened Spanish intellectuals sought to produce changes in the public social sphere; in general, they promoted the well-being of society through labor and agricultural development, and many of their writings valued the expansion of slavery as mean to increase production. They emphasized the reduction of poverty and
100

See book lists in Registros de Navos, AGI- Sevilla, Contratacin 1693 (years 1770-1773), 1694 (years 1774-1776), 1695 (years 1777-1778); and AGI-Sevilla, Indiferente General 2173, 2177, and 2178. On the character and impact of Spanish Reformism in Spanish territories see Carlos Martnez Shaw, El despotismo ilustrado en Espaa y en las Indias, in El imperio sublevado: monarqua y naciones en Espaa e Hispanoamrica, eds. Vctor Mnguez and Manuel Chust (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 2004); Pere Molas Ribalta, Poltica, economa y derecho, in Historia literaria de Espaa en el siglo XVIII, ed. Francisco Aguilar Pial (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 1996), 32; Francisco Aguilar Pial, La Ilustracin espaola, entre el reformismo y el liberalismo, in La literatura espaola de la Ilustracin: homenaje a Carlos III (Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1989), 39-51; and J. M. Caso Gonzlez, De Ilustracin e ilustrados (Oviedo: Instituto Feijoo de Estudios del siglo XVIII, 1988).

101

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indigence, the need for exporting products from each Province, the development of local industries and factories to compete with the products of other nations, and the significance of public education to eradicate illiteracy and ignorance.102 As Aguilar Pial asserts: Every thoughtful step of these enlightened thinkers would be preceded by words such as public benefit and usefulness, magic words that would change the face of the country.103 During the eighteenth century, Spain and its provinces also witnessed the emergence of a new kind of periodical press that sought to create a more direct and efficient relation between useful knowledge and readers and listeners. An early Spanish newspaper editor, Julin de Velasco commented on the benefits of such periodical press:
The daily events that are happening in the particular matters pertaining to the Arts, the Sciences and healthy literature: Are they contained in Masterpieces already written? The discoveries of Herchel, so important
102

See Pedro Rodrguez de Campomanes, Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria (Madrid: Antonio Sancha, 1774), and Discurso sobre la educacin popular de los artesanos y su fomento (Madrid: Antonio Sancha, 1775); Melchor de Jovellanos, Memorias de la real sociedad econmica de Madrid (Madrid: Antonio Sancha, 1795); Fray Benito Jernimo Feijoo, Theatro crtico universal, o discursos varios, en todo gnero de materias, para desengao de errores communes, dedicado al General de la congregacin de San Benito de Espaa (Madrid: Lorenzo Francisco Mujados, 1726-1739), and Cartas eruditas, y curiosas, en que por la mayor parte, se continua el designio del theatro critico universal, impugnado, o reduciendo a dudosas, varias opinions communes (Madrid: Hdos. Francisco Hierro, 1742); Gernimo de Uztriz, Theorica y practica del comercio y la marina en diferentes discursos y calificados exemplares (Madrid: Antonio Sanz, 1757); Bernardo Ward, Proyecto econmico en que se proponen varias providencias dirigidas a promover los intereses de Espaa (Madrid: Joaqun Ibarra, 1779); Juan Sempere y Guarinos, Historia del luxo y de las leyes suntuarias de Espaa (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1788), and Ensayo de una biblioteca espaola de los mejores escritores del reynado de Carlos III (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1785). All of these titles are frequently found in both, Caracas postmortem inventories and ship inventories from 1760-1810. See Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas, Post-morten inventories and Bibliographic catalogue. Aguilar Pial, La Ilustracin espaola.

103

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to Astronomy, or the discoveries of vaccination, so useful to humanity, etc: By which media were these to be rapidly spread if not by the newspapers of all Europe?104

Newspapers, gazettes, and magazines offered multiple benefits for the expansion of knowledge and the spreading of information because they were inexpensive media accessible to diverse social groups, they were rapidly and regularly produced - favoring the spreading of news about current events -, and the subjects contained in them had a brief presentation that facilitated a fast and concise reading. The Abate Langlet commented in 1763: Few [people] have time to devote themselves to reading entire books On the contrary, the small paper is easy to read, and contains, in its narrow limits, the same matters that are extensively written in the vast boundaries of a masterpiece.105 In general terms, Carlos III of Spain favored the spread of newspapers that could expand the critical thought that his Enlightened depostism promoted. But at the same time, he encouraged the Counsel of Castile to develop strict vigilance over the content and discourse of periodical printed in Spain and its provinces. The critical

104

Los sucesos diarios que van ocurriendo en todos los ramos peculiares de las Artes, de las Ciencias, y de la sana literatura, Se encuentran acaso en las Obras Magistrales ya escritas? Los descubrimientos de Herchel, tan importantes a la Astronoma, los de vacunacin, tan tiles a la humanidad, etc. Por qu medio pudieron propagarse con la rapidez que se deba, ms que por el de los diarios existents en toda Europa?, in Julin de Velasco, Efemrides de la Ilustracin de Espaa (Madrid: Imprenta de Manuel Caballero, no.1, 1/1/1804), 2. Abate Langlet, El hablador juicioso y crtico imparcial. Cartas y discursos eruditos sobre todo gnero de materias tiles y curiosas (Madrid: Imprenta de Francisco Javier Garca, 1763), XII.

105

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narrative of newspapers and gazettes could easily include information and ideas that went against monarchical and religious precepts.106 Moreover, newspapers favored the development of a flexible and extensive ambit for communication between Europe and America, where news about any matter could circulate from one country to another, and from one province to another. Travelers coming to Spanish American cities and ports frequently brought European gazettes and papers in their baggage. These papers contained diverse matters: European court gossip, military and diplomatic reports, political and moral essays, articles on fashion or scientific findings, and poetry.107 In Spanish America, European and North American newspapers and gazettes circulated through the same networks as local newspapers did. Spanish American newspapers printed in Mexico City, Bogot, and Lima, for example, frequently devoted most of their space to news copied verbatim from Madrid newspapers, as this seemed to be a way of overcoming the cultural and geographic frontiers that separated an outlying population from the

106

Many periodicals and gazettes of Madrid, for example, copied extracts and ideas from French writings that expressed critiques against the monarchy and the nobility, and often passed unnoticed to the government. Therefore, Charles III asked his ministers to watch closely the kind of materials that were printed in the periodical press. See Marcelin Defourneax, Inquisicin y censura de libros en la Espaa del siglo XVIII (Madrid: Taurus, 1973); and Fermn De los Reyes Gmez, El libro en Espaa y Amrica, legislacin y censura (siglos XV- XVIII) (Madrid: Arcos, 2000), Vol.1. For a comprehensive list of Spanish newspapers and periodicals of the eighteenth century, see Francisco Aguilar Pial, La prensa espaola en el siglo XVIII. Diarios, revistas y pronsticos (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 1978). For an interesting view on the cultural impact of the press during the Spanish Enlightenment see Inmaculada Urzainqui, Un nuevo instrumento cultural: la prensa peridica, in La repblica de las letras en la Espaa del siglo XVIII, Joaqun lvarez Barrientos, Franois Lpez and Inmaculada Urzainqui (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 1995).

107

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metropolitan center. But as the eighteenth century unfolded, local publishers in Spanish America tried to make their editions actual analogues of European journals by adapting their formats and style to the local communities.108 The Province of Venezuela did not possess printing machines to elaborate newspapers or gazettes until 1808, when a printing press was established in the city of Caracas with the task of producing texts supporting the Rights of Fernando VII and legitimizing the Juntas. Prior to this date, all the newspapers, magazines and gazettes circulating in the Province of Caracas came from other provinces or nations. A close look at Caracas inventories of private libraries and travelers baggage allows us to pinpoint the periodical literature that was circulating among readers and listeners of the province. Periodicals such as El Semanario Erudito (Madrid), El Semanario Econmico (Madrid), El Mercurio Histrico (Madrid), La Gaceta de Madrid (Madrid), La Gaceta de Mxico (Mxico city), and El Censor (Madrid), among others, were frequently found in local private libraries and personal belongings of travelers coming to the mainland. In addition, foreign newspapers like the London Gazette (London), the London Journal (London), the Pennsylvannia Gazette (Philadelphia), and various French periodicals were also found during government searches made of the homes and baggage of suspicious readers in the city and ports of the Province.109

108 109

See Torres Revello, El libro, la imprenta y el periodismo en Amrica.

See Informe de la Real Audiencia sobre lectura de libros y papeles sediciosos relacionados con la sublevacion de la Guaira, 1797, AGI, Caracas, 432, 434 and 436; and see Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela, and Leal, La cultura venezolana en el siglo XVIII.

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I perceive the development of a more stable and structured market for books in the Province of Venezuela by the end of the eighteenth century: increasing numbers of new editions were offered in local shops, and more people imported books for their libraries.110 However, we also see the proliferation of social spaces where politics, books, authors, and readings were discussed. Foreign visitors noted the nature of these gatherings in the main ports and cities of Venezuela. The German explorer Alexander Von Humboldt, who traveled to Venezuela in 1799, visited many cities such as Cuman, La Guaira and Caracas and rural regions of the Province. In Caracas, he stayed for two months and was welcomed by the Governor and Capitan General Don Manuel Guevara Vasconcelos. While in Caracas, Humboldt attended gatherings and dinners where he developed a sense of the topics and themes most attractive to the people of Caracas. The white families of Caracas, he noted, were well educated and had knowledge of the Italian and French masterpieces of literature, and were musically cultivated. He felt, however, that politics was a favorite topic of discussion. At the same time, he commented:
It seems to me that there is a strong tendency towards a profound study of the Sciences in Mexico and Santa Fe, more taste for literature and

110

Ships inventory lists show the frequency and quantity of books that were imported to the Province of Venezuela during the second half of the eighteenth century. In the years 1773-1778, the importation Company La Vda. Irisarri e hijos normally sent more than thirty cajones (big boxes) of books once or twice a year. The Compaa Guizpuzcoana also sent an important number of boxes of books every four or five months. See AGI, Contratacin, 1694 (1774-1776) and Contratacin, 1695 (1777-1778). In comparison with previous decades, the quantity of imported books for public sale significantly increased during the last three decades of the eighteenth century. These ship inventories of titles are still waiting for a detailed analysis that could give us a quantitative approach to the study of the market for books in Venezuela at the end of the eighteenth century.

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what the imagination could entertain in Quito and Lima, more light focused on political relations among the nations, and a more extensive perspective about the state of the colonies and the Metropolis, in La Havana and Caracas.111

He believed that the commercial and information web that connected the Antilles with Europe created what he called a politically enlightened environment for Cuban and Venezuelan societies. Speaking of men from Caracas, he mentioned that a change of ideas had produced two kinds of men: one kind tied to old uses and customs, and another open to new ideas but so contaminated by foreign influences, that they often lose the appropriated track for achieving happiness and social order. Humboldt was surprised to learn about the lack of a printing press in the city, recognizing that this situation was probably not the responsibility of the inhabitants of the province, who appreciated the importance of reading, but the result of a distrustful governmental policy.112 Another European visitor, Don Franois-Joseph de Pons, a French agent who traveled from 1801 to 1804 to various cities of the Province of Venezuela, also noticed a change in the formation and education of the white youth who were
aware of the insufficiency of their education, endeavor to supply what is lacking, and peruse with avidity the works of foreign authors. Several of them attempt with the aid of dictionaries, to translate and speak French and English languages, particularly the former. They do not think, like their fathers, that geography is a superfluous science, or that history is a
111

Alexander Von Humboldt, Viaje a las regiones equinocciales del Nuevo Mundo, in Alejandro de Humboldt por tierras de Venezuela (Caracas: Fundacin de Promocin Cultural de Venezuela, 1987), 136. Ibid, 140.

112

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useless study. Commerce has begun to be less despised than formerly, although the mania in favour of rank and distinction continues as great as ever, it is natural to suppose, that it must yield in its turn to the progress of reason.113

People of diverse social groups gathered at inns, taverns, pulperas, barbershops, and the street market to discuss European politics, books, and writings. These discussions were often denounced by concerned inhabitants of the city to governmental institutions to members of the Real Audiencia or the Real Intendencia, for example114 or to priests and members of the Church and the Inquisition. In fact, between the years 1787 and 1810, the Inquisition continued promoting a traditional way of gathering information about the existence of prohibited books and the circulation of seditious papers: denunciations. During this period, inhabitants of the city of Caracas were encouraged to communicate to the secretary of this institution if they had seen forbidden books in
113 114

De Pons, Travels in Parts of South America, 32-3.

Reports from the Real Audiencia and the Real Intendencia to the Governor of Venezuela, or to the King of Spain, show evidence, brought by concerned inhabitants of the city of Caracas and La Guaira who had participated in or heard public discussions, that people were reading prohibited texts and were commenting on them in public, and in front of people of lower condition. In October 1795, the Intendente issued a report expressing his concern for the spreading of French ideas in public settings, where pardos could be easily contaminated. See Representacin que remite al exmo. Seor Don Diego de Gadorqui, el intendente de Caracas Don Antonio Lopez Quintana sobre medidas necesarias para que no se propague las doctrinas francesas, AGI, Caracas, 514. Likewise, the Real Audiencia wrote a large report in 1793, where it referred to diverse situations in which seditious ideas of liberty and equality were being discussed in public settings. See Reporte de la Real Audiencia sobre peligros que representa para las Provincias de tierra firme, la presencia de prisioneros franceses de Santo Domingo en los Puertos de la Guaira y Cavello, AGI, Estado, 58. Later, in 1797, when the Conspiracy of Gual y Espaa was uncovered, multiple testimonies of witnesses and participants show that people in La Guaira, perhaps more than in Caracas, talked publicly and freely about the French Revolution and the movements in Saint-Domingue, conspirators discussed their readings and ideas in tertulias (meetings at barbershops or in private houses) and even produced texts to educate people on revolutionary ideals. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

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particular houses, or if they had heard others talking of prohibited books and seditious ideas. Don Gabriel Joseff de Lindo, a member of the Inquisition, kept a notebook in which he wrote down all the denunciations made by the people of Caracas. These notes are interesting because they provide a window into the public discussion and interpretation of books. One note says: In 1797, Don Francisco Carreo heard from a child named Marcos Torres that he believed that Hell existed but that another child told him that it did not exist because he read it in a book. Another note says: Josef Bernardo Aristiguieta told me that he has permission to read prohibited books, and that for this reason he had many of these in French. In a second part of this notebook, another accuser, Don Miguel Castro, wrote in 1806: I know that don Francisco Guerra, doctor, has the History of America by Robertson, because he has made reference to several paragraphs that I found in it. And, later, Castro added: Don Marciano Echeverra told me that he could read prohibited books about State matters, because he is an enlightened subject who does not suffer the danger of perdition.115 Elites assumed that they were entitled to read because their educational background and social condition provided them with the right understanding (buen entendimiento) to comprehend the meanings and interpretations expressed in all kind of written texts. Priests, for example, believed that they could read prohibited books

115

Cuadernillo de denuncias del Santo Oficio, 1806, AAC (Archivo Arquidiocesano de Caracas), Santo Oficio, Carpeta II.

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and papers perfectly because they were instructed to differentiate the truth from falsity, and moreover because they were the social group responsible for controlling, censuring, and forbidding books and papers. Some academic and professional elites also believed that they could read prohibited books, and justified their readings by saying that they were enlightened enough to comprehend the falseness of some books and scattered writings (papeles sueltos).116 The lack of local printing presses encouraged readers to borrow and lend books. This web of circulation of printed materials allows us to imagine a scenario in which books and readings were frequent topics of conversation and debate among the readers. Several documents offer interesting evidence of this common practice of loaning books. In post-mortem inventories, we frequently find spouses, heirs, and heiresses demanding friends, neighbors, and other family members the return of their deceased family members volumes.117 At the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century, officers of the Holy Office frequently visited the homes of neighbors suspected of possessing forbidden books in order to confiscate them. During the month of April 1806, these officers visited the houses of more than twenty people in Caracas
116

On Inquisition edicts and special licenses to read forbidden books in Spanish America, see Pedro Guibovich, Censura, libros e inquisicin en el Per colonial, 1570-1754 (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, 2003); and Martin Austin Nesvig, Ideology and Inquisition: The World of the Censors in Early Mexico (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). I thank Ken Ward, the Latin American curator of the John Carter Brown Library, for providing me with these references. See post-mortem inventories in Leal, Libros y bibliotecas en Venezuela; and Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas.

117

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enquiring about certain forbidden books. In response, neighbors fabricated the same kind of excuses over and over: I used to have the text but I loaned it and I cannot remember to whom, or alternatively, I read the book but gave it back to the owner or someone else. Benito Prada, an agent of the Holy Office, asked Captain Juan Vicente Bolvar if he had Rousseaus La Julia. Bolvar answered: I used to have it, but I returned it to the foreigner who had lent it to me. Later, he asked Don Domingo Daz if he had the book History of the Revolution and Daz answered that he remembered reading the first volume, but that he had lent the book to Don Francisco Gonzlez de Linares. When the officer asked Don Gabriel Ponte if he had La Jaira by Voltaire, Don Gabriel answered: That book is normally running freely and, today, I dont know where it is. I gave it to someone, but I dont know who.118 The lack of printing presses and the existence of this informal web for lending and borrowing resulted in practices of hand-copying and translating books. In Caracas and La Guaira, some readers became copyists and translators of particular parts of the texts containing extracts and ideas they wanted to preserve once they returned the book to its owner or passed it on to another reader.119 Seminar and university
118 119

Cuadernillo de denuncias al Secretario del Santo Oficio, AAC, Santo Oficio, Carpeta II.

An interesting topic that still needs the attention of colonial Latin American historians is that of the practices of copying and translating books, as well as the circulation of manuscripts. Surely many Latin American colonial urban centers that lacked printing presses witnessed the emergence of webs of production and circulation of manuscripts, as these allowed readers to keep original ideas on paper and not count on their memory. However, these practices ended up transforming the texts themselves, changing its typography and material support, mutilating and fragmenting them, converting them into new texts and the copyists - and translators - into authors themselves. Apontes Libro de pinturas represents an example of the construction of this intertextuality of copied phrases and illustrations, and narrative creation in the fabrication of hand-written texts. See Stephan Palmi, Wizards and Scientists.

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professors offered their books to students, who copied part of them and studied with their hand-written notes. Caracas private libraries contained not only printed but also manuscript books. The library of Governor Pedro Carbonell contained a manuscript on painted paper about the use of Arms and other military tactics. The library of priest and professor Jos Ignacio Moreno, Rector of the University of Caracas, included a hand-copied version of the Treaty of Philadelphia (the Constitution of the United States), among others hand-written copies.120 Members of the Inquisition were especially concerned about this practice of copying and translating texts, as it could serve to reproduce and spread the content of forbidden texts. Numerous denunciations to the secretary of this institution claimed that certain individuals possessed hand-written copies of prohibited books. A note in the Inquisition Denunciations Notebook says: Don Rafael Lugo has mentioned the Raynal several times, in past days he showed me a hand-copied paragraph translated by him. This same paragraph, Don Rafael Mexias told me, was given by D.F. Montillas to Don Diego Urbaneja and others.121

Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002), Chapter I. Historian Fernando Bouza offers a comprehensive study of the circulation of manuscripts in seventeenth century Spain in his book Corre manuscrito: una historia cultural del siglo de oro (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2001).
120

Soriano, El correr de los libros en la cotidianidad caraquea, Leal, La cultura venezolana en el siglo XVIII, and Grases, Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela. Cuadernillo de denuncias al Secretario del Santo Oficio, AAC, Santo Oficio, Carpeta II.

121

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3. Prohibited Readings, the State and the Inquisition.

During the entire eighteenth century, but especially in the last decades, both the Spanish Crown and the Inquisition prohibited the entry to Spanish territories of several French titles that challenged the moral order, Christian principles, or the monarchical state. Periodically, the Inquisition printed edicts of prohibition and censorship of Spanish and foreign books that expressed doubts about or criticized the prevailing instituions, principles of authority, or the moral order. Historically, Holy Office prohibitions went hand in hand with royal restrictions and censorship. Nevertheless in the year 1772, King Carlos III issued a real cdula in which he declared that the Inquisitor General could not publish an edict of prohibition of books without his royal permission; with this decision the Inquisition seemed to lose authority over civil matters, as the members of the Inquisition were depicted as incapable of correctly examining and censoring books, or contradicting Crown dispositions.122 In 1778, Spanish priest and writer Jos Francisco Isla was concerned because Voltaire, Rousseau, and other leaders of modern impiety had invaded the most distant
122

Real Cdula declarando que el Inquisidor General no publique Edicto alguno, Bula o Breve Apostolico sin que primero obtenga su Real Permiso (18 de enero de 1772), AAC, Santo Oficio, Carpeta I. This decree is particularly interesting, since in it the King clearly separates the spiritual responsabilities and jurisdiction of the Inquisition, from civil matters corresponding to his Royal Will and Authority. In this sense, Carlos III seemed to be willing to put some limits on an Institution that was depicted in other European nations as barbarous and obsolete. See M. Diderot and DAlembert, Encyclopdie ou Dictionnaire raisonn des Sciences, des Arts et de Mtiers (Paris: Chez du Le Breton, 1751-1772).

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corners of Spain. Other contemporary priests and authorities also protested the avid interest of Spanish readers for acquiring and reading French books that could alter the ideas of social order and subordination.123 In these circumstances, in 1784, a royal decree proclaimed that no foreign book, in any language and regarding any subject, could be sold without previous examination and authorization of the Royal Council of Spain, an entity that provided licenses for the importation and selling of foreign books.124 By 1789, when revolutionary ideas began to circulate in the Atlantic world, previous institutional tensions eased, and Spanish Council members and Inquisition agents shared the responsibility of reading, examining, censoring, prohibiting, and controlling written texts regarding not only theological, scholastic and moral themes, but books of any kind that could include ideas against subordination, vassalage, obedience to our Monarch, and to the Curate of Christ.125 After 1790, both institutions tried to control the entry of revolutionary books and papers that in addition to being written with a pure style of naturalism, anti-Christian and dark evil, are evidence of a new race of philosophers, who, in the name of liberty, work against

123

See Defourneax, Inquisicin y censura de libros; and De Los Reyes Gmez, El libro en Espaa y Amrica. Real Cdula de S.M. y Seores del Consejo, por la cual se manda observar la ley veinte y tres, titulo primero de la Recopilacin en quanto a que no se vendan libros que vengan de fuera del Reyno en qualquier idioma, y de qualquier material que sean, sin que primero se presente un exemplar en el consejo y se conceda licencia para su introduccin o venta, con lo dems que se expresa (1 de Julio de 1784), in De Los Reyes Gmez, El libro en Espaa y Amrica, Vol. 1, 11. Mara Jos Del Ro Barredo, Censura inquisitorial y teatro de 1707 a 1819, Hispania Sacra, XXXVII (1986): 78.

124

125

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it, destroying the political and social order, and the hierarchy of the Christian Religion.126 Officials of the Holy Office visited private homes in Caracas and other cities, with the purpose of collecting specifically French prohibited books in order to take them to the Inquisition See. Approximately twenty-six Edicts of Prohibition of Books were read aloud after the Sunday Mass and pinned on the external walls of the Churches of Caracas between 1762 and 1807, and twenty-one of these edicts were printed and published after 1789.127 Evidently, the French Revolution had generated institutional concerns for controlling books, readings, and public recitations of texts, and the Church and the government jointly participated in these activities of vigilance. Several prohibited titles are registered in private libraries inventories and records of the Inquisition between 1789 and 1810, showing the ease with which prohibited books entered into the periphery of the colonial world.128 Readers in the cities of Caracas, Cuman, La Guaira and Puerto Cabello owned prohibited French

126 127 128

Defourneax, Inquisicin y censura de libros, 128-29. Edictos de Prohibicin de Libros, AAC, Santo Oficio, Carpetas I and II.

French books and papers were secretly introduced into Spain by different ways: papers were rolled up and put inside the boxes of items such as hats, clocks and musical instruments. Also, books and papers were introduced in heavy boxes that were dropped out of the ship while the visitor of the Inquisition checked the boxes containing books and were later retrieved. See Defourneax, Inquisicin y censura de libros, 129-30. Nevertheless, in Spanish America, where agents controls were less intense and careful, it was not necessary to employ such methods; frequently boxes of French Books entered into the Ports of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello unnoticed. In addition, smuggling webs could have been also a way of introducing foreign forbidden books and gazettes that found their way to urban centers. See Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas, Scott, The Common Wind, and Pino Iturrieta, La mentalidad venezolana de la emancipacin.

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texts such as the Social Contract of Rousseau, and his novels Abelard and Eloise and La Julia, Voltaires Philosophical dictionary and novel La Jaira, Delilles poetic works, DAlemberts writings on philosophy, literature, and history, and Theory of the Social Law by Duaray de Brie. Several accusations to the Inquisition by anonymous informants stated that suspicious readers in La Guaira and Caracas had the forbidden texts of the Abb Condillac, the Abb Raynal, William Robertson, Montegnon y Paret, Thomas Paine, the Marquis of Condorcet, Montesquieu, and Gaetano Filangeri, among others. 129

4. Social Control of Plebian Reading.

Most of these books were found in the libraries of white priests, rich hacendados, military officials and merchants. The majority of these elite readers frequently regarded reading as a practice appropriate only for a restricted social group. They considered that prohibited books and, in general, written materials should not
129

M. Alembert, Mlanges de littrature, dhistoire, et de philosophie (Amsterdan: Zacharie Chatelain & Fils, 1767), Abb de Condillac, Cours dtude pour linstruction du Prince de Parme (Geneve: Deifart, 1789), Marquis de Condorcet, Esquisse dun tableau des progress de lesprit humain (Madrid, 1794); J. P. Dauray de Brie, Thorie of des Lois Sociales (Paris: Demonville, 1804), J. Delille, LEneide (Paris: Chez Guiguet et Michaud, 1804), and La Piti, poeme (Paris: Guiguet et Michaud, 1803), G. Filangeri, La Scienza de la Legislazione (Genova: Ivone Gracian, n/d); P. Montegnon y Paret, Eusebio, parte primera sacada de las memorias que dej el mismo (Madrid: Antonio Sancha, 1786), J. J. Rousseau, Du Contrat Social; ou principes du droit politique (Amsterdan: Marc Michel Rey, 1762); M. F. Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (Amsterdan: Varberg, 1766); Abb T. Raynal, Historia poltica de los establecimientos ultramarinos de las naciones europeas (Madrid: Antonio de Sancha, 1784). See Post-Mortem library inventories (1790-1800) in Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas; also Leal, La cultura venezolana en el siglo XVIII; and Emanuele Amodio, La casa de Sucre, sociedad y cultura en Cuman al final de la poca colonial (Caracas: Centro Nacional de la Historia, 2010).

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be read or handled by inferior groups, such as pardos, free blacks, slaves, and Indians. In fact, reading and writing were seen as practices that required certain social condition. The content of a book or paper could change the perceptions and ideas that people had about the political regime, the economic circumstances, or the social order. However, I say the majority of the elite because there were elites some white merchants, and Spanish and creole officials, among others - who, infused with the republican values of liberty and equality, decided to spread revolutionary readings among the colored population, and even formed discussion gruops for planning of revolutionary movements.130 The majority of the white elite believed that subaltern reading of seditious papers and books was a very dangerous practice because erroneous ideas could encourage pardos, the demographically largest group, free blacks, and slaves to question their social condition and to challenge the institutional order, the authority of the local government, and even the soverignty of the Crown. These fears of ideological contagion among groups of color reached a peak as the Haitian Revolution unfolded, creating a rich web of information and ideas regarding racial confrontation, abolition of slavery, freedom, and equality.131

130

As an example is the conspiracy of Gual and Espaa in La Guaira and Caracas, uncovered in 1797. See Juan Carlos Rey, Rogelio Prez Perdomo, Adriana Hernndez and Ramn Aizpurua Aguirre, eds., Gual y Espaa, la independencia frustrada (Caracas: Coleccin Bicentenario de la Independencia, Fundacin Polar, 2007). The topic of fear of the French Revolution in Spanish America has received considerable attention from historians. See, for example, Izard, El miedo a la revolucin; Ma. del Carmen Borrego Pl, Amrica Latina ante la Revolucin Francesa (Mxico: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico,

131

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But, could pardos, free blacks, and slaves really read? How did they come into contact with written materials? We should bear in mind that, traditionally, these colored subaltern groups were not allowed to attend colonial public schools, religious seminaries, or universities, and were generally seen by the elites as people who did not need to be literate in order to actively participate in colonial society, where their labor was reduced to manual, agricultural, and artisanal activities.132 However, by the end of the eighteenth century this traditional view of society and education underwent a transformation as Enlightenment and Spanish reformist ideas promoted literacy and useful education among all and a battle to eradicate perceived ignorance, vices and idleness in the population at large. Following these Enlightenment currents, some concerned teachers in Caracas suggested the need for improving public schools traditionally attended by whites and creating Schools for pardos (Escuela de pardos) in the cities of the province. Their accounts provide us with information regarding the education of the social group of pardos. According to these teachers, wealthy pardo families could afford hiring private teachers who would visit the students at their homes. But the vast majority of the literate or semi-literate pardo population learned to read and write at the shops of
1993); Claudia Rosas Lauro, El miedo a la Revolucin. Rumores y temores desatados por la Revolucin Francesa en el Per, 1790-1800, El miedo en el Per siglo XVI al XX, ed. Claudia Rosas Lauro (ed.) (Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per, 2005), 139-83; Ada Ferrer, Temor, poder y esclavitud en Cuba en la poca de la Revolucin, Wim Klooster, Revolution in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History (New York: New York University Press, 2009).
132

Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la provincia de Venezuela; and Rafael Fernndez Heres, La educacin venezolana bajo el signo de la Ilustracin 1770-1870 (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1995).

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barbers and shoemakers, and thanks to artisans, carpenters, and musicians who informally offered their educational services. In 1786, the teacher, Don Jos Mara de Bauelos alerted the cabildo about the pitiful state of primary education in the city of Caracas. He asserted It is a shame to discover the scarce number of primary schools that exists in a populated city like Caracas. Many schools are reduced to barbershops, beauty salons, shoes stores, and other places of mechanical occupations, where it is impossible to pay attention to this primordial matter.133 According to him, some pardos learned to read thanks to old artisans who teach just the basic notions of grammar and the cartilla134. This same situation was described by the teacher Don Simn Rodrguez, who in 1794 wrote a long account entlitled The State of the Primary Education in Caracas.135 Rodrguez emphasized the need for expanding literacy socially by incorporating artisans and peasants into the institutional teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Regarding the pardos, he writes:
133

Quoted by Ildefonso Leal, Documentos para la historia de la educacin en Venezuela (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1968), LII. According to the Diccionario de Reales Autoridades, the cartilla is a printed notebook with the letters of the alphabet and with the basic notions for learning to read. Diccionario de Autoridades (1726-1742) (Madrid: Gredos, 1976). The cartilla was an essential tool for teaching how to read, and it was very popular in Spain during the sixteenth through the eighteenth century. They were inexpensive and massively imported to the Spanish American territories. Caracas pulperas and small shops offered a large quantity of them. See Jos Torres Revello, "Las cartillas para ensear a leer a los nios en Amrica espaola," Theasurus XV, no. 1 (1960): 214-234; and Pedro Rueda Ramrez, "Las cartillas para aprender a leer: la circulacin de un texto escolar en Latinoamrica," http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3406934. Simn Rodrguez, Reflexiones sobre los defectos que vician la escuela de primeras letras de Caracas y medio de lograr su reforma por un nuevo establecimiento, 19 de mayo de 1794, in Simn Rodrguez, Escritos, Pedro Grases (ed.) (Caracas: Imprenta Nacional, 1954), 5-27.

134

135

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The mechanical arts are linked, in this city and elsewhere in the Province, with pardos and morenos (free blacks). They do not have anyone to teach them, they cannot attend the School of whites, and poverty limits them from their childhood, so that they learn through practice, but without technique; lacking this, they proceed in everything by improvisation, some become teachers of others without ever having been students, excepting those who with an extraordinary vigor have achieved their instruction thanks to painful efforts136

Since they also belonged to society, Rodrguez believed that pardos needed education as much as whites. Therefore he proposed the creation of a School for pardos, where they could all find an appropriate place to learn and grow. In the opinion of Rodrguez, beauty salons and barbershops were not Schools, and barbers and artisans did not have educational methods, nor did they have the proper teaching skills or authority to educate: these improvised teachers do not even know who their students are and how they have progressed.137 Rodrguez believed that in these false schools children learned to read and to comb their hair, to write and to shave.138 Rodrguezs account gives us clear and detailed picture of the state of popular education in the city of Caracas, its vices and the multiple problems that the local government needed to attend to, but it also provides us with valuable information about the education of pardos and the social spaces for their education. In the first place, there seemed to be informal spaces for learning in the cities that were attended

136 137 138

Ibid, 6. Ibid 8. Ibid,10-11.

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mostly by pardo children, so it is clear that the prohibition on attending public schools did not mean that pardos could not learn to read and write. Many of them, as Rodrguez says, did so; but in improper settings and in inadmissible ways.139 On the other hand, Rodrguez also provides an image of barbershops and beauty salons as places for socialization, teaching, exchanging knowledge, and debating ideas. For example, there were barbers and artisans in the city who offered services of reading and writing letters in exchange for money or other services. So, non-literate neighbors visited these literate artisans to listen to their private letters or to understand certain papers or pamphlets that fell into their hands. More sophisticated artisans, offered translation services from English to Spanish, or from French to Spanish.140 In Caracas and La Guaira, Barbershops and beauty parlours were also places where people of different social groups (professionals, merchants, militiamen, students, artisans) used to meet to play table games, to chat with friends, read papers aloud, share ideas, and even to conspire against the government. In this sense, these
139

One of the aspects that Rodrguez underlines is that children who attended these improvised schools learn to read in dialogue, so they do not learn to read in all the discourses, and they read only to answer questions. See Rodrguez, Reflexiones sobre los defectos que vician la escuela de primeras letras, 11. This is particularly interesting because this was the form in which religious knowledge was imparted to children through catechisms, a written discourse that followed the pattern of a oral conversation: someone ignorant usually a child, a women, an Indian or a Black asks questions and someone with more experience father, teacher, usually a white male responds. Religious catechisms were popular in colonial Latin America. Political catechisms were used later to educate subaltern groups during Independence period and during formation of the Latin American republican nations. See Nydia Ruiz, Gobernantes y gobernados: los catecismos polticos en Espaa e Hispanoamrica (siglos XVIII-XIX) (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1997). See Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas. Regarding artisans who read papers and translated them to others, see the case of Andr Renoir, a hairdresser, who had a beauty shop in La Guaira but also visited other barbershops where he was asked to help with the translation of some paragraphs from French books. Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 255-56.

140

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places functioned as public meeting areas, where diverse literary practices took place and where a sort of public sphere for political debate emerged; there, papers and gazettes about the French and the Haitian Revolutions became a pretext to express inconformity with the colonial system.141

5. The Written Expansion of a Revolutionary Disease: Texts from France and Saint-Domingue in the Province of Venezuela.

During the entire eighteenth century, the Church and the Inquisition were institutions formally entrusted with the task of controlling and confiscating prohibited books and seditious papers that were circulating in ports and urban centers of the Province of Venezuela. However, after the events of the American and the French Revolutions, the Spanish Crown and local governments became greatly concerned about the expansion of revolutionary ideas on the mainland and undertook, together with the Church and the Inquisition, the censure, prohibition and confiscation of dangerous reading materials.142

141

See the diverse testimonies of suspects and pardoned in the Conspiracy of Gual y Espaa (1797) in which they described their meetings and gathering in these locations. Quoted by Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 244-56. Following Vctor Uribe-Urn, these spaces made it possible for individuals to gather, read, criticize their readings, express their ideas, and mold public opinion. Uribe-Urn, The Birth of Public Sphere in Latin America during the Age of Revolution, 437. Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela, and Soriano, Libros y lectores en Caracas.

142

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The King of Spain Carlos IV was particularly concerned about the possible influences and effects that the French Revolution and its propaganda could have in his American territories. In fact, in September 1789, he was informed that some people from the National Assembly of Paris were interested in introducing a seditious manifesto in America that could shake the power of the Spanish dominion among its inhabitants.143 Immediately, the Spanish Minister - the Count of Floridablanca issued a royal order to the governors of the Spanish Provinces in America in which he ordered them to control, with the help of Church ministers, the introduction and diffusion of any writings that contained revolutionary and anti-religious ideas that could promote Independence and anti-religion.144 From 1789 to 1790, the Spanish monarch issued a great number of royal decree restricting the entry of French books and papers, prohibiting those whose content was considered dangerous to religion, proper subordination, and the social order. Official authorities were ordered to supervise closely the circulation and diffusion of what they identified as revolutionary ideas. Between September and October 1789, two royal orders were issued prohibiting the entry of any illustration, printed or handwritten papers, boxes, fans or any other object alluding to the French Revolution. In the case of finding any of these

143 144

Real Orden del 24 de septiembre de 1789, AGN, Reales Ordenes, X, 140. Ibid.

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items, they were to be sent to the Secretary of State.145 Likewise, in 1790, the Council of Castille prohibited the introduction of several French newspapers, revolutionary catechisms, and books containing information and opinions related to the French Revolution.146 Official reports from all the provinces of Spain including the American territories denounced that French books and papers were circulating in the hands of curious and avid readers. For this reason, the monarch issued a royal decree on September 10, 1791 in which he stated: The introduction of any letters or seditious papers contrary to the principles of public fidelity and tranquility is prohibited. People who committed this crime were accused of the offense of disloyalty, and local authorities (Justicias) were responsible for controlling the circulation of these materials, and sending copies to the Counsel.147 Institutional controls and prohibitions did not only affect the circulation of texts from France to Spanish territories. They also condemned Spanish printed
145 146

Note 15, Novsima Recopilacin, Book VIII, Title XVIII. Law XIII.

French newspapers like Correo de Pars and El Publicista Francs were not allowed to enter the Spanish territories because they contained falsity and aim to disturb the fidelity and tranquility that must exist in Spain, Orden del Consejo prohibiendo la introduccin y curso del Correo de Pars o Publicista Francs, no. 54, 5 de enero de 1790, quoted in De Los Reyes Gmez, El libro en Espaa y Amrica, 627. The Counsel of Castile also prohibited French catechisms like Catecismos Francs para la Gente del Campo, French letters like The Manfiesto Reservado para el Rey Don Carlos IV, que Dios guarde y sus sublimes ministros, and several books such as La France Libre y Des Droits et Devoirs de Lhomme. For the most complete history of censorship and prohibition of printed materials in Spain (s. XV-XVIII) see De Los Reyes Gmez, El libro en Espaa y Amrica. Real Cdula de S.M y Seores del Consejo, en que se prohbe la introduccin y curso en estos Reynos de qualesquiera cartas o papeles sediciosos y contrarios a la fidelidad, y a la tranquilidad pblica, y se manda a las Justicias procedan en este asunto sin disimulo y con la actividad y vigilancia que requiere; en la conformidad que se expresa (Madrid: Imprenta de Vda. De Marn, 1791).

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materials that included French texts and extracts, or Spanish texts that offered news, reports, opinions or descriptions of Frances political situation.148 In June 1793, for example, the Counsel prohibited the insertion of any news favorable or contrary to aspects related to France in any book or paper printed in Spain. The Council prevented any Spanish periodical from including news or information about France.149 In this way, France and its Revolution were drastically silenced in Spanish written culture. However, this restriction was not strictly respected, as numerous newspapers printed in Spanish territories carried information about the French and the Haitian Revolutions. Claudia Rosas Lauro shows that newspapers printed in Lima in 1793 offered ample information about the French Revolution; these editions were promoted by the same Virrey Gil de Taboada who said that it was important to offer an official version of the Revolutionary events. Nevertheless, as Lauro comments, while these editions aimed to a provide negative view of the events, they at the same time offered precise and detailed information about the Revolution, its main events and protagonists.150

148

Frequently, eighteenth-century Spanish newspapers included texts and extracts taken from prohibited French and English books, that went unnoticed, thanks to their anonymity and other disguises. Often prohibited texts of Rousseau and Montesquieu were extracted, translated, and transformed into short essays in Spanish magazines and gazettes. See Philip Deacon, La libertad de expresin en Espaa en el perodo precedente a la Revolucin Francesa, Estudios de Historia Social I-II, no. 36-37 (1986). De Los Reyes Gmez, El libro en Espaa y Amrica, 632.

149 150

Rosas Lauro, El miedo a la Revolucin. Rumores y temores desatados por la Revolucin Francesa en el Per, 144.

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The same developed with the Gaceta de Madrid, which offered interesting and revealing information about the rebellious movements in Saint-Domingue. Ada Ferrer asserts that this gazette, printed twice a week in Madrid, reproduced news published in other European and North American newspapers, and offered detailed information about Saint-Domingue rebels, campaigns against plantations and masters. Later, it offered news about the abolition of slavery by the French National Assembly in 1794, and about revolutionary leaders such as Tousaint Louverture and Rigaud. By 1804, the Captain General of the Island of Cuba, the Marquis of Someruelos, expressed his concern about the public circulation and spread of the Gaceta in different corners of the island,everyone buys them, and they circulated widely amongst the blacks151 One of the first authorities of a province in the Captaincy of Venezuela to denounce an irregularity regarding news and information related to France was the Governor of the Island of Trinidad, Don Jos Mara Chacn. In January 1790, Governor Chacn condemned to exile the French writer and printer of the Gaceta de Trinidad, Don Juan Bautista Vilaux, because he had copied and printed diverse articles of public foreign papers related to the current Revolution in France, in which there were many subversive phrases, contrary to the good order of our

151

Ferrer, Noticias de Hait en Cuba, 687-689. See also Alejandro Gmez, Le Syndrome de SaintDomingue. Perceptions et reprsentations de la Rvolution hatienne dans le Monde Atlantique, 1790-1886 (PhD diss., Ecoles de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 2010), 130-2.

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Constitution.152 Apparently, the printer hidden on the periphery of the island153 did not forsee the consequences of his actions; nevertheless, the Governor was aware of the terrible effects of these papers and decided to put an end abruptly to the danger. In his report he added: It was my intention to prevent the evil or to elminate it at its origins, without alarming the public and avoiding its curiosity to find out the reasons of my decision Different opinions would make people talk about themes that are better left in silence.154 This phrase summarizes the general attitude that local authorities assumed when faced with the problem of the circulation of revolutionary information throughout the entire period: an attitude of secrecy and silence. In December 1790, the Captain General of Venezuela, Don Juan Guillelmi, sent a report to Madrid in which he indicated that in the four previous months several gazettes, dailies, and supplements from or about France, providing news about current events of Paris, have entered the Province of Venezuela. In the opinion of Guillelmi,

152

Sobre destierro del redactor de la Gaceta o papel publico de ocurrencias semanales de la Ysla de Trinidad, AGI, Caracas, 153, no. 10, and Noticias sobre Introduccin de papeles extranjeros, AGI, Caracas, 115. The Province of Trinidad had been recently added to the Captaincy of Venezuela, and unlike Caracas and many other important cities of the captaincy that lacked printing presses, Trinidad had a small printing press where brief papers about news and current events were printed. The reduced significance of Trinidad during the eighteenth century allowed the entry and functioning of a printing press, contrary to the case of Caracas where permission was emphatically denied. This situation confirms the argument that by the time the Province of Venezuela acquired administrative, political, and commercial interest for the peninsula, the menace of circulation of revolutionary ideas in the Atlantic world increased and eroded the motivations for establishing printing presses in urban centers where they could become instruments for disseminating revolutionary propaganda. Sobre destierro del redactor de la Gaceta o papel publico de ocurrencias semanales de la Ysla de Trinidad, AGI, Caracas, 153, no. 10.

153

154

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the evil designs of these papers represented a danger to the proper order and harmony of the captaincy.155 Right after the first news about the rebellious events of Saint Domingue arrived, the vigilance over the introduction of written materials and people increased. Local authorities devised strategies for controlling ports, performing censuses of the people who were arriving and their belongings, spying on foreign visitors and neighbors, asking them about the purposes of their presence in the province, and even demanding that ministers of the Church provide them with information about the populations books and their reading habits, in order to to confiscate prohibited books, gazettes and papers.156 The execution of Louis XVI and the beginning of the war between Spain and France in 1793 intensified control strategies. In August 1793, members of the Council of Indies issued a royal order to the governor of Caracas in which they mentioned that, due to the current circumstances of war with France, dangerous books, papers, and news could pass to our territories, jeopardizing the pureness of our Religion, public tranquility, and subordination157

155 156

Expediente de la Intendencia relativo a asuntos de Francia, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 290-295.

Carta del Gobernador de Caracas al Comandante Interior de La Guaira, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 256. Sobre la introduccin de libros y papeles franceses en estas provincias, AGN, Reales Ordenes, XII, 85-86.

157

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In August 1794, a pardo militiaman named Joseph Luis Aleado found a seditious document entitled Extract of the Manifest that the National Convention made for all the Nations. This text contained a list of conclusions and arguments made by the National Convention of Paris, an institution that was central to fomenting the French Revolution. Apparently the document was distributed by Juan Xavier Arrambide, a merchant of the port of La Guaira, who translated the paper from French to Spanish with the help of Toms Cardozo, a pharmacist (boticario) who also worked in La Guaira.158 The Governor and Capitan General Carbonell did not punish the readers and translators of the paper because he was not sure about the proper penalty for this kind of actions, and secondly, because he believed it was important to act prudently, and not to call the attention of the neighbors to this issue, to maintain the tranquility of the province. He ordered his officials to redouble their vigilance, which included having port agents increase their control over the documents and people that entered Tierra Firme because it was essential to discover those who were introducing this kind of materials.159 The official orders to control the entry of papers and written materials (especially by foreigners) in the ports of the captaincy were obeyed. However at times

158

Expediente creado con motivo de haberse descubierto la introduccion de un papel de la Asamblea de Paris, Extracto del Manifiesto que la Convencion Nacional hace de todas las Naciones, AGI, Estado, 65, no. 20. It is also mentioned in Hctor Garca Chuecos, Estudios de historia colonial venezolana, Vols. 2 (Caracas: Tipografa americana, 1938); and Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela. Ibid.

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the authorities came to mistrust the same agents who were supposed to assume the vigilance. This was the case of Juan Joseph Mendiri, mentioned at the beginning of the chapter; although he was trusted with the task of controlling texts, he became a distributor of them. Like Mendiri, Juan Xavier Arrambide participated in the conspiracy of Gual and Espaa, a movement that stood for liberty and equality and the Rights of Man, and that even established a plan of action to establish a republican government.160 In these circumstances, the wave of rumors about the circulation of prohibited texts in the ports and cities of the Province of Venezuela continued to flow. In May 1796, the Real Audiencia met in order to discuss the introduction and rumored circulation among the inhabitants of the province of a dangerous document entitled: Instruction that shall serve as a rule for the French interim agent, stationed at the Spanish side of the Island of Santo Domingo, written by a Mr. Roume in France. According to the members of the Audiencia, the paper contained several expressions capable of causing harmful impressions on the simple people, especially on the slaves who, only in this province, represented more than one hundred thousand.161 The Governor of Trinidad, Joseph Mara Chacn, answered that he would observe

160

Juan Xavier de Arrambide, born in Villa del Puerto Real (Cdiz, Spain) was a 35-years-old merchant in the Port of La Guaira, while Juan Jos Mendiri, 42 years old, was the guardamayor of the port and royal accountant. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro. Sobre introduccin y circulacin de Papel Instruccin que debe servir de regla al Agente Interino Francs destinado la Parte Espaola de Santo Domingo, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 8, and AGI, Caracas, 169, no. 86.

161

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vigilantly the entry of this text, but that he was concerned that these materials could come to Trinidad directly from Spanish Santo Domingo.162 The Instruction addressed to the French agent in the Spanish part of Santo Domingo, contained recommendations and suggestions concerning the occupation of Santo Domingo by France. It was a republican decree that promoted love and respect for the Republic, and one that clearly rejected the monarchical system. At the outset, the author contends: It is important, above all, to make all new citizens love the Republic, and to try to preserve all that precious population which belongs to the Island.163 Two enemies were identified in this document: English invaders and royalist Spaniards. The author represented the Spanish as an essentially antirevolutionary nation, which ignored the qualities and advantages of the republic and lived without its glory. Therefore, part of his work encouraged the French agent to win the Spaniards over to his side; he recognized that they are leaving Santo Domingo and that this emigration affected the economic development and progress of the island, so he was emphatic in expressing the need to unite not only both sides of the island, but both populations and nations. He writes: The difficulty then is to prove to the entire world through an intimate union with the Spanish Chiefs how easy it is to

162

Carta del Gobernador de Trinidad al Gobernador de Caracas, comunicndole que pondr en ejercicio su orden de recoger y remitir papeles que se introduzcan por la via de Santo Domingo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 258. Instruccin que debe servir de regla al agente interino Francs, destinado a la parte Espaola de la Ysla de Santo Domingo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 237-239.

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establish a perfect harmony between both nations, taking advantage of the existing difference between the political principles (of both nations).164 Briefly the author narrated the history of Santo Domingo and highlighted its importance as a Spanish city that counted on a Real Audiencia and Archbishopric. The document went on to describe the different actions that the Spanish would adopt in order to fulfill the Treaty of Basle and predicts how the Spanish monarch would remove both institutions and transfer the administration of the Island to the French. The author foresaw that the transfer of authority could provoke the massive emigration of the Spanish population and, in consequence, he encouraged the agent to prevent this emigration and execute possible actions to persuade and convince all these citizens of the falsity of ideas that may have been impressed upon them about the French Revolution, and to calm down from their spirits any suspicions they may have about the free exercise of their religion.165 According to the author, the agent must provide the Spanish inhabitants with information about the French Republic and in doing so he must dissipate the false ideas that people have about the Republic, such as those that might suggest a contradiction between Christianity and the Republic. He contended that Spaniards

164

La dificultad es pues,, probar al mundo entero por medio de una unin ntima con los Jefes espaoles quan facil es, establecer una perfecta armona entre ambas naciones, aprovechndose de la diferencia que existe entre los principios polticos, Ibid., 237-239. persuadir para desimpresionar a aquellos ciudadanos de las falsas ideas que hayan podido imprimirseles de la revolucin Francesa, y disipar en su espritu cuantos recelos se les haya inspirado del libre ejercicio de su religin, Ibid.

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have mistakenly confused revolution with anti-religion, instead he argued that the revolution only supported the creation of the perfect system: the Republic, which is not necessarily anti-Christian, but that recognizes the independence of the political system from religious institutions. Therefore, the emergence of the Republic was not a movement against Christianity itself, but rather fostered a perfect harmony between the Church and the republican government. Interestingly, the author contended that the agent must defend his ideas with the constitution in his hand, using the abolition of slavery as an analogy. Regarding this, he writes:
If the constitutional act annihilates the horrible right of slavery of a man over another man equally endowed with a rational soul, it is clear that this article can not be seen as an infraction of the colonial property rights, except by people filled with preoccupation or inspired by a vile interest. And this objection should have even less weight among Spaniards, who in addition to having fewer slaves than other European nations, have always treated them with a humanity capable of turning them into friends. The new humane and generous settlers should then expect that once free their slaves will not abuse their freedom, but on the contrary will always be devoted to them and will not ever abandon from them as in the case with legitimate children.166

In this paragraph, while contending that the Republican Constitution rejects the horrible system of slavery, the author strongly criticizes the law and practices in the

166

Si el acto constitucional aniquila el dro. Horrible de esclavitud de un hombre sobre otro hombre dotado igualmente de un alma racional, es claro que este articulo no puede mirarse como una infraccion del dro. de propiedad colonial, sino por gentes llenas de preocupacin o cargadas de un vil interes. Y esta objecin debe tener aun menos fuerza entre los espanoles, los quales sobre tener menos esclavos que las demas naciones europeas, los han tratado siempre con una humanidad capaz de grangearlos por amigos. Deben pues, los nuevos colonos humanos y generosos esperar que sus esclavos libres ya, no abusaran de su libertad, sino que seran al contrario siempre adictos, y que no se separaran jamas de sus lados como hijos reconocidos, Ibid.

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Spanish colonies. According to him, only people with a vile interest consider the enslavement of a rational being as a colonial property right. The idea of liberty that the author developed here is intriguing, representing the French conservative abolition. He contends that once freedom is granted, the ex-slaves would not abuse their liberty. Therefore liberty was what guarantees the passivity and tranquility of the former slaves, and their permanence as a quiescent social group which would not pursue a fight for political power. Granting slaves their liberty meant keeping them content and passive. The author, in this way, expressed a paternalistic and conservative view of abolition as being a sacrifice the French Republic had to make in order to preserve power and control over the island. More interestingly, his perspective shows that he does not see abolition as an approximation to equality between blacks and whites; on the contrary, he thinks that blacks will remain passive and will still depend on their masters, as a son depends on his father. Members of the Audiencia of Caracas were particularly concerned about the anti-slavery character of the document, and its effects on common people. They believed that although the paper was intentionally addressed to the French agent in Santo Domingo, it could definitely have harmful consequences in all the Americas. In the end they expressed: Anywhere it was read, it would be understood in the same way.167

167

Ibid.

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On July 24th, the Captain General sent an order to the authorities in other provinces asking them to be vigilant and to confiscate this hazardous document. The governors of Trinidad, and Barinas, and the Lieutenant of Coro168 answered that they would be on the lookout for this document and would send the copies to him. In these responses too, the governors also said explicitly that they would act with wisdom and care, not letting anyone know about the inquiries. Various versions of the document were found in the city of Caracas, the city of Coro and in the distant village of Obispos, located in the Province of Barinas.169 Although, the governors collected some copies of the document using the greatest discretion, they were never able to find out who had introduced and circulated them. The wave of rumors claiming that the Province of Venezuela was full of seditious papers coming from the Antilles, but in particular, from Spanish Santo Domingo, required a stronger response on the part of the government. On August 5, 1796, the Real Audiencia met in order to adopt definitive resolutions concerning the introduction of several menacing and dangerous printed materials proceeding from France and, specifically, Santo Domingo. They suggested that the governor and the

168

Contestacin del Gobernador de Barinas sobre circulacin de papel Instruccin que debe servir de regla, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 19; Contestacin del Gobernador de Trinidad sobre circulacin de papel Instruccin que debe servir de regla, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 258; Contestacin del Gobernador de Coro sobre circulacin de papel Instruccin que debe servir de regla, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 45. El Gobernador de Barinas, Don Fernando Mijares, remite al Capitn General dos copias que encontr del papel prohibido: Instruccin que debe seguir de regla, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 296.

169

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Interim Commander adopt a plan to inquire about the nature and character of these materials. They also instructed the Captain General to alert other local authorities of the region about the matter. In this way they could have a larger group of officials searching for papers and written materials proceeding from the revolutionized Atlantic France, Saint Domingue, Santo Domingo.170 Six days later, on August 11, the members of the Real Audiencia met again. This time they had in their hands three new texts, all of them proceeding from Spanish Santo Domingo. The first anonymous document was brought by Don Gernimo Winderoxhul. It was an untitled paper of two or three pages that began with this phrase: After receiving the news, I am delighted, and ended: Forget the injury that your Old Government has made, and join us for the benefit of France, European and American Spain. The other two papers were brought by the President of the Audiencia. One began: Enciclical Letter of the Bishops of France to their brothers, and other Bishops and ended: The signatures of Five Bishops follow, and the third document started off: Paris October Nineteen, year of the Lord one thousand and seven hundred and ninety five, and fourth of the Republic and ended: Gregorio, Bishop of the Loir and member of the National Convention of France. 171

170

Para que recojan todos los papeles abiertos que vinieren de Santo Domingo de otra parte, y puedan conceptuarse nocivos la tranquilidad publica y subordinacin de vida su Majestad y a sus Ministros, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 219-223. The first one started Despus de las muchas noticias recividas yo me lisonjeo and ended: Olvidad pues el agravio que os ha hecho vuestro antiguo Gobierno, y asociaos nosotros para el bien de la Francia, y de la Espana Europea y Americana, the second one started: Carta Enciclica de muchos y otros Obispos de Francia a sus hermanos los demas Obispos y a las sedes vacantes, and ended:

171

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According to the members of the Audiencia, the purpose of the anonymous author of the first paper - After receiving the news, I am delighted was to produce a general hatred of Spain and the Spaniards on the part of the inhabitants of the Spanish part of Santo Domingo.172 The other two papers were considered incoherent and innocuous, but as they were considered bad, ambiguous, and confusing, the Audiencia decided to prohibit their circulation and reading, and commanded the officials to control their circulation in the cities and towns of the region. Consequently, on August 21 and 31 respectively, the Captain General sent two decrees, one to the governors of the provinces and the other one to the Bishop and Church ministers, in which he ordered them to locate those papers, collect them, and send him all the copies. Again, the Captain General was particularly explicit when he asked them to do so under the utmost secrecy, with the most possible wisdom and care.173 In this communication, he also recommended to revising and collecting any document coming from Spanish Santo Domingo for inspection and consideration. At this point, Santo Domingo was considered an infectious location from which the contagion of ideas could emerge and be spread to the rest of the Spanish territories.
Siguen las firmas de cinco Obispos and the third one: Paris, 19 de Octubre del ao del Seor de mil setecientos noventa y cinco, o cuarto de la Repblica and ended: Gregorio Obispo de la Dicesis de Laya y miembro de la convencion de Francia. See AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 219223.
172

Acuerdo de la Real Audiencia sobre los papeles provenientes de Santo Domingo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 219-223. Del Capitn General de Venzuela a los Comandantes y Goberadores de su jurisdiccin, sobre introduccin de papeles provenientes de Santo Domingo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 224, and Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 270.

173

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At the end of August 1796, the Captain General sent a letter to the Spanish Minister Don Manuel Godoy, with copies of the four papers mentioned above. In his letter, the Governor of Caracas and Captain General of Venezuela contended that several copies of these four papers had been introduced by French people into the province, and that he was vigilant, trying to prevent their diffusion and the evil designs that would come with them, adding that the content of those papers represented an evil that we must fear.174 The texts Instruction addressed to the French agent in the Spanish part of Santo Domingo, and After receiving the news, I am delighted, were both written after the Treaty of Basel of June 1795. In theory, one of the articles of the Treaty of Basel ceded the Spanish part of Santo Domingo to France, but prohibited France from publicly intervening in other Spanish colonies. France would not act on this cession, the occupation that took place in 1801 was led by Toussaint Louverture.175 The central theme of this document was again the occupation of Spanish Santo Domingo by the French, as well as the problems and consequences that this circumstance might provoke. The exact date of the papers is unknown but they appear to be written sometime between 1795 and 1796. We know for sure however that the Instruction

174

males que son de temer, in Gobernador de Caracas al Prncipe de la Paz, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 235-236; also AGI, Estado, 65, no. 54. Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World, The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004).

175

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circulated before the After receiving the news I am delighted, because the former was quoted by the latter. The paper entitled After receiving the news, I am delighted is an anonymous letter that, again, praises the republican system. The author establishes comparisons between the French republic and the monarchical Spanish regime, and argues that the new political and economic order of the republic would make all the families of Santo Domingo happier than ever.176 Additionally, the author strongly contends that the French Revolution should not be confused with other partial events that have several times moved the history of the World. In his opinion the French Revolution was unique. He compared it with an imposing tree that spreads its fruits throughout the world, and argued that the events of Saint-Domingue are, indeed, an indication of this fruitful expansion. In this document, the author also shows respect and admiration for the Treaty of Basel,177 which, according to him, contained rights that benefited all the inhabitants of Santo Domingo: it allowed them to leave the island with all their possessions; it also protected possessions left behind allowing them to be acquired through inheritance; and it also allowed them to recover to and to keep French citizenship. On the other hand, the author condemns the Spanish monarchy that, in his opinion, has
176

Despues de las noticias recividas, yo me lisonjeo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 240-244. He dedicated some paragraphs to explaining the political context in which the Treaty had taken place, depicting the Spanish as deceitful and dangerous. See Despues de las noticias recividas, yo me lisonjeo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 240-244.

177

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forgotten and betrayed the people of Santo Domingo by giving the island up to the French. He says:
But the Spanish Minister awakening from his terror and panic, forgot about all the blood that you so many times shed in the Valleys, Plains and Mountains of Haiti, after the more than three hundred years that he fought for the glory and usefulness of the Monarchy; whether it was against the ancient Indians, legitimate owners of the Island, or against the English sent by [] or finally against the fearless Filibusters. He no longer remembered your Expenses, your Tiredness, and your work and intrepid courage for in the discovery and the conquest of the Islands and the American continent.178

Therefore, while asserting that the Treaty of Basle would provide favorable conditions for the entire island and its inhabitants, he depicted the Spanish monarchy and its officials as being deceitful and unfair to its people. In this sense, the author tries to convince the inhabitants to forget about Spain and integrate themselves into the glorious French Republic, because France will be dedicated to provide you with all the good you deserve, and to console you for all the ingratitude and insult you have received.179 He particularly encouraged the people of Santo Domingo to stay on the island, to be part of the republic and, more importantly, to accept abolition. With certain

178

Pero el Ministerio Espanol al volber de su terror, y panico, olvid toda la sangre que vosotros haveis derramado tantas veces en los Valles, en las Sabanas, y en las Montanas de Hayti, despues de mas de trescientos anos que convatio por la gloria y utilidad de la Monarquia; ya fuese contra los antiguos Yndios, duenos legitimos de la Ysla, ya contra los Yngleses mandados por Drak Pen, y Venables [] o ya haya sido finalmente contra los fieros Filibustieres. No se acord ya mas de vros. Gastos, de vras. Fatigas, y de vros. trabajos, de vro. intrepido valor por el descubrimiento y conquistas de las Yslas, y continente de la America, Ibid. va a dedicarse enteramente a haceros todo el bien de que sois merecedores, y conzolaros de la ingratitude y insulto que se os ha hecho, Ibid.

179

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slyness, he asks: Are you going to regret the new rights of blacks, while you are prisoners of a more humiliating and hateful tyranny?180 According to him, both slavery and monarchy were arbitrary and despotic systems. The Spanish monarchy was, in his opinion, a system that treats its vassals in a terrible manner. Not even a master treats his slaves as the Spanish monarchy had treated its vassals: You live with your slaves. You manage them. You feed, You dress, and take care of them, and you have never treated them with as much neglect and barbarism as the Spanish government has treated you!181 In the end, he says that he does not want to promote hatred towards the Spanish; rather he prefers to encourage unity between the two nations. But this assertion seems cynical and ambiguous since the author has attempted to proclaim the republic while strongly criticizing the monarchy. He said that he desires the unity of the two nations for the benefit of France, and the European and American Spaniards These texts were prohibited in the Province of Venezuela because, in proclaiming fidelity to the Republic, they generated strong doubts about the Spanish monarchical regime and the social order that it had established, including slavery. Local authorities saw that the purposes of the French revolutionaries were more ambitious than simply proclaiming a Republic. For the Spanish authorities the word Republic meant political chaos, disorder, and anti-religion. But the idea of
180 181

Ibid.

Vosotros vivis juntos con ellos (los esclavos), los manejais, los alimentais, los vestis, los cuidais; y vosotros no los haveis tratado jamas a ellos con tanta inconsequencia, ni barbarie, como os ha tratado a vosotros el Gobierno espano, Ibid.

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providing absolute freedom for slaves and equality among whites and people of color implied the collapse of one of the pillars and of their economy and of the stability of their social order. An important question to address here is: How were these papers introduced into the province? In my opinion, several circumstances allowed the entrance of these written materials into the urban centers and ports. In the first place, there were foreigners who brought books, gazettes and papers and shared them with locals in private meetings and discussion groups. The Inquisition denunciation notebook gives us evidence of this situation: when people were asked about how they found a certain prohibited book or document, they would frequently answer that a foreign visitor offered it to them. Don Domingo Daz said that it was true that he used to have some volumes of the History of the Revolution in his house, but that he had returned them to the captain of an American ship who was offering them for sale. Doa Manuela Ybarra confessed that she had the Letters of Abelard and Eloise, and that this was a gift she received from her nephew, a priest from Chile, who was visiting her. In the same way, Captain Don Juan Vicente Bolvar responded: I had La Julia, but it was not mine. A foreigner lent it to me and I have returned it.182 Of course, it was easier for these curious readers to blame an outsider instead of accusing a family member, neighbor, friend, or even themselves for the circulation of forbidden materials. But the excuse was credible as the government was truly concerned with the idea that
182

Cuadernillo de denuncias al Secretario del Santo Oficio, AAC, Santo Oficio, Carpeta II.

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foreigners visiting the mainland were responsible for the written expansion of the revolutionary disease. In 1793, for example, Captain General, Don Pedro Carbonell criticized Governor of Cuman Don Vicente Emparan for allowing a French visitor, Antonio Arteman, to visit Cuman from the island of Trinidad. The governor believed that Arteman was infused with perverse ideas, with hateful maxims he intends to spread. He also believed that on his trips, Arteman could have been introducing seditious papers.183 On the next chapter I will look at the presence and influence of foreigners and visitors in the province. The Province of Venezuela had a coast wide open to the Caribbean sea, and agents found it extremely difficult to guard the frontiers, not only from smugglers, but also from political fugitives, maritime maroons, and subversive characters who wanted to introduce prohibited books and papers to the mainland. Many of the gazettes, newspapers, and pamphlets that entered in the mainland came from the nearby islands, including the Island of Trinidad, which after 1797 was occupied by British forces and definitely given to the English Crown in the year 1802.184 This situation required more vigilant guard over Venezuelas eastern coast.

183

El Gobernador a Vicente Emparan, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLIX, 213; also quoted in Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela, 184. Josefina Prez Aparicio, Perdida de la isla de Trinidad (Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios HispanoAmericanos, 1966).

184

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Some months after the English occupation of Trinidad, governor of Cuman Vicente Emparan expressed his concerns to the Captain General about intensive smuggling activities with English ships that was taking place on the eastern coast of the Province of Venezuela. He had heard that Spaniards from Trinidad were exchanging cattle and livestock, and tobacco for European goods. Emparan even mistrusted his subalterns who never mentioned a word about this irregularity. He related his frustrations about the impossibility of controlling contraband and illegal commercial activities in his jurisdiction, because for every door I close, three or four are opened, and this is impossible for a single or almost single man.185 Later, in this same letter, Emparan comments that the great number of printed materials with new doctrines and ideas that were circulating in Cuman and the nearby areas proceeded from Trinidad and were also introduced by smugglers. He also provides information about a man suspected of spreading seditious papers in Cuman; his name was Don Antonio Valecilla, a soldier from the battalion of Trinidad. Valecilla was supposedly living in Cuman, but after receiving the Governor of Cuman in his house and imagining he was under suspicion, escaped back to Trinidad.186 Illegal commercial activities between the island and the Province of Cuman, and the introduction of seditious papers from Trinidad continued throughout the first decade of the nineteenth century. In 1807, for example, a traveler who was visiting the
185

Informe de Don Vicente Emparan al Gobernador Carbonell acerca del estado de la Provincia de Cuman y tambin sobre la isla de Trinidad, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXVII, 109. Ibid.

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city of Cuman provided clear evidence of the introduction of texts from the Island of Trinidad. The visitor wrote:
Having, one day entered the store of a grocer, in that town [Cuman], I found him occupied in making paper bags and wrappers from the Declarations of the Rights of Man, copies of the Social Contract, and the bulls true or false of Pope Pius VI, which excommunicated the French nation. I inquired how those papers had come to his shop; the following was his answer: I made a voyage to Trinidad after the peace of Amiens: the Mr. gave me a bale containing five hundred copies of these writings, and as many by a Peruvian Jesuit, who has long resided in London, by which he instigated us to renounce our allegiance to our sovereign, and promised the assistance of England. Such bales are given to all traders who frequent the ports of Trinidad. As for me, I took mine to the governor, after having reserved some copies for making bags, &c.187

Frequently, foreign merchants and local traders brought boxes of prohibited books, pamphlets, and scattered papers (papeles sueltos) and introduced them secretly into the ports and cities, where they always found curious and avid readers. In a revolutionized Caribbean, the Province of Venezuela, with its vast coast, seemed an easy target for introducing the republican spirit or for persuading its inhabitants to reject the Spanish monarchy and ally with other nations. We have seen that even Port authorities were not completely loyal to the Spanish government, and used their position in public office to collect papers, make copies, and spread them in order to support a republican movement. So subversive papers entered the Province of Venezuela in various ways and with the support of both foreigners and locals interested in imparting information and, at the same time, provoking mobilization.

187

Dauxion Lavaysse, A Statistical, Commercial and Political Description of Venezuela, Trinidad, 30.

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6. Forbidden Texts and Readers of Color.

Spanish political elites and white creoles felt threatened by the circulation of these papers because they could promote political actions among lower social groups such as pardos, free blacks, and slaves, who together represented more than the 60 percent of the population. We have found some evidence that these groups in fact did have access to prohibited papers and gazettes. We showed earlier that Josef Luis Aleado, a veteran of the pardo militia, found the paper Extract of the Manifest that the National Convention made for all the Nations, and gave it to the Captain General. Months later he also found another paper that seemed to be a translation of some paragraph proceeding from a Gazette, whose content was considered prejudicial and seditious, especially because it could create confusion among the simple people.188 Aleado demonstrated his loyalty to the Crown and the local government, but the names of the people who gave him the documents - or among whom he found them were never revealed. We dont know who they were, but taking into consideration Aleados social condition and calidad, it seems plausible to believe that he obtained the texts from someone from his own social group. It is difficult to determine the effect of seditious texts about the French Revolution and Caribbean movements among the population of color. However, if we
188

Informe que da cuenta de lo ocurrido con aquella Audiencia sobre darle el voto consultivo en un expediente grave relativo la Introduccin de un papel sedicioso de la Asamblea de Paris que se aprehendio, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 5.

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take into consideration the fact that there were as mentioned above diverse strategies and social spaces to orally spread and discuss written information coming to the mainland, the identification of the possible readers could provide an idea of how far these written diseases were distributed. Based on his studies of knowledge transmission and popular rebellion in colonial India, Ranajit Guha says that:
Writing was socially privileged. The production of verbal messages in graphic form for purposes of insurgency was feasible only when individuals of elite origin were induced by circumstance or conscience or a combination of both to make common cause with the peasantry, or when a few among the latter had managed, against all odds, to acquire the rudiments of literacy and put these at the service of an uprising.189

In colonial Venezuela I have found both kinds of readers and writers. In the first place, in Venezuela there were white Spaniards and Creoles planters, merchants, officials and militiamen, and others participating in the conspiracy of La Guaira in 1797, who actively collaborated in the circulation of Republican ideas and values among the population of color. They represent Guhas first kind of readers: dissident elite readers. We know that characters like Juan Joseph Mendiri (the port official) collaborated with the collection of written materials, and Juan Xavier Arrambide (a white creole merchant) copied and translated documents that circulated among various social groups of La Guaira. But there was also one of the leaders of this conspiracy, Juan Picornell, a Mallorquian who was sent to the prison of La Guaira for participating in the conspiracy of San Blas, who produced texts to help others
189

Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency, 247.

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understand the republican movement principles and ideals.190 The fundamental aim of various of his texts was to gain support of the population of color, therefore these were written in a discourse appropriate to be read out aloud to the people of color and easy to memorize. We will come back to this theme in an upcoming chapter dedicated to the Conspiracy of La Guaira in 1797 and its communication networks. As an example of the second type of reader, the lettered plebians, we should mention the case of Juan Bautista Olivares, a pardo who was accused of reading prohibited texts to others of his class. In 1795, two documents (the Extract of the Manifest that the National Convention made for all the Nations and Sermon from the Constitutional Bishop of Paris, Mr. Embert) were found in the hands of a group of pardos in Caracas. Apparently a pardo musician, named Juan Bautista Olivares, had read these papers to mulattos of the city. Olivares was also accused of writing letters containing arrogant and seditious phrases. Both accusations suggested that Olivares was willing to, according the Captain General, spread the seed of equality among mulattos. These serious accusations against Olivares complicated an already confrontational situation that Olivares had maintained with authorities of the Church since 1791.191 The Captain General finally decided to put Olivares in prison and sent

190

Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro. Casto Fulgencio Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell y la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa (Madrid: Ediciones Nueva Cdiz, 1955). In 1791, Olivares had introduced a petition to the diocesan authorities to enter in ecclesiastical order, but the church official attorney ignored his petition. Later, in 1794 the general-attorney of the diocese opposed Olivares petition alleging that the pardo was a descendent of blacks and mulattos and that someone with impure blood could not enter in positions exclusive to people who are clean of all bad race. See Documento relativo a la peticin que hace Juan Bautista Olivares ante el Provisor y Vicario

191

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him to Cdiz under the accusation of being a subversive and arrogant pardo, capable of encouraging the same people of his own class to shake off the yoke of obedience and vassalage.192 In August 1795, the Council of The Indies, in Cdiz, opened an inquest to determine the culpability of Olivares. The judge and the oidor asked him if he wrote a letter to a mulatto, named Lauro, in which he stated that the powerful of this world triumph over the humble and concluded that: they will be fortunate while the dark times last. In his testimony, Olivares answered that he did write the letter to Lauro, in which he complained about a priest who had not paid him for his work as a musician. He claimed that he did write the cited phrases, but his intentions were not evil, saying that he took the phrases from Father Nierembergs book Diferencias entre lo Temporal y lo Eterno, and by dark times he meant: the time of mortal life, not anything else.193

General para que le conceda licencia para vestir los hbitos clericales, Caracas, febrero 1795, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIV, 127.
192

Del Gobernador al Duque de Alcudia, 16 de febrero de 1795, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIV, 126-127; also AGI, Caracas, 346. Declaracin de Juan Bautista Olivares, acusado de promover la intraquilidad pblica, haciendo circular ideas sediciosas de libertad e igualdad, trasladado a Cdiz, donde se le sigui declaracin indagatoria, AGI, Caracas, 346. Nierembergs book was one of the most popular religious books in Colonial Venezuela, almost 45% of the private libraries had it.Olivares quoted a well-known and acceptable reference to prove that his statements were not anti-religious, nor anti-monarchical. See Juan Eusebio Nieremeberg, Diferencias entre lo temporal y lo eterno, crisol de desengaos en la memoria de la eternidad, postrimeras humanas y misterios divinos (Madrid: Manuel Martin, 1762). On the other hand, Olivares was making clear that his notion of light and darkness was, by no means, related with the Enlightenment perception of Light as the Republican system, and Darkness as the Monarchical system of the Ancient Regime. His idea of Light/Darkness was profoundly catholic, meaning light as the immortal life with God, and Darkness as the mortal time of humanity on Earth.

193

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Then he was asked whether he had read and explained to another mulatto named Victor Arteaga a sermon attributed to the Archbishop of Paris. He answered:
Although he [Olivares] knows a mulatto carpenter named Victor Arteaga, he had never read in front of him that sermon, or any other writings. What did occur was that, on one occasion, a friend of his called Pedro de Silva or Arrecheguera had brought to his house another mulatto who is known only by the name Acua, with the purpose of reading a manuscript sermon that was said to be by the Archbishop of Paris, and that in fact it had been read by Acua himself, and he immediately took it [the sermon] with him and he had not seen it again, because although he asked him to lend it to him to copy it, he learned afterwards from a Priest of the San Jos de Chacao Parish, called Jos Antonio Garca Mohedano, that the said sermon was forbidden, but he could not recall whether he said by the Inquisition or by the Government, but that for that reason he did not continue to request it.194

Olivares tried to evade the responsibility of having read seditious papers to others, but the truth is that his account allows us to imagine a complex scenario in which he and other pardos and mulattos (now Pedro Silva and Acua) met to read, copy, and circulate papers. He was also asked if he knew that the text of the Archbishop of Paris was infused with maxims of freedom and equality, and he answered: Although it is true that I wanted to copy it, it was only to feed my curiosity; I have always detested these maxims.195 In a third attempt to understand Olivares literary interests, he was asked if he had read, copied, and circulated other documents on the French Revolution or containing revolutionary ideas. He answered

194

Declaracin de Juan Bautista Olivares, acusado de promover la intraquilidad pblica, haciendo circular ideas sediciosas de libertad e igualdad, trasladado a Cdiz, donde se le sigui declaracin indagatoria, AGI, Caracas, 346. Ibid.

195

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that he had not read any other papers regarding this issue, except for La Gazeta de Madrid and the testament of the King of France.196 Olivares needed to prove that the main reason the Captain General of Venezuela and the Audiencia decided to send him to Cdiz was not because he was a subversive pardo, but because he was anxious to join to the clerical order and his petition created discomfort among the colonial Church authorities. During his stay in the prison in Cdiz, Olivares wrote a revealing letter in which he clearly explained this situation and showed himself a fervent Catholic and loyal vassal of the King.197 The letter provided the Council with a clear description of the misfortunes and discrimination that pardos experienced in the province, where they were not allowed to be educated, to attend seminary or to be ordained as priests. Finally, the King and the Council realized that the judicial case against Olivares was not as serious as the authorities in Caracas had argued, and in December 1795, Olivares was set free. He even got permission to go back to Caracas on the condition of observing prudent behavior.198 Madrids decision enraged the Governor of Caracas who complained that

196

Declaracin de Juan Bautista Olivares. As we mentioned earlier in this chapter, la Gaceta de Madrid contained information regarding the movements of Saint Domingue, and this may have be the reason why Olivares mentioned that these and the testament of the King of France were sources where he read news on the revolutions. As Ferrer asserts [this information] may have not caused reactions in Madrid, but in places like La Habana could have moved the readers, in Noticias de Hait en Cuba, 197. Manuscrito de Juan Bautista Olivares, escrito en la crcel de Cdiz, AGI, Caracas, 346.

197 198

This decision could show the Crown tendency to take advantage of the discriminatory situations that the majority of pardos and mixed-races experienced in Colonial Spanish America. Precisely in the year of 1795, Madrid offered a way out of the stain of slavery to individuals of mixed African ancestry by extending the sale of gracias al sacar (legitimation of status change) to pardos and quinterones. This

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if Olivares came back, it would cheer people up in a province covered by pestilent poison, whose contagion would easily contaminate people of color. He stated: They always try to equal themselves to whites by any imaginable means.199 In 1796, Olivares was back in Caracas and continuing to work as a musician, directing a religious chorus. The presence and circulation of papers containing revolutionary ideas among the white population created concern in the colonial institutions that tried to exercise social control. The circulation and reading of these materials among the population of color were considered extremely dangerous and quite unacceptable. This is why the Governor did not hesitate to send Juan Bautista Olivares to Cdiz accusing him of being a subversive subject, while ignoring Mendiri and Arrambide, both whites creoles who were involved in suspicious cases of possession and translation of forbidden texts. The case of Olivares also allows us to perceive the fear of white elites; a group that felt that the racial paradigm and the social order upon which colonial society was founded were threateaned with destruction.

decision, among others, was the by-product of an attempt by royal accounting officers to improve revenue collection by putting together a price list of gracias al sacar based on recent practice. Aline Helg, Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770-1835 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 92. Regarding the theme of honorability, race and status in Colonial Spanish America, see Ann Twinam, Public Lives, Private Secrets: Gender, Honor, Sexuality and Illegitimacy in Colonial Spanish America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999).
199

El Gobernador al Prncipe de la Paz, Agosto, 1796, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 234.

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The circulation of seditious papers and books continued in the Province of Venezuela throughout the entire first decade of the nineteenth century. In 1809, the Inquisition of Caracas issued another Edict of Prohibition of Papers and Books, perhaps the last one during colonial times. This edict warned of several texts that proclaimed insurrection, subversion, and insubordination to the Legitimate Powers. At the end, the edict concluded:
In all times, experience has taught us the injuries that the reading of certain books and papers written with evilness causes to the Religion, to the State and to the tranquility of the conscienceFor our misfortune, we see in current times, how many persons have been seduced by the freshness of this bad seed, [we see] that many persons are enchanted with the novelties of these days, produced by insurrections, by false decrees and manifests, and they are not capable of recognizing the consequences of this danger200

Revolutionary ideas in writing did circulated among the people of the Province of Venezuela, and individuals in each locality and cultural context channeled written words and ideas through particular circuits and networks. People in Caracas and La Guaira found the spaces to produce and reproduce knowledge, creating also oral media (songs, dialogues, poetry) to disseminate, share and adapt political knowledge to the local context. The subject of the next chapters is the characterization and the nature of these processes of transformation and adaptation of political knowledge to the local process, a process in which social notions on race and status, and an overall resentment of the local political system, played a fundamental role.

200

Edicto del Santo Oficio de Caracas, 1809, AAC, Santo Oficio, Carpeta II.

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CHAPTER III

Voices and Rumors in Tierra Firme Visitors, Fugitives and Prisoners from the French Caribbean in Venezuela (1789-1799)

1. Caribbean Communication Networks during the Age of Revolution

After the start of the French Revolution, King Charles IV and his ministers were particularly concerned about the possible influences and effects that it and its propaganda could have in his American territories. In September 1789, he was informed that some members of the National Assembly of Paris had strong interests in introducing seditious manifestos in Spanish America that could shake the power of Spanish dominion amongst its inhabitants. Immediately after receiving this warning, the Spanish Minister, Count of Floridablanca, issued a Royal Order to the Governors of the Spanish Provinces in America, in which he established control over the introduction and diffusion of any paper that could promote Independence and antireligion. In this same communication, the Minister clearly recognized that written materials were not the only source of information that could contaminate the Spanish

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territories with evil principles, since French visitors could spread seditious ideas very efficiently by word of mouth.201 In May 1790, the Crown issued a Royal Decree to the Captain General of Venezuela and Governor of Caracas in which it repeated the order to control the diffusion of dangerous papers coming from France; but it also added that there was an urgent need to control the entry into the Province of black fugitives coming from the foreign colonies. This Decree indicated that slaves or black fugitives, as well as persons of other colors coming from the French Islands, could influence our vassals with ideas that are prejudicial for their due subordination.202 In December 1790, the Captain General of Venezuela wrote a letter to the Spanish Minister in which he underlined the direct connection that existed between the French Revolution and the movements and unstable situation of the French Colonies, especially Guadeloupe. Aware of the importance of being vigilant of the papers and ideas that were circulating in his Province, the Captain General expressed his fears about the danger that the proximity of the French Islands posed to the Province of Venezuela, the gateway to the Spanish American mainland.203 Similarly, he was
201 202 203

Real Orden del Conde de Floridablanca, 24 de septiembre de 1789, AGN, Reales Ordenes, X, 140. Ibid., 198-199.

Orden del Presidente de la Real Audiencia de Caracas, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLIII, 96-97. Colonial authorities were always concerned about the entry of revolutionary ideas and Venezuelas geographical location and characteristics. The Province was often depicted as an open country (pas abierto), with an extensive and accessible coast, vulnerable and extremely difficult to protect. On many occasions when the neighboring Islands, like Trinidad, and Margarita asked for military reinforcements from the mainland, the same kind of excuses were made, one letter from the Governor said: How are we going to send reinforcements if we do not have enough soldiers to guard

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concerned about the possibility that a great numbers of black fugitives from the turbulent Islands might well enter the Province, and suggested that local slaves should be entertained and news relating to the situation in the French Colonies should not be divulged. In a sense, the attention that local authorities originally paid to the French Revolution and its propaganda was quickly supplanted by the preoccupation provoked about the proximity and terrible example of the French colonies. The threats of the French revolution spread to the nearby islands, and were transformed, in the local social context, into a more serious menace, because the upheavals of the French Caribbean incorporated both the free colored population and the slaves. Immediately after the first news arrived about the events of Saint-Domingue, the concerns about possible revolutionary contagion in the Spanish territories increased. A Royal Decree of November 1791 instructed the Viceroys, Captain Generals and Governors of Spanish America to maintain a neutral position with respect to the circumstances of the struggle between blacks and whites in the insurrection of Guarico. However, it added, that if groups of malhechores and pirates were to attack white communities on the high sea, the Spanish authorities were directed to act in accordance with the rules of Humanity, providing aid to the white refugees, but being careful to prevent the contagion of the insurrection in the Spanish

our own coasts from pirate attacks or possible invasions? See Carta de Vicente Emparan al Capitn General Carbonell, 1793, AGI, Caracas, 94, no. 221.

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possessions.204 Therefore, any contact between Spanish soldiers and French people had to be avoided at all costs, and the vigilance to limit the introduction of fugitive blacks from the French colonies and, more generally, of suspicious foreign visitors was now of utmost importance. To prevent the circulation and proliferation of dangerous ideas that were originated in France and radicalized in the slave-holding Caribbean, the authorities in Venezuela introduced measures to control the ports, to organize censuses of the inhabitants in the ports and nearby cities, to spy on foreign visitors and neighbors and to investigate the reasons for their presence in the Province. The implementation of these measures to control the inhabitants by the local government revealed that they feared that news and rumors circulating by way of mouth represented a tangible threat to the social, economic and political stability of the Province. The authorities believed that rumors introduced by uninvited Caribbean visitors could bring chaos and disorder to the Province. In semi-literate societies where there were no printing presses, rumors played an important role in the diffusion of knowledge.205 In Venezuela, rumors spread in public settings, such as public squares, pulperas, shops, and outside the Church buildings. Although it is extremely difficult to determine where and when the rumors
204

Real Orden e Instruccion del Rey a los Jefes de las Provincias en America, para prevenirles sobre el peligro de las Insurreciones acontecidas en las Provincias, noviembre de 1791, AGN, Reales Ordenes, XI, 70. 205 Ranajit Guha, for example, comments: Rumour is both universal and necessary carrier of insurgency in any pre-industrial, pre-literate society. See Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency, 251.

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of revolution emerged and vanished, or to identify those that put them in circulation, there are certain questions we can usefully pose: What kind of revolutionary rumors were circulating among the inhabitants of the Province of Venezuela? Who were privy to those rumors? And how did they come to refer, not only to external, but also to local circumstances? 206 In his work on regional communication networks, rumors, and the divulgation of revolutionary events in the Caribbean, historian Julius Scott sustains that, traditionally, studies of commerce and trade, which were an important dimension of the historiography of eighteenth-century America, overlooked one of the most significant items that were exchanged: information.207 Hence, Scotts study is important for understanding the importance the role that Caribbean communication networks played in spreading the images of revolutionary Saint-Domingue. Scotts work was already aligned with an incipient Atlantic historiography that sought to expand its analysis beyond political territorial limits and traditional chronological divisions. These historians, on one hand, sought to reintegrate the past of all the Americas, reincorporating it within a larger western and global context; and on the other, they also questioned the usefulness of conventional chronological divisions between the colonial and national periods. Along these lines, an increasing number of
206

See Jean Noel Kapferer, Rumeurs: Le plus vieux mdie du Monde (Paris: Seuil, 1987), quoted in Scarlett OPhelan, La construccin del miedo a la plebe en el siglo XVIII a travs de las rebeliones sociales, in El miedo en el Per, siglo XVI al XX, ed. Claudia Rosas Lauro (Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per, 2005). Scott, The Common Wind, 175.

207

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works became interested in exploring issues related to commercial activities and migratory movements.208 More recent works have been dedicated to the study of the web of Atlantic interconnectedness within the Americas and, also, between the different imperial systems. In this direction, special attention has been paid to the study of port cities located in Anglo and Latin America, and in the Caribbean, with the purpose of examining similarities and differences and relating them to the particular characteristics of the respective cultural contexts.209 As Knight and Liss comment, port towns and cities were the most important nodes of European expansion in the Americas during the processes of conquest and colonial settlement and, later, as the patterns of European colonization became more solid, ports and port-cities gained significance as the Atlantic world developed a complex trading system with its various geographic sectors built around maritime commerce.210

208

See, for example, the early work of Jacob Price, Economic Function and the Growth of American Port Towns in the Eighteenth Century, Perspectives in American History 8, (1974): 123-86; and J.G.A Pocock, Virtue and Commerce in the Eighteenth Century, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 3, (1972): 119-34. For Latin America, see Tulio Halpern Donghi, Politics, Economics and Society in Argentina in the Revolutionary Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975). See Peggy Liss, Atlantic Empires: The Network of the Trade and Revolution, 1713-1826 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), and Franklin W. Knight and Peggy Liss, Atlantic Port Cities. Economy, Culture and Society in the Atlantic World, 1650-1850 (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1991). And more recent works, such as Alejandro De La Fuente, Havana and the Atlantic in the Sixteenth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008); Linda M. Rupert, Marronage, Manumission and Maritime Trade in the Early Modern Caribbean, Slavery & Abolition 30, no. 3 (2009); Klooster, Revolution in the Atlantic World; and Helg, Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia. Knight and Liss, Atlantic Port Cities, 2.

209

210

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Historians of the revolutionary Atlantic have recognized the importance of studying the complex web of commercial, social, and political relations that were built up within Port towns and cities during the age of the Revolution. The different revolts and social movements occurring in the Caribbean islands provoked important mobilizations of people of diverse social status, races and political tendencies across the American ports and cities that certainly altered the social dynamics, the political perceptions and even the economic circumstances of each location.211 In this chapter, I will center my analysis on oral transmission and rumors that circulated about the turbulent French Caribbean in cities and port-towns of the Province of Venezuela. Consequently, I will attribute considerable importance to the agents of these processes of knowledge transmission: the people. Here, I will study the repercussions that the mobilization of people from the revolutionary Atlantic had in the Province of Venezuela during the first years of the French Revolution, the Guadeloupe confrontations, and the Saint-Domingue revolutions. Despite all the measures that the government established and implemented in order to control the entrance of foreigners into the ports and urban centers of the Province, between 1791 and 1799, many individuals from France and the Caribbean islands entered the Province and carried news and information about the
211

There is abundant and recent historiography regarding this topic. See Gaspar and Geggus, eds., A Turbulent Time; Geggus, ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic; Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies; Gonzlez-Ripoll and others, eds., El rumor de Hait en Cuba; Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento, and Le Syndrome de Saint-Domingue; Piqueras, Las Antillas en la Era de las Luces; Garraway, ed., Tree of Liberty; Nesbitt, Universal Emancipation; Geggus and Fiering, eds., The World of the Haitian Revolution; Helg, Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia; Klooster, Revolutions in the Atlantic World.

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political events of France and its colonies. These visitors brought stories of the revolutions with them, and created a wave of rumors that contributed to the production and reproduction of several versions of the Haitian Revolution, and to the circulation of ideas about slave insurrection, violence, colonialism, equality, and freedom. The suspicious people that entered the port-towns and cities of Venezuela were diverse: French visitors accused of sporadically talking out loud about the French Revolution in public places, sailors of all colors and maritime maroons coming from different latitudes who brought information about political instability and black upheavals, slaves from foreign islands brought by refugee families who sang revolutionary songs, French royalists and colored militiamen, aligned with different political agendas, who also had their own perceptions of the Caribbean situation and of relations between the metropolis and its colonies, and who even participated as agents for inducing social mobilization or, on the contrary, as supporters of the local Government offering their services for the counterrevolutionary cause. All of them participated in the creation of an imprecise and diffuse image of the Haitian Revolution with different versions and emotional reactions overlapping, and with the local inhabitants projecting their own fears and hopes. This chapter aims precisely to analyze this complex network of information and its multiple readings. 212

212

For an interesting and complete appraisal of the emotional effects of the Haitian Revolution on the Atlantic World, see Gmez, Le Syndrome de Saint Domingue.

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The wave of rumors that all these actors brought caused enormous anxiety to many authorities who found it very hard to control oral transmission of information, being aware that this information affected the perceptions that different subjects had about the Monarchy, vassalage, racial hierarchy, and the slavery system. In this chapter, I seek to analyze and understand some of the versions of the Saint-Domingue Revolution that circulated in the Province in the forms of rumors, and that progressively contributed to white paranoia and repression as well as to pardos involvement in conspiracies, and to black rebelliousness and haughtiness. As will be seen, Venezuela in the 1790s furnishes interesting examples of both the contagion of revolution and the counterrevolutionary responses.

2. Controlling Suspicious French Visitors

Viceroys, Captain Generals and Governors of the Spanish territories in America received specific royal orders to impede, at all costs, the entry of French Revolutionary ideas into their jurisdictions, because these ideas challenged the monarchy, the Church and the most essential concepts of a harmonic and obedient society. The need for establishing a sanitary cordon not only in the Spanish Peninsula, but also in all the Spanish territories required the implementation of

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numerous strategies to avoid contagion.213 In many written pieces in Spanish and American newspapers, the French Revolution was depicted as a terrifying movement, which consisted of wave of murders, fires, parricide, regicide, and destruction of all the basic principles upon which the political, religious and social order rested.214 The most fearful and frightful aspects of the French Revolution were the regicide, the attacks on religion and the Catholic Church, and the Terror. Spanish authorities perceived the Regicide as an extremely violent and barbarous act that questioned the basis of the Monarchy as a Divine Right; in consequence, the assassination of Louis XVI was conceived as a sacrilege committed in the most atrocious manner. Both political authorities and elites experienced fear in the face of a series of events that were accompanied by adjectives such as horror, terror, and threat.215 In Spanish America, these fears became strong reasons for persecuting those individuals who were perceived as possible agents of perturbation and opposition to the monarchical system, the Catholic Church, and the social order; and as a result, the colonial authorities developed strategies to control the entry of foreigners who could
213

Gonzalo Aes lvarez de Castrilln, Espaa y la Revolucin Francesa, in Revolucin, contrarrevolucin e independencia: la Revolucin Francesa, Espaa y Amrica (Madrid: Turner, 1989), 17-39. Rosas Lauro, El miedo a la revolucin. Rumores y temores desatados por la Revolucin Francesa en el Per, 149. See George Lefevbre, The Great Fear of 1789, Rural Panic in Revolutionary France (New York: Schocken Books, 1989); Arno J. Mayer, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); and Paul Newman, A History of Terror (Great Britain: Sutton Publishing Limited, 2000).

214

215

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become sources of contagion.216 In Venezuela, some restrictions on the presence of foreign visitors were already in place before the French Revolution. The geographical situation of the province encouraged not only the development of smuggling networks but also the entry of fugitives and possible invaders who always provoked preoccupation among the authorities who jealously suspected of every Dutch, English or French ship navigating close to the Venezuelan coast. However, after July 1789, the authorities were concerned about both the entry of foreigners and the presence of foreigners already established in the Province who could be receptive to French revolutionary propaganda and contribute as well to its diffusion. In 1792, for example, the Captain General, Juan Guillelmi, issued an Order to the Lieutenants of the jurisdiction of Coro, Paraguan, San Luis, Casigua and Ro El Tocuyo, to investigate the foreigners living in these regions, and to inquire who they are, the lifestyle and customs of each of them, their occupation or profession, and the reasons for their presence in the Province. Likewise, he recommended finding out if these foreigners
216

Along with diverse traditional analogies that western political culture established between the State and Corporal images, there was this conceptualization of the State as a human body, rebellions as diseases, and information networks as sources of contagion. See Ernest Kantorowicz, The Kings Two Bodies, A Study on Medieval Political Theology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). In his work on Colonial India, Ranajit Guha shows that Colonial elites used metaphors that conceptualized the state as a body, and rebellions as diseases that attack the political body. Rebels ideas were spread all over, contaminating the rest of the common people. Elites saw symptoms of the disease in their peasants words and actions, and their fear caused them to manufacture events and actions, and led them to apply different methods of repression as a way of preventing and/or protecting themselves from rebel actions. See Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency. In Spanish America, the French Revolution was perceived as a contagious disease, see John Rydjord, The French Revolution in Mexico, Hispanic American Historical Review 9, no.1 (1929): 60-98; Rosas Lauro, El miedo a la revolucin. Rumores y temores desatados por la Revolucin Francesa en el Per, Izard, El miedo a la revolucin; and Elena Plaza, El miedo a la Ilustracin en la provincia de Caracas, 1790-1810, Politeia, no. 14 (1990): 311-48.

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had expressed suspicious statements on paper or in conversations. He also added that if any of these foreigners were unable to demonstrate that they had a royal authorization for living in the Spanish territories, they had to be sent to Caracas along with all their papers and books.217 Immediately, the rumors and news about suspicious foreigners began to circulate throughout the Province. In the town of Siquesique an Indian town located approximately 110 miles west of Caracas - a Frenchman named Jerome was persecuted for expressing opinions in public against the sacred dogma; and in the town of El Tocuyo a French doctor, named Pedro Deo, was also under suspicion for saying or writing something against the State and in accordance with the spirit of Independence that is found in France.218 The assassination of Louis XVI, in January 1793, and the war outset of France and Spain months later, prompted a more rigid and determined position on the part of the Crown and the Church regarding the diffusion of French propaganda. Colonial authorities were asked to detect any minimal sign of French influence in the Spanish American territories. In 1793, a French Doctor, named Vctor Droin was accused of declaring in the main square of the town of Guanare - a small town located

217

Orden a los Tenientes Justicias Mayores de Coro, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLVII, 68. Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela, Lavia, Revolucin Francesa y control social, and Pino Iturrieta, La mentalidad venezolana en la emancipacin, 36, and Orden del Teniente Justicia Mayor de El Tocuyo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLVII, 50.

218

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approximately 85 miles southwest of Caracas - that the French people did well in killing the King of France. Droin was also incriminated by the priest Don Pedro Hurtado for being opposed to the Spanish King in the War against France, and for revealing and expressing in public attitudes contrary to the Monarchy and, sometimes, even against Religion.219 This accusation of expressing phrases against both the monarchy and the catholic religion corresponded with the common characterization of revolutionaries as anti-monarchical, anarchists and atheists. The stories of French rebels who chased priests and nuns, and destroyed sacred ornaments and symbols of the Church circulated throughout the Atlantic world. In the eyes of Spanish Crown, the French revolution was sacrilegious and impious, and all the individuals that supported it, in any way, were depicted as cruel, anarchist and atheist.220 The Crown and the Church, in fact, developed a counterrevolutionary discourse deeply rooted in principles that encouraged sowing the seeds of religious faith in the entire society.221 When Droin was questioned about these accusations, he answered that he did not speak the Spanish language very well, and that locals probably misunderstood him. Although he was married to a white creole woman in Coro and had two daughters with her, he did not have authorization to live in the Province, so he was
219 220 221

Expediente del caso del Doctor Francs Victor Droin, AGI, Caracas, 15, no. 8 and no. 13. See Lefevbre, The Great Fear of 1789, and Mayer, The Furies.

See Rosas Lauro, El miedo a la revolucin. Rumores y temores desatados por la Revolucin Francesa en el Per, Toms Straka, La voz de los vencidos. Ideas del partido realista de Caracas, 1810-1821 (Caracas: Universidad Catlica Andrs Bello, 2007), and Plaza, El miedo a la Ilustracin en la provincia de Caracas.

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expelled from Guanare. Droin solicited a pardon and brought five witnesses, all French, who stated that he was a good person with moral principles and an honorable occupation, but once the Audiencia realized that he was working as a doctor without the appropriate authorization, he was definitively expelled from the region.222 The Council of Indies followed the case of Victor Droin and, in 1795, decided to expel him from all the Spanish territories. They believed that his dangerous statements, were clearly infected by the revolutionary disease, and that Droin was a harmful example to all who could hear him. However, the Council was also concerned by another aspect revealed in Droins case, it noted: It should not be overlooked that it seems that in the Province of Venezuela, and particularly in its ports, foreigners are allowed, especially the French, because Droin found enough witnesses from his nation to support him.223 Therefore, the Council warned the local Authorities that: It is prohibited by Law for all foreigners to enter the Indies and to settle in them unless authorized to do so by letter of Royal nature and license. Further it instructed: All the Viceroys, Audiences, and Governors, shall procure to clean the land of them [the foreigners]. 224
222 223

Expediente del caso del Doctor Francs Victor Droin, AGI, Caracas, 15, no. 8 and no. 13.

Ibid. Among the French witnesses was a French doctor, Dr. Pedro Canibens, who married Josefa Joaquina Espaa, sister of the conspirator of La Guaira, Don Jos Mara Espaa. In 1797, Canibens worked as a doctor in the Hospital of La Guaira and was accused of participating in the republican conspiracy of Gual and Espaa. See Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro. I thank Prof. Aizpurua for alerting me about this information. Ramn Aizpurua, e-mail message to author, February 28, 2011. Por Ley est prohibido pasar a las Indias, y permanecer en ellas qualesquiera extranjeros que no estn habilitados con carta de naturaleza y Licencia Real, Ibid.

224

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The case of Droin, among others from the rest of Spanish America, produced some distress in Spain and in March 1796, the King issued a Royal Decree in which he ordered the use of all the necessary vigilance to enforce the laws regarding the entry of foreigners, especially those from France, who could maintain seductive or dangerous conversations with my loyal vassals. However, the King also recognized that his vassals were not altogether free from revolutionary contamination, so he also ordered that: any person who in words or actions expresses attachment to the hateful maxims of a misunderstood liberty, or tries to persuade another person, shall have a process opened.225 In 1794, Francisco Combret, a Frenchman who worked as a tobacconist in the city of Maracay, was accused of expressing subversive ideas. Combret was arrested along with all his books and papers, and sent to Cdiz in 1795. Accompanying Combret in the same ship was the merchant Santiago Albi, original of San Sebastin, Spain, who was accused of celebrating the fall of San Sebastian at the hands of the French with fireworks. Albi was described by the authorities as an insolent, vain and atheistic young man, capable of inspiring and moving others with the project that the National Assembly of Paris has spread.226 These suspects infused with revolutionary

225

Real Cdula sobre presencia de extranjeros en la Provincia, especialmente de franceses que pudiesen alterar el orden y la tranquilidad pblica, AGI, Caracas, 169, no. 85. El Gobernador a Juan N. Pedroza, noviembre de 1794, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIII, 30; also quoted in Callahan, La propaganda, la sedicin y la Revolucin Francesa en la capitana general de Venezuela,183.

226

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ideas were often referred to as persons who challenged the colonial authorities and the Church, pillar institutions of social order and the harmony. The counterrevolutionary actions adopted by the colonial Authorities and supported by the elites constituted an expression of their fears and the need to secure the political and social order. Many of the French visitors who came to Venezuela, proceeded from those islands of the Caribbean that had sheltered hundreds of French families escaping from the horrors of Saint-Domingue, and the disorders in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Afraid of losing their slaves and their lives, some of these families fled to the Island of Trinidad that offered good prospects for recently arrivals.227 According to Rosario Sevilla, the waves of immigrants that established themselves in Trinidad contributed to the much needed demographic growth in the Island during the last years of the eighteenth century.228 The Governor of the island, Don Jose Mara Chacn, commented: a great number of French royalists have escaped from the persecution of the republicans. Among them, there are many prominent individuals from the most

227

French families received diverse benefits: the Governor assigned them land for agricultural development, while the Frenchmen provided their slaves labor. Also the Real Hacienda offered monetary aid for each of the refugees, including old people and children. See Sobre Ayuda monetaria a emigrados franceses en Trinidad, AGI, Caracas, 153, no. 60. In 1788 there were 9,816 inhabitants in the Island of Trinidad; 3,807 were free and 6,009 slaves; by the year of 1797, when the British invaded the island, there were a total of 17,700 inhabitants, many of them had come from Saint-Domingue. See Rosario Sevilla Soler, Las repercusiones de la Revolucin Francesa en el Caribe espaol. Los casos de Santo Domingo y Trinidad, Cuadernos Americanos Nueva poca 5, no. 17 (1989): 117-33.

228

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respectable families; most of them bring blacks and many instruments for agricultural labor, but there are others that need aid in order to survive229 During the first years of political struggle in Guadeloupe and Martinique, and of the Saint-Domingue rebellions, more free people than slaves from these islands arrived to Trinidad, but during subsequent years this tendency reverted, and by 1795, slaves represented 58% of the population. The Governor, Jos Mara Chacn, was particularly aware of the ideological consequences of this important presence of families and slaves, and in several communications he alerted the Captain General about the danger of contagion, the frequent visits that some of these people made to the mainland, and the possibility that Trinidad could be invaded by a foreign power.230 By the beginning of the 1800s and when the island was already ruled by the British, French families controlled the slave labor force whom they had introduced in previous years and gained the economic control of the Island.231

229 230

Carta del Gobernador de Trinidad al Capitn General, julio de 1793, AGI, Caracas, 153, no. 37.

The Governor of Trinidad, in particular, maintained a frequent correspondence with the Captain General of Caracas. He provided him with information about the arrival of French families from Sto. Domingue, about the presence of foreign ships, the situation of Martinique and Cuba, and, of course about the development of Saint-Domingues events. See diverse communications from Governor of Trinidad, Jos Mara Chacn to the Captain General of Venezuela, in AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLIII, 48; XLVII, 14; XLVIII, 218, 297, 307, and 348; XLVII, 14. Also AGI, Caracas, 115. See Sevilla Soler, Las repercusiones de la Revolucin Francesa en el Caribe espaol, and Jesse A. Noel, Trinidad, provincia de Venezuela. Historia de la administracin espaola de Trinidad (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1972); and Linda Newson, Inmigrantes extranjeros en Amrica espaola: el experimento colonizador de la isla de Trinidad, Revista de Historia de Amrica, no. 87 (1979): 79-103.

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The Governor of the Province of Cuman, in the eastern region of Venezuela and separated from Trinidad only 15 miles of sea, Vicente Emparan, was wary of potential undesirable visits of French free people or slaves to his region. Effectively in 1795, missionaries of the region told Emparan that a suspicious visitor was spreading seditious maxims in the Indian towns (Pueblos de Indios), which ceased to pay tributes, and that in some regions Indians even abandoned the towns to go to the mountains, with serious consequences.232 Emparan suggested that the Captain General reduce tributes, because no other time is less appropriate than the present to raise the taxes, or introduce any novelty that could be burdensome.233 Immediately, the Captain General sent an order in which he eliminated the last official orders increasing tributes, and reduced Indians tributes to as what they were before. He also decided that Indians could pay tributes in species, as they used to do.234 A witness who met the dangerous visitor, told Emparan that he had heard him say that:
Someday these lands are going to be ruled by other people, and the poor people will finally be able to breathe, and they will receive help to progress, they will see more haciendas and sugar mills, and commercial

232

Oficio reservado del Gobernador de Cuman sobre haberse introducido persona sospechosa en los pueblos de Indios, AGI, Caracas, 514, no. 8, 1. Reservada del Gobernador de Cuman al Capitn General sobre persona sospechosa y de sus peligrosas mximas que se han introducido en el pueblo de San Bernardino y otros lugares de la Provincia, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIV, 205. Real Orden a los Gobernadores de La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, Coro y Cuman, con copia a la Real Hacienda, AGI, Caracas, 514. no. 8, 2.

233

234

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activities free of rights and taxes. Soon everybody will be rich and powerful.235

He ended his speech concluding: the Spanish King has tyrannized this land. The foreigner did not have any luggage, his only possessions were a hammock to sleep and some papers he frequently read and wrote. He said to some people that he had a partner he was supposed to meet on the coast of Caracas. Another witness, Fray Vicente Blasco, commented that he had met the visitor, and after letting him expose his dangerous ideas, Fray Blasco accused him of being French, the man contested that he was Spanish but had been raised in France; had lived in Mexico and then moved to Trinidad, where he currently lived. He traveled occasionally to the Province of Venezuela to sell mules and other products. He also claimed to be up to date on all the news about the situation of the French Antilles. When Father Blasco told him that he was not a good vassal of the King, because a good vassal obeys his father, the visitor, whose name was not revealed, replied: It is true, but sometimes they want to pull the cord so tight, that it snaps.236 Fray Blasco ordered him not to talk about these issues with the common people (el pueblo), but he later heard that the visitor was writing and sharing his ideas in public in the nearby towns.

235

Reservada del Gobernador de Cuman al Capitn General sobre persona sospechosa y de las peligrosas mximas que se han introducido en el pueblo de San Bernardino y otros lugares de la Provincia, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIV, 206. Representacin de Fray Vicente Blasco al Gobernador de Cuman, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIV, 207.

236

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The Real Audiencia met in order to determine the seriousness of the case of the mysterious uninvited and unwanted visitor who, according to the letter of the Governor of Cuman and some others letters written by the missionaries in Barcelona, traveled all over the eastern region of the Province of Venezuela, spreading dangerous ideas that impressed people, especially the Indians and blacks, always inclined to follow the perverse example of the wayward French. They sent the order to immediately capture this person, along with all his papers.237 The capture and exile of this visitor was considered extremely important, since this kind of individual took advantage of the simplicity of the Indians, who are easily persuaded, and currently may produce serious bad consequences for the public order, and the happiness of the vassals.238 It was believed that this person proceeded from the Island of Trinidad and traveled across the region until arriving in Caracas. Apparently, he was never located. The colonial State firmly believed that subaltern disobedience actions and rebellions were always inspired by external factors, and normally depicted Indians and blacks as simple minded, incapable of thinking politically for themselves or of rebelling in response to an unfair system.239 The situation of an individual inciting
237

Orden de la Real Audiencia sobre apresar a sospechoso que incita a los Indios a la desobediencia, AGI, Caracas, 514, no. 9. Reservada no. 21 al Intendente de los Reales Exercitos de Caracas, AGI, Caracas, 514.

238 239

Ranajit Guha observes the same situation in Colonial India, showing how authorities insinuated that peasants have lost their innocence thanks to the irruption of outsiders. He states: While the peasants regard rebellion as a form of collective enterprise, their enemies describe it and deal with it as a contagion Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency, 220. Scholars of Latin American history like Steve Stern, Charles Walker, Eric Van Young and Sinclair Thomson, among many others, have successfully theorized about the political consciousness of Indians, peasants and working people,

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others to rebel was considered scandalous, but if these others were numerous subaltern subjects who, infused with foreign ideas, refuse to obey and to be loyal to the King, the situation was considered even more serious. 240 Two fears intersected here: fear of contagion of revolution and fear of subaltern disobedience and rebellion. The latter was based on recent Spanish American and Caribbean experiences of subaltern insurrection, such as the Tupac Amaru (1780-1782) and the Comunero rebellions (1780-1781) in the Andean region, and the recent slaves upheavals in Saint-Domingue and other regions of the Caribbean.241

3. The Presence of Fugitive Slaves and Maritime Maroons

In his work The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution, Julius Scott shows that the events in Saint Domingue and other islands of the Caribbean provided exciting news for slaves and free coloreds from Virginia to Venezuela, increasing their interest in regional affairs
capturing their political agendas and strategies. See Stern, Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness; Walker, Smoldering Ashes; Van Young, The Other Rebellion; Thomson, We Alone Will Rule.
240

According to religious principles, a scandal was a situation in which one person, through words or actions, persuades others to sin, along with impiety and blasphemy. This sin was considered a terrible action often committed by false revolutionary philosophers and any other person spreading revolutionary ideas among the incautious population. See Elena Plaza, Vicisitudes de un escaparate de cedro con libros prohibidos, Politeia 13, (1989): 331-60. See Scarlett OPhelan, La gran rebelin en los Andes. De Tpac Amaru a Tpac Catari (Cuzco: Centro de Estudios Rurales Andinos Bartolom de las Casas, 1995); and John Fisher, Allan Kuethe and Anthony MacFarlane, eds., Reform and Insurrection in Bourbon New Granada and Per (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990).

241

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and stimulating them to organize conspiracies on their own. In his opinion, a regional network of communication which he called the common wind bound together the societies of Afro America. Slaves and free people of color moved from place to place, and helped to communicate the rumors of liberation and equality brewing in many different places during the last decade of the eighteenth century. Given the menace that this communication network represented, the first actions that the Spanish and local authorities undertook were designed to seal themselves off from the impact of the Caribbean turmoil. In November 1791, right after the news of slaves uprisings in the North of Saint Domingue began to spread, the Spanish King restricted the slave trade and the entry of French ships into the local ports, in order to control the dissemination of revolutionary rumors. In February 1792, for example, the Captain General of Venezuela wrote confidential letters to the Governors of the Provinces Cumana, Guayana, Maracaibo, Trinidad, and Margarita and to the Commanders of the ports of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello reminding them to prohibit the entry of any French ship that comes even with the intention of selling slaves.242 Evidently, the restrictions on the slave trade would affect the agricultural development and economic growth of the Spanish Provinces, and white Spanish and creoles planters in different Provinces were well aware of the negative economic

242

Circular reservada del Capitn General de Venezuela a los Gobernadores sobre introduccin de embarcaciones francesas, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, VI, 29.

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consequences of these restrictions.243 Therefore, in June 1792, the King issued a Royal Decree in which he explained that the restrictions on the slave trade had been examined by the Ministers of the Spanish State Council, and they had decided to eliminate them, and permit the controlled entry of French ships in that came to Spanish Ports with the exclusive purpose of selling bozales, that is, Africans newly enslaved who could not put in jeopardy the Spanish territories with the spreading of French ideas.244 Different Governors and Commanders of Venezuela followed these Orders strictly. In April 1792, for example, the Commander of Puerto Cabello requested a French merchant, Mr. Leglese, who originally went to the port with the purpose of selling slaves but who had stayed for more than two months, to leave the Province together with all the slaves he could not sell.245 In October 1792, the Commander of the militia in Cuman, Don Antonio de Sucre, communicated that he

243

See, for example, the cases of Cuba and Trinidad, where white planters were not completely convinced of the convience of interrupting the slave trade, proposing other ways of controlling the black population. See Consuelo Naranjo, La amenaza haitiana, un miedo interesado: poder y fomento de la poblacin blanca en Cuba, and Ada Ferrer, Cuba en la sombra de Hait, both in GonzlezRipoll and others, eds., El rumor de Hait en Cuba; and Sevilla Soler, Las repercusiones de la Revolucin Francesa en el Caribe espaol. Traditionally, bozales often made the bulk of rebel forces in slave insurrection, but the Colonial authorities at this point are not necessarily controlling the force, but the ideas that stir mobilization. They tried to control the entry of slaves coming front the French Antilles, and for this reason they preferred the importation of slaves directly from Africa. Sobre temporada extendida de comerciante francs de negros, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLVII, 53.

244

245

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was not allowing the entrance of French ships with loads of creole slaves into his ports and that he had rejected some of them.246 However, still in November 1792, the King issued another Real Orden in which he expressed his concern for the limited number of slaves that had been sold in his territories during the recent months. He commented that: In almost three months only three thousand three hundred and seven slaves have been introduced, this reduced number doubtless account for the bad situation of agriculture.247 So, he ordered planters and hacendados to meet and think of more efficient ways to promote the slave trade in the province. While it is unclear if Caracas slave population increased after the Saint-Domingue rebellions, we do know for certain that the King of Spain and local officials were willing to promote the slave trade from Africa, avoiding, in theory, the trading of slaves proceeding from the French islands.248 During the entire eighteenth century, the fleeing of slaves from the Antilles to Venezuela was a common and a frequent occurrence. Thanks to Reales Cedulas that protected them, slaves coming from different foreign islands in the Caribbean achieved their freedom and settled in the province.249 Nevertheless, in May 1790 the
246

Comunicacin del Comandante Sucre al Capitn General de Venezuela sobre llegada de navos franceses AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLVIII, 68. AGN, Reales Ordenes, XI, 306.

247 248

Both historians Mckinley and Lombardi assert that the slave trade seemed to decrease during these years, but comment that there is no clear documented evidence of this situation. See Lombardi, People and Places, and McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia. Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento, and Ramn Aizpurua, Coro y Curazao en el siglo XVIII, Tierra Firme, no. 14 (1986): 229-40; Ramn Aizpurua En busca de la

249

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Captain General of Venezuela, Juan Guillelmi, received a Royal Order from Spain forbidding the entry of foreign slaves to the Province250. In July 1790, the Captain General issued an order to the other Governors, which stated:
It has been observed that creole slaves or slaves educated in foreign colonies are harmful for these Provinces, where there is no opportunity for providing occupation for the fugitives, reason why the King has decided to suspend the application of the Royal Decree that conferred them freedom, in consequence no purchased black or fugitive slave from foreign colonies will be allowed to enter the Province.251

Although, the Governor and Captain General issued this order restricting the application of previous Reales Cedulas that declared freedom for fugitive slaves, the clandestine introduction of fugitive blacks coming from the Islands was inevitable and continued in the subsequent years. 252 According to Ramn Aizpurua, during the eighteenth century in the Province of Venezuela there were three different regions through which the entry of foreign slaves was possible: in the south, where slaves
libertad: los esclavos fugados de Curazao a Coro en el siglo XVIII, in II Encuentro para la promocin y difusin del patrimonio de los Pases Andinos (Bogot: Fundacin Bigott, 2002), 69-102. See also Real Cdula de Su Majestad sobre declarar por libres a los negros que viniesen de los ingleses u holandeses a los reinos de Espaa buscando el agua del bautismo. Buen Retiro, 24 de septiembre de 1750, AGN, Caracas, Reales Cdulas, X, 332.
250 251

Real Orden reservada del 21 de mayo de 1790, AGI, Caracas, 115.

Real Orden sobre Introduccin de negros extranjeros, julio 1790, AGI, Caracas, 115. This order interrupted a previous Royal Decree of 1750 that granted freedom to slaves coming from foreign Colonies, who agreed to convert into Christianity. See Real Cdula de Su Majestad sobre declarar por libres a los negros que viniesen de los ingleses u holandeses a los reinos de Espaa buscando el agua del bautismo. Buen Retiro, 24 de septiembre de 1750, AGN, Caracas, Reales Cdulas, X, 332. The Governor contends: Por ahora cese el uso de la libertad de los esclavos que se refugan en nuestras colonias, y que se suspenda entre tanto el cumplimiento de las Cdulas declaratorias de la libertad, que conforme al Derecho de Gentes se han expedido en diferentes ocasiones a casos particulares a favor de los esclavos que se han refugiado en nuestro Dominio de Amrica, quoted in Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento, 600; also see AGI, Caracas, 115.

252

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from the Dutch Essequibo entered the Spanish province of Guayana; in the western region where slaves from English and French colonies, like Grenada and Trinidad, entered the region of Cuman; and in the eastern area of the Province where a migratory movement of slaves from Curaao to the Coast of Caracas, and particularly to the area of Coro, was intense and permanent.253 The suspension of the Royal Decree that granted freedom to foreign slaves in the Spanish territories gave hope to some planters of the nearby islands who visited to Caracas to demand their slaves back. In 1791, for example, a white master from Curaao, Pedro Bernardo Wanstanckemberg, visited Caracas claiming that seven slaves had escaped from his plantation in Curaao and were living freely in the region of Coro. He demanded their immediate return by the official authorities. Interestingly, Wanstanckemberg also demanded the retroactive application of the order, asking the Governor to return all the slaves that had escaped from his and other peoples land in Curaao from the year 1751. Governor Guillelmi responded that, although he was able to order the return of the seven slaves, it was truly impossible to return the rest of them because it would be very difficult to reduce to slavery again the great number of free blacks who live in the towns of the Jurisdiction of Coro.254 This would awake in them a desire for rebellion that the authorities feared. The colonial authorities
253

Ramn Aizpurua, Esclavitud, navegacin y fugas de esclavos en el Curazao del siglo XVIII (paper presented at XI Encuentro- Debate Amrica Latina Ayer y Hoy, Barcelona, Noviembre de 2007); see also Aizpurua, En busca de la libertad. El Gobernador de Caracas informa sobre la situacin con esclavos luangos viviendo en la Provincia de Coro, AGI, Estado 58, 2-1.

254

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collaborated with the returning of these seven slaves, and became more vigilant on the introduction of slaves coming from Curaao to the Coast of Caracas. They not only feared that slaves from Curaao could spread information about the revolutionary events of the French islands, they were also concerned because among those slaves there could be some coming directly from Saint-Domingue. In a communication of the Captain General to the Governors of the Province, he comments that it is known that some families of Saint-Domingue have escaped to the island of Curaao, and that they had brought their own slaves who spread news about the black insurrection among the population.255 In these circumstances, local authorities in Venezuela began to supervise and put some restrictions on the entry of maritime maroons from Curaao. In January 1796, for example, eight slaves escaped from Curaao to the coast of Coro, but this time local officials captured them. The Governor of the island wrote to the Captain General asking him for support for the returning of these slaves to their owner, Don Casper Luis van Uijtrecht, who would pay for their relocation. Finally, the Governor of Curaao added that in the case that Venezuelan slaves escaped to his Island, he would collaborate with the Venezuelan planters.256

255

Borrador a los Gobernadores sobre las circunstancias de las Islas Francesas y la llegada de familias a la Isla de Curazao, 20 de diciembre de 1791, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLVI, 308 and 311. Comunicacin del Gobernador de Curazao suplicando apoyo y asistencia para retornar a Curazao unos negros esclavos de Casper Luis Van Nytrech, AGN, LVIII, 43.

256

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Several other communications issued by white planters from 1794 to 1797 reveal the presence of former slaves from the Antilles living in black communities of Coro and Barlovento.257 Unfortunately, it has been difficult to find documentation and evidence regarding the kind of stories and rumors that these fugitives slaves from the Antilles brought; but we certainly know that in the eyes of the political and social elites, the presence of slaves from Saint-Domingue, Santo Domingo, Martinique, Grenada, Trinidad, and Curaao and the circulation of their stories could have provoked some of the most feared black rebellions of the region.258 An interesting case reveals the kind of information and knowledge that these foreign slaves brought with them. During the evening of July 25th 1797, a mulatto boy who was walking over a bridge in the Port of La Guaira was suddenly taken prisoner by the local authorities. They demanded that the little boy held as a slave by a white creole from Curaao, Francisco Diego Hernndez - repeat the French songs he had been singing on the bridge. He sang various songs in French to the authorities. According to the document all the songs contained the same chorus: Long live Republic, Long Live Liberty, Long live Equality.259 The little boy, named Josef,
257 258

Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento.

Like the black rebellion of Coro and different movements free black people, slaves and maroons in Barlovento, and the Valleys of Curiepe, Capaya and Caucagua. See Castillo Lara, Apuntes para la historia colonial de Barlovento. See also the next chapter of this dissertation Menacing Discourses: Representations of Saint-Domingue in the Black Rebellion of Coro, 1795. Sobre extraar de estas Provinicias a los negros extranjeros que no sean de Guinea, y providencia observada contra de Don Francisco Diego Hernndez por su inobservancia, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXXI, 1-4.

259

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commented that he had learned the songs and that his master frequently sent him to other houses in the port to sing them to friends and family members, and that he even visited the Mail Administrator of the Port who also heard him sing. Little Josef also added that two other slaves of Hernndez, Marcos and Domingo - who like himself were natives of Curaao -, also knew many songs and used also to sing them to others. The authorities decided to transcribe some lyrics of the songs, and although it was not easy to establish the precise content of all the verses and chorus, it seems clear that the boy was singing French revolutionary songs.260 These songs contained verses like: The Republican sans-culotte is a friend of Liberty, Long live the French Republic, French liberty and Equality. Lets go, French citizen and form your troops, march with our cannon, and Come and die for your homeland France.261 The authorities agreed that the little mulatto did not sing with evil intentions, but they considered that the act of singing this kind of verses in the streets was extremely dangerous and could have terrible effects on the population. They decided to keep the little boy with them until they were able to find his master and proceed with further inquiries.
260

We have to bear in mind that this is a transcription of a song sang in French by a small boy to Spanish-speaking authorities. There are illegible verses, probably because the kid boy not pronounced them correctly, or because the authorities were not sure about the correct spelling. In the text there are also incomplete verses and words. Sobre extraar de estas Provinicias a los negros extranjeros que no sean de Guinea, y providencia observada contra de Don Francisco Diego Hernndez... The literal transcription of some of the verses: Sansculote republicain amie de la Libert/ Vive la Rpublique Franais, la libert et Egalit Franaise, Aller sitoyen franais form vos bataillon/ A vos cannon march () march, Comba mourir pour sa Patri France.

261

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The Captain General of Venezuela, Don Pedro Carbonell, became particularly concerned about the spreading of French revolutionary songs in the Province and ordered the immediate exile of the three slaves. He also commanded that Don Francisco Hernndez, who normally made trips between Curaao and La Guaira, pay a fine of one thousand pesos for, in the first place, disobeying the laws and bringing foreign slaves to the Spanish Port and, in the second place, for ordering the slaves to sing dangerous songs on the streets of the Port and even in private houses. The Captain General ordered the officials of La Guaira to visit the houses were Josef said he sang, and demanded Hernndez to pay a fifty pesos fine for every house where the songs were heard.262 The Captain General also considered it important to remind the people of Caracas and La Guaira that reading and circulating texts containing ideas offensive to Religion and to the Government was strictly forbidden. He ordered local authorities to fix Posters in every public space visited by people with the order that everyone possessing books and printed materials containing Revolutionary ideas must give them up to the local authorities; refusal to do so would result in a 50 pesos fine for every prohibited book discovered in their possession. Finally, Carbonell encouraged Governors, Commanders and officials to maintain a vigilance over the kind of songs or verses that went against the good manners, and proper respect for the Legitimate

262

Acuerdo del Gobernador de Caracas sobre esclavos de Curazao en el Puerto de La Guaira, 27 de julio de 1797, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXXI, 6.

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Authorities (the clergy, the fathers of family, the masters, the Magistrates and the King). The punishment and fines to be applied will depended on the quality (calidad) of the transgressors.263 Three days later, little Josef along with his mother Mara, and the two other slaves, Marcos and Domingo, were put on board on a ship going to Curaao. The Captain of the ship received orders to return the slaves to their master who while presumably on the Island, would have to pay a significant fine on his return to La Guaira. This episode shows the kind of media and messages that slaves and colored people divulged, but surprisingly also shows that there could have been some masters that used slaves as vehicles to spread revolutionary ideas among the population, and in the case of Josef it was, indeed, an innocent vehicle. The existence of maritime maroons from Trinidad in the Province of Venezuela, specifically the region of Cuman, also generated preoccupation among local authorities. As we mentioned before, several families from Saint-Domingue fled to the island of Trinidad where they settled with their slaves. The Governor in Cuman was particularly concerned that those maroons might share rumors and stories with locals. Since 1798, several letters of the Governor of Trinidad now under the rule of the British had requested support from the Captain General in capturing and

263

Ibid.

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returning fugitive slaves belonging to Trinitarian planters.264 Like the Governor of Curaao, the recently appointed Governor of Trinidad, Lieutenant Picton, requested reciprocity in the matter of the returning of maritime maroons. He said: I expect you to be reasonable on this matter, on the contrary you will force me, against my will, to take reprisals that could have disastrous consequences for which your excellence will be exclusively responsible.265 In February 1800, the Captain General responded that he and the Governor of Cuman were well disposed to collaborate with the returning of the slaves. But in relation to Pictons offer and with cynical humor, the Captain General asked for a complete list of all the slaves that had been returned from Trinidad to the mainland under the supervision of Picton. Then, he added: I would appreciate if you could oblige your subjects to respect the people and the properties of the mainland.266 The Captain General had heard that French and British bandits assaulted the ships of locals and then found refuge in Trinidad. It is evident that on top of the problem of maritime maroonage between Venezuela and Trinidad, there were other

264

Original y copia traducida de Carta del Gobernador Pictton para el Gobernador y Capitn General de Venezuela sobre varios negros esclavos que se han fugado a la tierra firme, diciembre de 1799, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXXXII, 124. Ibid.

265 266

Reservada al Gobernador de Trinidad sobre retorno de esclavos prfugos de Trinidad, y de los que de Venezuela pudiesen haber escapado a Trinidad, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXXXIII, 284.

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problems related to economic and commercial power, and political control of the region, such as smuggling, which generated problems for local authorities. There were also exceptional cases in which slaves from Cuman moved to more distant regions: in February 1800, two local hacendados in Cuman, Don Antonio Sotillo and Doa Rosa Alcal, demanded that the Governor of Curaao to help them locate and return eighteen slaves who, persuaded by two Dutch men, had escaped in a British boat to the Island of Curaao.267 These cases allow us to appreciate that local slaves also traveled to the islands of the Caribbean where they could have heard rumors of revolution, black insurrection and freedom; once back in Venezuela, these slaves also became oral sources of transmission of political knowledge among the people of color. At the end of the eighteenth century, some families of Spanish Santo Domingo also migrated to different ports located in the Capitana General de Venezuela. Following the laws of hospitality for inhabitants of Spanish territories, local authorities received them and made arrangements to settle them in the Province or relocate them in other regions. However the authorities were especially concerned about the introduction of their slaves into the Province. In 1796, for example, the Capitan General sent a confidential letter to the Commander of La Guaira ordering him to control the entry of slaves coming with families proceeding from Spanish Santo Domingo. Literally, he argued that:
267

Para el Gobernador de Curaao sobre 18 negros fugados de Cuman por seduccin de dos holandeses, febrero 1800, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXXXIII, 106.

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Amongst the slaves that arrive or are sent by the immigrants from Santo Domingo there may be some who are French or raised and educated in the French colonies. [Therefore] your Lordship shall, with the utmost care and discretion, proceed to investigate and examine, and in the case that you find any of the mentioned types you will detained them and inform me immediately268

Three days later, the Commander of La Guaira responded that he had not yet identified any French slave among the people from Santo Domingo. Additionally, he mentioned that he had visited Juan de Andueza, a town shopkeeper, and asked him if he had been in Santo Domingo or had slaves proceeding from there. Andueza answered that he had never been in Santo Domingo and that his two slaves had been bought in the Province, one in Caracas and the other one in La Guaira. The Commander also request Andueza to give him any news regarding the presence of foreign slaves in his shop or in the town.269 The bodeguero (shopkeeper) seemed like the right person to ask about the presence of foreign slaves, since his job allowed him to have daily contact with foreigners coming to and leaving the Port. Why was the Captain General of Venezuela so concerned about the introduction of these slaves in the Province? Apparently, the presence of hundreds of officials, prisoners and slaves from Saint-Domingue in the port of La Guaira some years earlier had created an extremely difficult situation that the Captain General wanted to avoid by all possible means.

268

Carta del Gobernador de Caracas al Comandante Interior de La Guaira, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 256. Reservada entre el Comandante Interior de La Guaira y el Gobernador de Caracas, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 268.

269

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4. The Impact of French Caribbean Militiamen and Colored Prisoners in the Coast of Caracas (1793-1796)

Between1793 and 1795, more that 1,000 French militiamen, prisoners and slaves from Santo Domingo, Martinique and Guadeloupe arrived and stayed in different port-towns of the Province of Venezuela. All of them brought stories and rumors of republicanism, black insurrection, the abolition of slavery and equality that rapidly spread among the local population. People in Venezuela responded differently to the news and information. Some responding to a profound francophobia, rejected them and firmly opposed the influences and rumors coming from the turbulent Caribbean. They also felt threatened by the possibility that this information could incite people of the lower orders to rebel and follow the model of the French. Others, on the contrary, opened spaces for discussion and debate regarding the recently arrived ideas, news, and written materials, and adapting them the local context, and even planning political actions aiming to produce transformations. The rumors that arrived were diverse and ambiguous, and the reactions they produced among their receivers and reproducers were likewise different and contrasting. As a classic psychological work suggests, rumors sometimes provide a broader interpretation of various puzzling features of the environment, and so play a prominent part in the intellectual

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drive to render the surrounding world intelligible.270 Rumors represent a complex web of information and representations about certain events; some contents and ideas of this web could become more significant and relevant than others. It is precisely the reflection of peoples perceptions, fears and desires in this web what makes some rumors more powerful than others. While some rumors can pass unnoticed, others could alter the prevailing order, stir mobilization and even become a clamor.271 In January 1793, a squadron of four ships with an important number of Frenchmen proceeding from Martinique arrived to Port of Spain in Trinidad. The Commander of the squadron, M. Riviere presented himself to Jos Mara Chacn, Governor of Trinidad, and asked to be received with his men in the Spanish territories. He also offered his services to the Spanish King to combat the French revolutionaries who he said represented a great menace in the Caribbean.272 According to historians Angel Sanz and Alejandro Gmez, a total of 145 militiamen - 52 officials, 34 subofficials, and 59 marines - arrived in Trinidad. While Riviere waited for a response
270

Gordon W. Allport and Leo Postman, The Psychology of Rumor (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1947), 38, quoted in Wim Klooster, Le dcret demancipation imaginaire. Monarchisme et esclavage en Amrique du Nord et dans la Caraibe au temps des Rvolutions, Annales Historiques de la Rvolution Franaise (forthcoming, 2011). OPhelan, La construccin del miedo.

271 272

In fact, Riviere was originally part of a royalist squadron that had been sent from France to Martinique in 1790, but when the Colonial Assembly repudiated their loyalty to the Metropole and it was impossible to control the many upheavals and confrontations that developed in the French islands of Sotavento, royalists, like M. Riviere, lost all support from the colonists of Martinique. As the situation become critical, he and his men believed that a better way to oppose the revolutionaries and be loyal to the Bourbon family was moving to Spanish territories and offering their services to the Spanish King. See ngel Sanz Tapia, Refugiados de la Revolucin Francesa en Venezuela (1793-1795), Revista de Indias XLVII, no. 181 (1987): 833-67; and Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento.

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from the Spanish King regarding his petition, he traveled again to Guadeloupe and Martinique with the intention of investigating the political situation in the French islands and to persuade its inhabitants to support Spanish rule.273 In May 1793, he received news from the Governor of Trinidad that, with war declared between Spain and France, the King had offered his Royal protection to his squadron and militiamen, requesting that he proceeded to the mainland, specifically port of Puerto Cabello in Venezuela.274 M. Riviere returned to Trinidad with two thousand five hundred more colonists who had left Martinique; among them, there were soldiers from the garrison regiment of Martinique and neighboring islands, and also a group of marine officials who had been at the service of the royal family.275 In August 1793, Riviere and another French royalist, Joaquin Fressinaux, who was named Commander of immigrant officials, arrived at Puerto Cabello, where they contacted Don Gabriel Aristizabal, Admiral of the Spanish Squadron. Aristizabal notified them that the French marine officials would be incorporated into his Squadron. The rest of the infantry 122 officials - were to remain in Puerto Cabello at

273

Correspondencia entre el Gobernador de Trinidad y el Capitn General de Venezuela, sobre lo ocurrido con los buques del Mando de M. Rivere, acompaa copia traducida de carta de Rivere, AGI, Caracas, 153, no. 37. Capitn General de Venezuela acusa recibo de la Real Orden que aprueba la Buena acogida que di el Gobernador de Trinidad al Brigadier de Francia M. de Riviere, julio de 1793, AGI, Caracas, 94, no. 174. Sanz Tapia, Refugiados de la Revolucin Francesa, 839. See also Comunicacin de Don Vicente Emparan al Capitn General Carbonell en la cual da parte de los realistas que se han refugiado en Trinidad, 1793, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLVI, 308.

274

275

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the disposition of the Governor and Captain General of Venezuela.276 After some months living in Puerto Cabello, Fressinaux complained to the Captain General about the inactivity of his militiamen and the difficult living conditions they were experiencing in the port. Apparently, the town of Puerto Cabello did not offer favorable climatic conditions, it was too hot and humid, and the military barracks were unhealthy, because there were surrounded by marshlands and swamps, the number of ill men increased and they even complained about the high prices they had to pay for drinking water. The inactivity of these officials was another aspect that concerned Fressinaux who even suggested they return to France.277 The Captain General suggested that Fressinaux and his men come to Caracas where he could decide about their responsibilities and provide them with better living conditions. The majority of them moved to La Guaira and, then, to Caracas.278 But there was another problem that made the stay of these militiamen in the Province unbearable: the discourtesy of the inhabitants of the Province. Apparently, people in the towns and ports of the Province did not accept the presence of these French royalists and snubbed them. Fressinaux, for example, commented that he was treated in a contemptuous way in La Guaira where the word French is a pretext for refusing
276

Carta del Gobernador de Pedro Carbonell a M. Riviere, julio 1793, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XLV, 307 and 348. Representacin de Joaqun de Fressineaux, teniente coronel del regimiento del mariscal de Turena al Gobernador, septiembre de 1793, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, X, 45. Also quoted in Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento, 116 and 119. Sanz Tapia, Refugiados de la Revolucin Francesa, 841.

277

278

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us entry to a place to eat and drink. Disappointed, he commented: I have done nothing to deserve this kind of misfortune in a friendly country; I see myself forced to seek from Your Lordship, the protection the King of Spain has granted us, and to plead you to order this intolerable humiliation to cease.279 The truth is that during these years the counterrevolutionary discourse promoted by the State and the Church had created a strong negative image of the French in some social groups of the Province of Venezuela, where French was synonym to republican, anti-monarchical, atheistic, and evil. In addition to confronting social rejection for being foreigners, French royalist militiamen also had to face unfavorable characterizations of their origin and to the difficult circumstances they endured in France and the Caribbean islands; in some places they were not even allowed to enter the Church. In a letter addressed to the King, the Captain General of Venezuela had to explain the reasons for this general rejection on the part of local neighbors; he stated that although he could not corroborate the accusations of disorder, excesses and anti-religiosity that had been directed at these Frenchmen, some lack of modesty and freedom and moral laxity, and [also] little respect for our religious ceremonies have been observed.280

279

Oficio de Joaqun de Fressineaux para el Capitn General, octubre 1793, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, X, 114, quoted in Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento, 122. Oficio del Capitn General para el Exmo. Sr. Conde del Campo de Alange, diciembre 1793,AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, X, 328-330, quoted in Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento, 123. In his work, Gmez remarks that one official committed suicide in Puerto Cabello, and this event had a great impact on the neighbors of the town and reinforced their perceptions of the French as irreligious people.

280

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Likewise, it was believed that the presence of the French royalists created a tense and prejudicial situation because some of them were ambiguous and often maintained open political and religious discussions that evidenced disagreement and therefore propagated seditious ideas amongst the population. In December 1793, an extraordinary meeting was held by the Captain General of Venezuela, the Quartermaster General, different members of the Audiencia, and the Church to discuss the presence and influence of the royalist militiamen of Martinique in Venezuela, among other things. There were rumors that these officials evidenced an irregular conduct regarding politics and religion, and that their example could be scandalous, provoking dangerous consequences for the tranquility and security of the Province. The report asserted: Of the 122 militia men, only 8 are Catholics. In addition, there is no confirmation of their preferred political system or regarding their attitudes towards the current Revolution in France, and there are indications that some of them are antiroyalists.281 Finally, the members of the Junta agreed on the importance of sending these officials to Europe. However, there were remarkable disagreements between the Junta and Admiral Aristizabal, who believed that these men could be useful in Santo Domingo to fight against the revolutionary French. After several meetings, the Junta decided to send the officials to Santo Domingo, but there were also some difficulties regarding their
281

Reservada de la Junta de Guerra convocada por el Gobernador para tratar los recelos que a la tranquilidad de aquellas Provincias ocasionan los oficiales emigrados de la Ysla de Martinica, diciembre 1793, AGI, Caracas, 505, no. 13.

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transportation: some believed that Aristazabals Spanish Squadron should be responsible, but the Admiral suggested using commercial ships. In the meantime, Carbonell believed that the presence of these officials in Caracas was harmful and ordered them to move back to La Guaira and, then, to Puerto Cabello while they waited for their definitive exit from the Province.282 They waited some more months; and after facing many additional difficulties, they departed in different ships during the summer 1795, and the last official finally left the Province of Venezuela in November 1795. During their stay in Venezuela, these royalists officials seemed to have had better relations with high ranking officials, such as the Governor of Trinidad and the Captain General, than with the population at large. In general, people showed mistrust of these officials, whose intentions and political positions were never clear. The Captain General asserted:
Since these 119 officers and immigrant French sergeants arrived to the city, I noted by regularly observing them, and also by information that I received from different trustworthy persons, their lack of moderation and modesty with respect to religious, moral and political matters, and after I proceeded to reprimand them verbally with little result, I seriously reprimanded Mr. Fressinaux, but even this was not enough, the evil continued and grew, the scandal increased, and I noticed that the immigrants had differences amongst themselves, and offered declarations capable of gravely questioning the true system, as well as the reasons for their immigration283

282 283

Sanz Tapia, Refugiados de la Revolucin Francesa, 845.

Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 3.

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The truth is that this was a heterogeneous group made up of Colonial regiments (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and other regiments proceeding from the French Metropolis (Forez, Aunis, Bassigny and Turena). They maintained contrasting positions that did not go unnoticed by Venezuelans. In fact, in different informes, members of the Junta stated that they were not sure that these officials should go to Santo Domingo because some of them did not show clear royalist inclinations.284 However, there was another element that did not favor the perception of these militiamen. As I will show next, by the time of their stay in the Province, more that seven hundred prisoners and slaves from Santo Domingo had been located in the Port of La Guaira and were causing strong reactions among the white population who feared the ideological contagion of the colored population. In August 1793, the Governor of Santo Domingo, Don Joaqun Garca, sent five hundred and thirty eight French prisoners to the port of La Guaira in Venezuela. They were located in the dungeons of the Port and, according to the terms of their capitulation, the officials received four reales daily, while sergeants and soldiers received one real and a half for their expenses. The presence of this important number of Frenchmen from Saint-Domingue was considered disruptive and extremely dangerous for the harmony and tranquility of the Province. Thus on November 2nd 1793, an extraordinary Junta was held by the Captain General of Venezuela, the
284

Even the Captain General, when suggesting the final destination of Santo Domingo to Fressinaux, added that if some of your militiamen want to go back to Trinidad or to another island, I could consider their case and give them a passport, quoted in Gmez, Fidelidad bajo el viento, 130.

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Quartermaster General, some members of the Audiencia, and members of the Church to discuss the problem posed by the presence of these men and the potential solutions. Members of the Junta shared the same perception that white elites and different authorities of the Ports had of the French prisoners and slaves coming from SaintDomingue as people infused with pernicious maxims and doctrines, who desperately seek to extend their ideas among local slaves, free blacks, and mulattos.285 Members of the Junta stated that neighbors from La Guaira and Caracas were preoccupied because, since the arrival of these prisoners to the Port, local slaves and free coloreds were misbehaving and being disobedient and had an unacceptable arrogance towards their masters and employers.286 The informe, produced in this first meeting of the Junta, compiles a number of interesting complaints about the attitude of free blacks and slaves. For example, a person who was in a bakery of La Guaira saw and heard two slave bakers were conversing while kneading the bread, and confident that no one was hearing saying that within a year they would be as free as those in Guarico.287 Another witness denounced that he heard one slave saying to another that this was the right moment to

285

Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 3. Ibid.

286 287

Que dos negros esclavos en la Guayra ocupados de amasar pan, se animaban al trabajo, diciendose en confianza de no ser oydos: que dentro de un ano serian tan libres como los del Guarico, in Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 4.

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shake the slave system and the authority of the Spanish, in the same way the blacks of Guarico had shaken the authority of the French.288 These denouncements were clear evidence that Saint-Domingue rebellions were being taken as examples by the slaves and coloreds of La Guaira, but more importantly that the elites perceived the menace that these discourses represented. Saint-Domingue had become a very present reality evoked not only by foreigners, but also by local slaves who used it as a reference for freedom and equality. Likewise, there were others denouncements in the informe that did not necessarily refer directly to the Revolution as an event, but showed how the ideological and political tenets of the Revolution were applicable to the local context. A Spanish official, for example, commented that he heard a black French official saying to a slave that no man should be the slave of another.289 In the same way, a lady in La Guaira complained that, after offering a domestic job to a free mulatta, the mulatta commented airily that there was no inequality between the two of them except for their color, as for the rest they were equals.290

288

Esta es buena ocacion para sacudir la esclavitud y yugo de los espaoles, como han sacudido el de los Franceses los Negros del Guarico, in Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 4. Que un esclavo no debia serlo ni hombre alguno de otro, Ibid.

289 290

Respondi descaradamente que no habia entre las dos desigualdad que la del color pues en lo demas eran iguales, Ibid.

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In the Informe, all three, groups of prisoners, the slaves, and the French officials, were described as irreligious and out of order in their moral and political behavior. The officials were accused of not respecting religious ceremonies, turning their back to the sacred ornaments, and using their time in the Church to look at the ladies up and down, causing distractions and generally being a bad example. Many of them were accused of being anti-religious and not attending Church in Sundays. For their part, the prisoners from Saint-Domingue in La Guaira break all the limits of good behavior, they blaspheme against the most sacred, insulting our government and lauding the fact that they are free men.291 This informe also contends that the ideas regarding the liberty of slaves and equality among all the population are spreading irremediably and surpassing the frontiers of the port of La Guaira, where the majority of the French prisoners remained. The informe comments:
In the Valleys of Aragua, and particularly in the city of Valencia, many slaves and people of color have been contaminated with dark expressions related with the imagined equality and liberty that these prisioners 292 wanted to preach.

Finally, the informe comments that during the last three years, specifically from 1790 to 1793, there had been increasing evidence of disobedience and arrogance
291

Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 4. In the informe, the authorities mentioned that even women in la Guaira freely talk about freedom and equality. The city of Valencia was located 60 miles away from Caracas and La Guaira, and only ten miles from Puerto Cabello. It was surrounded by haciendas in the Valleys of Aragua. Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 4.

292

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on the part of the black slaves of the Province. This recent misbehavior of the colored was perceived as evidence that the news regarding the events of the French colonies had a real impact on blacks and the mixed races: the presence of this crowd of people from Saint-Domingue has brought to life their [slaves and free blacks] desires for equality and freedom.293 Therefore, they had to implement urgent strategies to control the influence of these prisoners, and more important, to expel them from the Province. The members of the Junta asserted that the fort of La Guaira, where the prisoners and some officials were being held, did not fulfill the conditions necessary to prevent the spreading of the dangerous voices of the prisoners that had been heard beyond the walls of the dungeons. They believed that it was too difficult to send them to Europe, so they decided to send them to La Havana, whose Governor could receive them and try to sell them to the local hacendados or use them for public service. Finally, the informe suggests that:
These prisoners and many others may remain in the Castle of La Cabana or in other [forts] that defend the city and the island of La Havana, for the time that Your Majesty desires, comfortable enough and with absolutely no communication with the population; from there, not even if they yell will their pernicious way of thinking be heard, nor will they be able to escape, nor will their influence be feared as it is in this province and mainland. If we delay this decision for too long, it will increase the chances of their escaping and hiding and favor the circulation and 294 influence of their perverse determinations.
293 294

Ibid.

Ibid. According to the informe, La Havana offered two important advantages that La Guaira and Caracas did not posses: in first place, there was this idea that the Province of Venezuela was a vast mainland where the prisoners could easily escape, and hide from the authorities, spreading the ideas of liberty and equality everywhere, while the island of Cuba seemed to have a more controllable geography. On the other hand, seemed that Cuban hacendados were more open and interested in buying these slaves at advantageous prices, than Venezuelan hacendados. In any case, it would be

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While the authorities discussed what to do with the 538 prisoners that had arrived in August, another load of prisoners and slaves from Saint-Domingue was received in the Coast of Caracas on November 3, 1793. This time there were 431 men 188 French prisoners of war, 220 slaves for sale, and 14 regular black prisoners -.295 The French prisoners were supposed to join their countrymen in the dungeons, while the slaves were to be offered for sale to the landowners and planters of the Province. In the meantime, local Authorities believed that the situation was getting out of their control and that they needed to take a rapid decision to expel these unwanted and dangerous people from the Province because their presence was significant. There were a total of 969 people from Saint-Domingue located in the Port town of La Guaira, this number represented more than 10 percent of the total population of the town of La Guaira that, by that time, amounted close to 7500 inhabitants. In the beginning, local authorities thought that this would be a temporary situation and that the slaves, for example, could be rapidly sold for a good price among the local hacendados, or could be sent to other cities and ports of Spanish America. However, neither of these two solutions came as easily, nor as soon as they had expected, and problems began to arise. The first problem they confronted was

extremely interesting to fully explore the reasons why these slaves and prisoners were more easily accepted in some regions of Spanish America than in others. See Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 4.
295

Idem.

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that, whatever the price, local planters did not want to buy slaves educated in the French Antilles, or, even worse, blacks who had seen and experienced the atrocities that blacks committed against whites in the rebellions of French Sto. Domingue. These slaves were brought to La Guaira with the condition that they could be sold to the local hacendados and that the money from their sale will would go directly to the Real Hacienda of the Province. Nevertheless the hacendados rejected the offer: there is no possibility that these slaves would be bought by the hacendados and neighbors of this country, because no one will bring the stimulus of insubordination, lack of religion, and the corruption of good habits into his home.296 As we mentioned before, slaves were seen as agents of contamination of revolution and insubordination in a Province that was, supposedly, known for its a tranquility and sincere obedience.297 At the end of November 1793, the Real Audiencia met again in an extraordinary session to discuss the situation regarding the slaves and prisoners that had been recently introduced into the Province. The informe contends that the slaves and prisoners were uneducated and disobedient, challenging local authorities and aiming at disturbing the order of the town. In addition, the informe contends that the fortifications and dungeons in La Guaira were too small to contain all these people, and that it had been impossible for Spanish officials to control

296 297

Ibid. Ibid.

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the bad example and the dangerous doctrines of these desperate and uncontrolled men.298 After several months trying to control the interactions and influence of these prisoners and slaves from Saint-Domingue in the port of La Guaira, the colonial authorities managed to expel the greater part of them by the end of 1795. Several communications with other Governors of the Spanish islands, and between the local authorities, allows us to perceive their desperation to get them out of the Province. In first place, the Captain General and the Quartermaster General tried to find the most convenient ways of sending them elsewhere. They sent several communications to the Governor of Santo Domingo, the Governor of Cuba and the Governor of Puerto Rico. It was fairly clear that the more than seven hundred prisoners of war would be sent to La Habana, where there was more space to hold them in the dungeons and fortifications and where there was less danger of a contamination of the rest of the Spanish territories. The fate of the two hundred and twenty slaves from Santo Domingo was less clear. At the beginning, the Venezuelan authorities believed that they could send the slaves to Puerto Rico, since they had heard that St. Dominguans slaves would be easily sold there, but the Quartermaster of this Island replied that this was not possible

298

Informe de la Junta extraordinaria convocada por el Gobernador de la Provincia para tratar problema de los prisioneros de Santo Domingo, 30 de noviembre de 1793, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 4; see also Reservada del Intendente del Ejrcito Don Esteban Fernndez de Len, donde da cuenta de haber concurrido la Junta Extraordinaria convocada por el Gobierno para tratar sobre los recelos que a la tranquilidad pblica de aquellas provincias ocasionan los oficiales franceses, AGI, Caracas, 505.

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because these slaves would be sold at very low prices and they would cause damage to the public order. As a consequence, the island could not receive any more.299 In December 1794, the King of Spain issued the Order in which he states that as it is not possible to send the slaves to Puerto Rico, nor to other foreign islands, your Lordship should send them to the Island of Cuba where if they are not bought by private individuals, they could be employed in Public Service.300 Getting rid of the unwanted immigrants proved to be a very difficult task, and the authorities of the Province also had to find the ways to prevent upheavals and social movements that could have been inspired by the presence of these prisoners and slaves from Saint-Domingue. In January 1795, for example, Don Antonio Lpez Quintana, the interim Quartermaster of Caracas, sent a letter to Spain in which he mentions some measures taken to contain possible uprisings. He argued that after a year and a half of contamination, they had become aware that dangerous doctrines had influenced the colored population, especially the pardo, whose uncontainable need to emulate the whites, and the characteristic haughtiness continue to increase apace.301 For this reason, the colonial authorities in Caracas had decided to confine to
299

Reserveda del Intendente de la Isla de Puerto Rico al Intendente de Reales Ejrcitos de Caracas, mayo de 1794 and Real Orden sobre traslado de esclavos franceses, diciembre de 1794, AGI, Caracas, 506, no. 1; and 514, no. 1 and no.2. Real Orden sobre traslado de esclavos franceses, diciembre de 1794, AGI, Caracas, 596, no.1.

300 301

Representacin del Intendente de Caracas, Don Antonio Lpez de Quintana al Exmo. Seor Don Diego de Gardorqui, sobre medidas necesarias para que no se propaguen las doctrinas francesas por parte de los prisioneros y esclavos franceses que se hallan en La Guaira, febrero de 1795, AGI, Caracas, 472 and 514.

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the barracks two and a half of the companies of whites in order to prepare and alert them about possible uprisings, and guarantee the security of the Province. They also decided to establish neighborhood mayors (Alcaldes de barrio) whose responsibility was to control any news or circulation of rumors among the population as well as to do rounds to watch out for any suspicious meetings and movements. He believed that the close supervision of the Magistrates should be enough to control the spread of any perverse plan. However, he alerted: We cannot count on a true security until all these prisoners and immigrants get out of the Province.302 During the years 1794 and 1795, different ships carrying large numbers of French slaves and prisoners departed from the port of La Guaira in direction to Puerto Cabello, and with La Havana as their final destination. In April 1795, 220 imprisoned slaves and four free French men left the Port of La Guaira for Bataban (Cuba). Of those 220 slaves, 160 were men and 60 were women and children.303 Among them, four white French officials were sent to La Havana and later shipped to Europe. Every time one of these ships left, the Spanish officials experienced a feeling of relief for various reasons. In the first place, they recognized the economic burden that these prisoners represented to the government budget that had to provide them with maintenance expenses; in the second place, they thought that with them, the
302

Representacin del Intendente de Caracas, Don Antonio Lpez de Quintana al Exmo. Seor Don Diego de Gardorqui, sobre medidas necesarias para que no se propaguen las doctrinas francesas por parte de los prisioneros y esclavos franceses que se hallan en La Guaira, febrero de 1795, AGI, Caracas, 472 and 514. Lista de los esclavos franceses prisioneros que se embarcan para Puerto Cabello con destino final Cuba, AGI, Caracas, 506, no. 16.

303

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dangerous ideas of liberty and equality were being expelled from the territory. However, those prisoners and slaves had left the seed of disobedience and haughtiness among the local pardos, free blacks and slaves who did not only know about Saint-Domingue and its brave colored rebels, but who also understood that they could stir mobilization. The ideas that someday they would be free and equal to the whites remained in the minds of the slaves and free blacks of the Province for various years. On July 1797, for example, a black slave named Luis and a white man named Don Josef Bustamante who lived in La Guaira had a violent fight. The white man strongly accused the black man for saying that whites and blacks were all equal.304 Apparently, the black slave, Luis, and another worker, went to the Don Josef Bustamantes warehouse in order to weigh some cacao. Don Josef did not want to attend them at that moment because he was busy. Apparently, the slave replied that they must do it, to which Don Josef replied that a slave could not rule in his house, and that they were not equals, furious the slave took his steelyard balance, and left saying out loud: My master, we are all whites. The majority of those who witnessed the fight, commented that those were the exact words Luis used: My master, we are all whites, but Luis himself stated that what he said was: We are all white because no one black enters the Court of God. In his confession, the slave tried to ascribe a religious connotation to his phrase, stating
304

AGI, Caracas, 430.

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that he believed that in order to enter into the court of God, all men must be white or equals. However, all the witnesses believed Luis was shared the revolutionary maxims of freedom and equality that were circulating among population of color of La Guaira, and Luis was finally condemned to two years of shackles and hard labor at the public service.305 Apparently, the echo of the Saint-Domingue rebels voices was not only resounding in elites and officials heads, but also among free blacks and slaves who, like the boy Josef, sang revolutionary songs and uttered phrases of equality and social justice, like Luis. The authorities not only had to confront and control the presence of the numerous slaves and prisoners coming from Saint-Domingue to the Province, there were other kinds of colored visitors who represented a real menace to order and to the subordination of the colored population. In 1797, the Governor of Caracas encouraged his officials to look for and arrest some educated French blacks and mulattos who were living in the city of Caracas. He had heard that a person referred as the black Ballegard, and described as a protagonist of the first movements of the colony of Guarico and later in Martinique, and another mulatto from the militias in Trinidad, named Constant, together with two other subalterns, met local free mulattos and infused them with maxims opposed to our system of Government, spreading

305

Expediente a Luis Alejandro Espinosa por mostrar pblicamente expresiones subversivas relativas a la igualdad, AGI, Caracas, 430. Adriana Hernndez also studies this case in Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa. Una mirada desde el expediente judicial, in Gual y Espaa, la independencia frustrada, eds. Juan Carlos Rey, Rogelio Prez Perdomo, Ramn Aizpurua and Adriana Hernndez (Caracas: Fundacin Polar, 2007), 345-428.

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their dangerous ideas among the simple people (gentes sencillas) who could be easily convinced to follow them. 306 The Governor ordered their arrest and expulsion from the Province. For the elites and the colonial authorities, there was nothing more dangerous than an educated mulatto or black spreading ideas among the population; in their opinion, these individuals spread the seed of disobedience and rebellion amongst the blacks and mulattos, who were avid to get to know about these ideas and to promote their freedom and equality. Slaves and free colored were always ready to listen to these dangerous people, with whom they shared both their color and their status, and who represented a model to follow and a reference for the possibility of changing their destiny. All these cases show, as Ramn Aizpurua suggests, the emergence in different towns of the Province of Venezuela of socially diverse spaces where revolutionary ideas from the Atlantic were welcome and adapted into the local context.307 Especially in port towns, such as La Guaira, Puerto Cabello and Cuman, and in nearby communities it is possible to perceive a revolutionary environment. In the case of La Guaira, the presence of almost one thousand immigrants from Saint-Domingue could
306

Se dice ser uno de ellos el Negro Bellegard actor en los primeros moviemientos de la colonia Guarico, y despues en la Martinica, otro el mulato llamado Constant que sirvio en las milicias de Trinidad,todos ellos verosimilmente imbuidos de opiniones y maximas opuestas nuestro sistema de gobierno, y por tanto peligrosos en la seduccion que podran adelantar de ora en ora sobre las gentes sencillas, senaladamente sonre los esclavos, y los negros, y mulatos libres, in Reservada del Presidente y Gobernador cumpliendo orden de vigilar introduccion de papeles y libros, y extranjeros que pudiesen esparcir ideas sediciosas. junio de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 434. Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

307

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not pass unnoticed and had, in fact, an evident repercussions in every-day conversations, songs and fights. The Colonial authorities and the white elites introduced different measures in order to limit the expansion of the revolutionary disease and the example of SaintDomingue, but the cases presented in this chapter, also allow us to perceive that slaves and free colored were indeed following the events of Saint-Domingue: they not only knew about what was happening on the island, about the struggles and the bravery of the blacks and mulattos of Saint-Domingue; more importantly, coloreds of the Province of Venezuela knew about the significance of equality and freedom, and increasingly began to use these terms in their local contexts. The knowledge that elites and subalterns shared about the Revolutionary event of the islands was, in my opinion, a circumstance that connected these groups: the elites feared the discourses and social violence of Saint-Domingue, and slaves and colored people recognized white fear and used the representations of Saint-Domingue to manipulate white fear, express their anger and make their demands. The common spaces of communication they shared should lead us to look at the processes of negotiation, transaction, imposition and contestation in which these social groups engaged in their struggle for power. The need for implanting night patrols, neighborhood mayors and prophylactic white militias clearly indicates how the fragile bonds of trust between different social groups were easily broken by the revolutionary rumors and threaten.

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The turmoil of the Caribbean islands and the struggle of the people of color functioned as a mirror in which slaves and free blacks could see themselves fighting and demanding freedom and equality. Evocations and representations of the revolutionized Caribbean recreated a certain feeling of identification of local slaves and free people of color with the slaves and free blacks of the Islands. Despite the regional and cultural differences that separated them, they shared a common situation of oppression in a hierarchical racial order, and a common need to overcome and fight against the slavery system and the unequal social order. In the next chapters, I will examine how these representations of the Caribbean movements had repercussions in two of the most important insurrectional and subversive movements in Venezuela at the end of the eighteenth century.

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CHAPTER IV

The Menace: Representations of Saint-Domingue in the Black Rebellion of Coro, 1795

During the last decades of the eighteenth century, different black and slave rebellions revealed the vulnerability and unstable character of the economic system and of the social order established in colonial Venezuela. Like other South American societies under the dominion of the Spanish monarchy, Venezuelan society was built upon a heterogenous economic system in which the hybrid nature of the labor force (which involved slaves, but also free blacks and Indians) complicated its functioning and its social relations, and encouraged conflicts and upheavals.308 In the year 1795, hundreds of slaves and free blacks, together with some Indians rebelled in the Serrana of Coro, an area in the northeastern region of Venezuela mainly devoted to the production of sugar. Traditional Venezuelan historiography understands the insurrection of Coro as a black (free and enslaved)

308

McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia; Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, Brito Figueroa, El problema tierra y esclavos. Many free blacks and indians worked as employed personel in the haciendas (jornaleros), others rented plots of land to the hacendados were they produced crops such as cotton, indigo, and tobacco. These small-scale producers are known as arrendatarios. So in colonial Venezuela there was heteroguenous work relations, a hybrid system of slavery, free workers and arrendatarios. For a complete and concise study of this relations se Jos Mara Aizprua, Relaciones de trabajo en la sociedad colonial venezolana. (Caracas: Centro Nacional de la Historia, 2009)

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rebellion that sought to transform the social and political situation. The rebellion not only aimed to abolish commercial and transport taxes (alcabala) and to reduce Indian taxes (tributo), but it also sought the freedom of the slaves and the creation of a Republic while applying what rebels themselves denominated the Law of the French.309 In order to attain their goals, colored people - slaves and free - who participated in the rebellion revealed their hatred for white people by sacking and burning their houses, beating and killing white males, setting fields on fire, assaulting travelers, and congregated on the outskirts of the city of Coro with the purpose of directly expressing their demands and political intentions to the local government.

1. The Historiography of the Rebellion of Coro

Since the 1940s, when the first academic work on the rebellion of Coro was published,310 this rebellion has mesmerized and intrigued scholars of Venezuelan slavery, anti-colonial insurgency, and Afro-Venezuelan culture. It is a rebellion that has come down through Venezuelan popular memory steeped in bloodshed, persecution, and uncertainty, making it one of the most studied episodes of slave resistance in contemporary Venezuela. However, the reasons this rebellion was largely ignored for more than a century - between 1810 and 1940 - are still no less intriguing.
309

Ley de los Franceses. Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros.

310

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This is probably due to the fact that the late-nineteenth-century political elite firmly entrenched in its colonial discourse inherited an unconfessed fear of racial war and social confrontation. It is possible that the same ideological and political forces that silenced and camouflaged the Haitian revolution in the western hemisphere, depicting it as not a commendable model of emancipation,311 also silenced the rebellion of Coro, later described and transformed by twentieth-century patriotic and nationalist discourses into one of the first movements for the independence of Venezuela.312 Since its rediscovery in the mid-twentieth century, the rebellion of Coro has been an expressive symbol for diverse political and social movements in Venezuela. It served as a kind of canvas on which different social groups depicted their demands and illustrate their frustrations and political ideals. Many of the contemporary inhabitants of the sierra de Coro, for example, indicate that they first learned about the rebellion of Coro in the 1950s when political scientist and high school teacher Dr.

311

Fischer, Modernity Disavowed, 4. See Trouillot, Silencing the Past. For a critical view of Trouillots powerful argument about the silence around the Haitian Revolution see Ada Ferrer, Talk about Haiti. The archive and the Atlantics Haitian Revolution, in Tree of Liberty, 21-3; and Fischer, Modernity Disavowed, 1-38. Contemporary elementary and high school history texts in Venezuela describe the rebellion of Coro, along with the Gual and Espaa conspiracy of 1799 and Francisco de Mirandas conspiracy in 1806, as a Venezuelan pre-independentist movement. This overarching category ignores the rebellions meanings and particularities, as well as the motivations and demands of its participants. For a rich discussion on how slave rebellions before and after the Haitian are concealed by totalizing colonialist and post-colonialist discourses, see Palmi, Wizards and Scientists, 79-158. Focusing on studies on Apontes rebellion, Palmi follows subaltern studies group critiques to the tendency of both colonialist and post-colonialist historiographies to elude the question of subaltern consciousness by assimilating its presumed content to a totalizing discursive opposition defined by historical narratives that merely reverse each others terms (so that the dastardly deeds of one genre merely mutate into glorious feats, and vice versa), Ibid, 85.

312

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Mario Briceo Perozo visited the communities of the sierra in order to collect oral narratives and identify the places where the events of the rebellion took place. Briceo also found support for building the first commemorative plaza to Jos Leonardo Chirino in Curimagua in 1954. Since then, the representations of the rebellion have focused on the figure of this leader, on his strength, his persecution, and his brutal execution.313 Yet, since the 1970s, ex-members of demobilized guerrilla fronts and other local intellectuals of the sierra drew cultural and historical associations between their actions and the rebellion of Coro. More than eight cultural organizations of afro-descendants have emerged in the northern sierra of Coro since then. In particular, the Asociacin Cultural Jos Leonardo Chirino and the Asociacin Rescate de Tradiciones Jos Leonardo Chirino, both located in the Valley of Curimagua, have engaged in the production of historical texts, songs, plays, performances, festivals, and historical sketches related to the rebellion of Coro. The main historical project of these organizations is to revive and disseminate the memory of the zambo Jos Leonardo Chirino, leader of the rebellion. More interestingly, these organizations challenge traditional and positivist historians who have depicted the movement as merely a local
313

This personification contrasts with representations of colonial authorities, and with studies of positivist, Marxian, and revisionist historians, who have depicted the movement as a collective movement of slaves, free blacks, and Indians. See Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros; Acosta Saignes, Vida de los esclavos negros; Brito Figueroa, Las insurrecciones de los esclavos negros en la sociedad colonial; Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, Pedro Gil Rivas, Luis Dovale and Luzmila Bello, La insurreccin de los negros de la sierra coriana; 10 de mayo de 1795 (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1996); and Lavia, Indios y negros sublevados, 7112.

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political revolt prompted by imported ideologies from the French and Haitian Revolutions. Instead, they argue that the rebellion was a movement seeking social justice and reacting against the colonial system, with its high taxation and the abuses of Spanish tax collectors (alcabaleros). To support their argument, members of these organizations gathered evidence from different sources such as colonial documents, official historiographies, poems, songs, and myths.314 Numerous historiographical works that reconstruct and analyze the insurrection of Coro, suggest that, in their discourses, the rebels directly evoked the influence of the Haitian Revolution and asserted the necessity of organizing a similar

314

Representations of the rebellion of Coro in contemporary Venezuela is the central topic that anthropologist Krisna Ruette develops, exploring how rage and abuse and other pervasive emotional tropes such as pain, persecution, fear and betrayal emerge in Jos Leonardos contemporary historical representations. According to Ruette The dramatic death of Jos Leonardo and his dismembered body infuses most of the oral and written contemporary representations of the rebellion. The image of the public display of his dismembered body is key for articulating emotional memories of rage and pain. Moreover Jos Leonardos body is also spacialized in the historical landscape of the sierra. Moreover, she refers to a historical organization that has emerged in Coro, that reconstructed and developed a historical route which shows the specific places where Jos Leonardo was captured and betrayed, where the main battles took place, where the rebels blood was poured, and where Jos Leonardos hands were exhibited. One of the members of these organizations told Ruette during the days before the national presidential referendum in 2004 that When Jos Leonardo was killed, they took his head off, they fried it and placed it in the Guaira [sic], his hands were later placed to the west as an example. When you hear these things, you say we have to die fighting (hay que morir peleando), if we are going to surrender and they are going to kill us anywaythey shall kill us while fighting Another leader emphasized we, the falconians have an ancestral and moral burden of fighting. The jirajaras resisted for more than 90 years, as well as the Caule (Indians) of Cabure and Jos Leonardo. He explained that this is why today the serranos keep fighting and supporting the process [of the Bolivarian revolution] These voices show how Jos Leonardos representations have been become in the construction of political frames of mobilization and in local narratives of indigenous and black processes of resistance today. See Krisna Ruette and Cristina Soriano, Memories and Historical Representations of the Black Insurrection of Coro, Venezuela (paper presented at the annual meeting for the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., November 30 December 4, 2005).

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one in the local context.315 Traditional Venezuelan historians such as Arcaya and Brito Figueroa considered that the circulation of French revolutionary ideas in the Province, as well as the visits made by some of the rebellions leaders to SaintDomingue, were among the principal motivations for the insurrection.316 Arcaya, for example, contends that rumors about the upheaval of the blacks of Haiti were circulating, and Jos Leonardo, who had met [colored people from Saint-Domingue] years before and knew that they were no better than he was, convinced himself that he could lead a revolution.317 While describing the first events of the rebellion, Brito Figueroa says: The rebels proclaimed the Law of the French, the Republic, the freedom of slaves and the exoneration from taxes. He further contends: Jose Leonardo remained in the sierra applying the Law of the French or better said, the law of Toussaint Louvertures and Dessalines black Jacobins and recruiting soldiers for his troops.318

315

British and North American authors would include Lynch, The Spanish American Revolutions; Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution; and Herman L. Bennett, Slave Insurgents and the Political Impact of Free Blacks in a Revolutionary Age: The Revolt of 1795 in Coro (paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Seminar of Atlantic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, March 24, 2009). See Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros; Brito Figueroa, Las insurrecciones de los esclavos negros en la sociedad colonial, and El problema tierra y esclavos; Lynch, The Spanish American Revolutions. These authors contend that both, Jos Leonardo Chirino and Jos de la Caridad Gonzlez (whose participation in the rebellion is still unclear) traveled to Saint-Domingue and through other colonies of the Antilles. Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros, 36.

316

317

318

Brito Figueroa, Las insurrecciones de los esclavos negros en la sociedad colonial, 69-71. In this sentence, Brito Figueroa evidences the influence of C.L.R. Jamess The Black Jacobins, Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1989) in his work. Brito Figueroa historiography follows a traditional Marxist approach, and even if some of

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More recent historical works suggest that the rebellion of Coro has been misinterpreted and that its main goal has been concealed by the official discourse, positivist perspectives and politically interested views. Historian Ramn Aizpurua proves that rebel demands aimed more at solving socio economic challenges through exoneration from taxes, for example - rather than imposing a new political ideological regime, such as a Republic or the Law of the French. 319 Through his analysis, Aizpurua suggests that the French or the Haitian revolutionary models were not explicitly and directly evoked by the rebel discourse, but rather by a perturbed and apprehensive elite. Historians Aizpurua, Gil, Bello and Dovale, Lavia, along with some of the current cultural afro-descendant organizations in Coro bring significant quieries into the debate regarding the motivations of the rebellion of the free-colored and slaves of Coro. In their critique they recognize the elites discursive influence on historical accounts that describe the rebellion as a movement mainly motivated by outside influences, reacting to a hemispheric ideological force, rather than to circumstances created by the local colonial and slave systems.320 Yet they also reject simplistic and

his claims and perspectives need to be revised in light of more recent research, his works remain an important reference for any historian of colonial Venezuela.
319

Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro.

320

Traditional and official histories reproduce elite perceptions of subaltern rebellions as movements that needed to be motivated from the outside, with the leaders and members of these movements as people incapable of having sufficient political consciousness or agency, or wisdom, or instruments to organize themselves. See Guhas Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency. Here, Guha criticizes Indian radical and colonial historians who overlook the specificity of rebel consciousness when viewing

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exaggerated patriotic discourses that enthusiastically depict the rebellion as a protorepublican movement imbued with liberal values. These revisionist historians, with their different agendas and motivations, force us to look at the unexplored dimensions of the rebellion, such as subaltern consciousness and actions embedded in the colonial dynamics of power. 321 Historic events such as rebellions are generally mediated by discourses that represent and give them new and different sometimes contradictory- meanings. The rebellion of Coro was represented through a multilayered and fragmented set of ideas and images expressed by different social and political groups. In this chapter, I attempt to disentangle this intricate set of social representations in order to uncovering the possible motivations that led slaves and free colored people to rebel and to express their anger violently against the local system. Despite the methodological limitations of attempting to study the thoughts and desires of historical actors who could not leave
all rebels as replicating one another in their commitment to the cause, or by acting spontaneously. Scholars of Latin American history have long challenged notions of prepolitical conciousness among peasant, slaves and working classes. Numerous historians of slave insurgencies in Latin America and the Caribbean have dealt with the notion of subaltern political consciousness, including C.L.R. James, Carolyn Fick, and Emilia Viotta da Costa. See James, The Black Jacobins; Fick, The Making of Haiti; and Viotti da Costa, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood. Characterizing a rebellion as a response solely to local junctures would imply the recognition of that the colonial system itself had problems. It had always seemed more appropriate for the authorities and elites to depict social movements as an illogical reaction from ignorant and genuine people. See, for example, Matt D. Childs, A Black French General Arrived to Conquer The Island, Images of the Haitian Revolution in Cubas 1812 Aponte Rebellion, in The impact of The Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic, 135-56.
321

Ramn Aizpurua, Gil, Dovale and Bello, and Lavia conduct academic historical research, Coros cultural organizations and societies aims to enrich and support the collective memories of the people of la Serrana, but, as we mentioned before in note 9, they pursue their own political and ideological agendas.

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their own records, it is still possible to reconstruct some of the motivations that slaves and colored free people expressed through actions and declamations that were rapidly silenced by repression or by omission. I read the rebellion of Coro as a privileged window through which power dynamics and social structures -represented in terms of categories of race, honor, and class can better be understood.322 I argue that the socio- economic demands made by the black rebels were rapidly transformed into a radical political proposition by the fearful elites. Rebels in Coro did not seek to restore an African order nor to establish a Black republic, their demands responded to economic and administrative pressures, and were accompanied by other social demands, like the abolition of slavery, but the language they used allowed the elites to exaggerate the blacks violent actions - seeking to connect them with the rebels of Saint-Domingue , and to justify repression. In the voices of the rebels Saint-Domingue seemed more a menace than a reality, and Saint-Domingue was a language they chose to use in order to be heard. In this chapter, I also analyze the possible threads that connected SaintDomingue social movements with the slave insurrection of Coro in Venezuela. It is well known that the frequency of slave revolts and conspiracies in the Americas reached a peak in the 1790s, the most significant ones occurring during the twenty

322

I share Palmis frustration when trying to reconstruct a history that never was and whose creator was killed in the act of its enunciation. See Palmi, Wizards and Scientists, 93.

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years that followed Saint-Domingue uprising in 1791.323 Most historians of slavery in the Americas would agree with David Brion Davis conviction that the Haitian Revolution marked a turning point in the history of New World slavery.324 Nevertheless, most of them differ on the nature and character of the connections established between the Saint-Domingue movements and slave rebellions elsewhere, as well as on the implications and uses of the Haitian events in every city, town, or community of the American hemisphere. While Eugene Genovese argues that the Haitian revolution produced a decisive change in the motivations and political determinations of slave revolts, from being restorationist movements based on traditional African forms of social organization and cultural practices to rebellions inspired by modern discourses and the values of equality and freedom. David Geggus suggests that abolitionism, not the Republican ideologies of the French and Caribbean revolutions, most frequently became the impulse of these rebellions, and that the fundamental role of the Haitian Revolution has been exaggerated.325 Nevertheless following once again Fischer and Ferrers suggestions that we should used a more nuanced notion of influence, throughout this chapter I will
323

Curaaos slave rebellion in 1795, Maracaibo and Cartagenas conspiracies in 1799, Deslondes slave rebellion in Louisana in 1811, Apontes conspiracy in Cuba in 1812, Barbados slave revolt in 1816, Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy in Charleston in 1822; to mention some of the most studied. See Geggus, ed., The Impact of The Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World. See Davis, Impact of the French and Haitian Revolutions, 3-9.

324

325

Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution; David Patrick Geggus, The French and Haitian Revolutions and Resistance to Slavery in the Americas: An Overview, Revue Franaise dHistoire dOutre-Mer 76, (1989): 107-24, and Haitian Revolutionary Studies.

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address the repercussions that Saint-Domingue rebellions, as a common knowledge and discourse, had among the slaves, free blacks, and masters of the Serrana of Coro.
326

I have found that for black rebels, Saint- Domingue was an instrument for

menacing, while for elites it was a fearful reference to what they wanted to prevent at all costs. In this sense, Saint- Domingue functioned as a language of contention. I understand language of contention as William Roseberry defined it:
a common material and meaningful framework..., in part, discursive: a common language or way of talking about social relationships that sets out the central terms around which and in terms of which contestation and struggle can occur.327

I have found that in Venezuela, the Saint-Domingue rebellion had varied repercussions. For the official authorities and elites of Caracas, the proximity of the revolutionary events prompted the planning of new mechanisms of control in order to prevent the diffusion of seditious ideas among the Provinces free blacks and slaves. Governors of different regions tried to impede the diffusion of the information coming from the French Caribbean that could jeopardize the harmony of their communities, controlling the introduction of knowledge through: texts and people, written and oral channels, respectively. The Saint-Domingue rebellion was also an example that produced fear among elites who started to question their relationship with their slaves and free black workers. As Cordova Bello contends, after all the Haitian revolution not
326

Fischer, Modernity Disavowed; and Ferrer, Talk about Haiti, and Cuba en la sombra de Hait: noticias, sociedad y esclavitud. See Roseberry Hegemony and the Language of Contention, 361.

327

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only signified emancipation and republicanism, but it also implied absolute freedom for slaves, equality between whites and colored people, and the possibility that the latter could assume political roles.328 At the same time, Saint-Domingue became an inspiration for free blacks and slaves of the region, and a powerful discursive reference that they used to express their anger against the regime. Looking at the rebellion of Coro allows us to understand these representations and uses of Saint-Domingue by the elites and by subaltern groups. In a sense, the Haitian Revolution became knowledge that circulated through the Atlantic world, being used by different social groups for different purposes, especially to represent an understanding of others and themselves.329 The most important compilation of documents to emerge from the rebellion of Coro, attracting the attention of earlier and contemporary historians, is the record produced by the Royal Court of Caracas from 1795 to 1797. The record, entitled Expediente la Real Audiencia de Caracas and from now on denominated Expediente,330 is composed of several reports issued by colonial authorities and

328

Crdova Bello, La independencia de Hait y su influencia en Hispanoamrica.

329

For an interesting and comprehensive approach to the dissemination of rumors and information about the Haitian Revolution in colonial America see Scott, The Common Wind. Testimonio del Expediente formado sobre la sublevacin de los negros sambos, mulatos esclavos y libres de la jurisdiccin de Coro, AGI, Caracas, 426. The expediente was published as Documentos de la insurreccin de Jos Leonardo Chirinos (Caracas: Ediciones Fundacin Historia y Comunicacin, 1994).

330

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officials of the Province of Coro to the Captain General of Venezuela,331 letters from inhabitants of Coro to Justicia Mayor of Coro and the Captain General in Caracas, reports from the Captain General of Venezuela to the Spanish Monarch and his Ministers, and also letters written by the Justicia Mayor to his subalterns. The record also contains population censuses, and geographical descriptions of Coro. Unfortunately, when the members of the Audience decided to initiate the trials, a large number of the rebels had already been convicted and executed by the Coro authorities and therefore we have very few testimonies from suspected rebels.332 There is more interesting testimony from free blacks and slaves, men and women, who, although they did not participate directly in the rebellion, witnessed the events and articulated the motivations, plans and concerns of their rebellious husbands, parents, compadres, co-workers and friends. In light of a categorization developed by Aizpurua, it is possible to recognize three distinctive kinds of sources in the documentation on the Coro insurrection. The first is testimony of people who actively participated, witnessed, or suffered the effects of the rebellion, these people include blacks slaves, free colored, pardos and Indians, rebels and non-rebels, landowners and their wives, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters; and the officials who directly confronted the insurrection. The second kind
331

In 1777, the General Captaincy of Venezuela was created, and the Province of Coro belonged to the Province of Caracas, over which the Captaincy exercised its authority. This is clear evidence of how rebels voices were abruptly and indiscriminately silenced by the royal authorities of Coro.

332

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of evidence was produced by people from Coro and its surroundings who heard and reproduced information and rumors about the rebellion, but were not directly involved in it, such as colonial officials, priests, and vecinos of the nearby regions. And lastly, the third kind of sources contain testimonies and documents issued by the Official Authorities Real Audiencia, Governors, and Captain General- to the Spanish King and authorities with the purpose of giving detailed information about the insurrectionary events.333 This chapter will show how apparently overlapping and, even, contradictory stories and testimonies become clearer and more coherent as the motivations and role of the producers of stories and actors are analyzed and understood. I have found that the use of Saint-Domingue as a language of contention changes depending on who is using it and the purpose of the reference.

2. La Serrana de Coro in 1795

The black insurrection of Coro took place in a geographic region known as the Serrana de Coro, a hilly area located to the south of the city of Coro.334 In 1770, the area was described by a foreign traveler as a mountainous region with plenty of rivers and unique for its pleasant and healthy climate: These soils are apt for cultivating
333

Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, 713-14.

334

The city of Coro is located in a region currently known as the Estado Falcn, a state located in the northeast of Venezuela. In the eighteenth century the whole region was called Provincia de Coro, with the city of Coro as its capital. It fell under the jurisdiction of the Government of Caracas, and later, in 1777, of the General Captaincy of Venezuela.

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appetizing and tasty fruits. The soil is good for everything, except for cocoa. There are some haciendas de trapiches (small sugar plantations) in the region, including: San Joaqun, San Diego, Santa Luca, El Carmen, Macanillas and Curigmagua.335 Other areas of the province, such as the surroundings of the city of Coro and the northern haciendas, were known for a relatively reduced production of diverse agricultural crops (rice, yucca, corn, coffee, plantains and variety of roots), cattle breeding (especially goats), and the commercialization of leather. At the beginning of the colonization in sixteenth century, the lands of Coro were used for raising cattle. By the end of the seventeenth century, agricultural crops were introduced and by the eighteenth century, the Serrana de Coro was considered the most productive agricultural area of the Province of Coro for its production of sugar cane for the manufacture of Panelas and sugar derivates. Therefore, there seemed to be a clear geographical and agricultural distinction between the Serrana de Coro and the rest of the Coro regions. During the entire eighteenth century, the Province of Coro also became an important center for the raising of herds of cattle, goats, and mules, and for the production of milk, cheese, and leather, which were distributed to other regions of the province, including Caracas and its coastal area. Coro was a fundamental area for the
335

ngel de Altolaguirre y Duvale, Relaciones geogrficas de Venezuela, 1767-1768 (Caracas: Presidencia de la Repblica, 1954), 191, quoted in Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, 711. ngel de Altolaguirre compiled a description made by Pedro Felipe de Llamas in 1768 when he was Teniente de Justicia Mayor de Coro. Ramn Aizpurua, e-mail message to author, October, 2009.

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economic exchange of local products between the hinterland and the coast. It possessed a number of tracks and paths that allowed good transportation and distribution of diverse products, such as corn, cotton, sugar cane, salt, cattle, and leather products, to the western inland regions of Venezuela. It is also known that the province of Coro played a significant role in the smuggling networks between the mainland and the Caribbean islands, especially with Curaao. According to Lovera Reyes, the advantageous location of the Serrana de Coro allowed the circulation of Caribbean products to the mainland and viceversa. Cattle and mules from the distant plains of Guanare and San Carlos found paths to the Caribbean islands, such as SaintDomingue, Jamaica, Curaao, Aruba, and Bonaire, where they were sold by Dutch pirates to supply the sugar plantations.336 However, Aizpurua thinks that the Serrana was not the most appropriate route, instead he believes that the transit through the Sierra must have been too expensive, and that other paths on the foothills of the Sierra must have been used to transport products from the coast to the mainland cities and viceversa.337 In 1795, Don Manuel Carrera issued a report to the Governor of Caracas informing him about the insurrectionary events of Coro. In the introduction to his report, he stated that the Valley of Curimagua - located in the Serrana - was a fertile

336

Elina Lovena Reyes, Coro y su espacio geohistrico en la poca colonial, Tierra Firme, no. 14 (1986): 221-27. Ramn Aizpurua, e-mail message to author, October, 2009.

337

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and rich valley with desirable crops, and inhabited by some landowners, their slaves, free colored workers (creoles and luangos) and some indigenous communities.338 Indeed, during the eighteenth century, the region was composed of approximately twenty-three small towns. According to Arcaya, of all the haciendas of Coro, only two were of outstanding importance: the Hacienda de la Caridad and the Hacienda de la Concepcin de los Geques. The rest were small and medium size haciendas where sugar derivatives were produced.339 In the Expediente, there is also a detailed account of the population of the Coro region in 1795-1796. This census only takes into consideration the population living in the twenty-three small towns that presumably composed the region; however, there were some isolated haciendas and conucos (small plots of land where people cultivated for domestic consumption) not necessarily attached to those small towns. In any event, the census allows us to have a general idea about the social composition of the region. In the jurisdiction of Coro, there was a population of approximately 26,309 individuals; almost 43 percent of these were free-colored people, while approximately 13 percent were enslaved. This means that 56 percent of the population was colored and African-descendant.340
338

Informe detallado de Don Manuel Carrera al Capitn General de Caracas, 26 de septiembre de 1796, in Documentos de la insurreccin,160 Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros, 20.

339

340

Free blacks included mulattos and zambos who worked as artisans in the urban areas or as peasants in the local haciendas.

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From the time of the colonization of the region of Coro, there also existed encomiendas of indigenous groups, such as the Jirajaras and the Ajaguas. Originally, these encomiendas belonged to important Spanish families who commanded tribute and labor from the indigenous groups, however by the eighteenth century most of these encomiendas had disappeared, the Indian population worked as free jornaleros and lived in Indian communities (Pueblos de Indios). The census shows that approximately 29 percent of the population was Indian (27 percent exentos and 2 percent tributarios).341 Finally, almost 14 percent of the population was white. Among these whites, there were poor families (blancos de orilla) that ran small businesses and stores or worked as artisans. About twelve rich white families (representing less than 1 % of the total population) monopolized the economy of the region of Coro, also controlling the Cabildo and the most important public offices of the city. These families possessed lands in the Serrana, and thanks to the advantageous economic development of this region during the eighteenth century, they enriched themselves in a notorious fashion, expanding their haciendas and their enterprises. However, these families also competed among themselves in order to control the economy and the commerce of the region. Historians of Coro recognize two family groups who entered into conflict during the eighteenth century: the Zrraga-Zabala families, on one side, and the Telleras, Chirinos, and Arcayas, on the other. The first of these arrived in Coro as
341

Testimonio del expediente formado sobre la sublevacin de los negros, sambos, mulatos esclavos y libres de la jurisdiccin de Coro, 1796, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 158-59.

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agents of the well known Compaa Guizpucoana of Caracas, and their control over the commercial operations of Coro allowed them to achieve a privileged position in the city, assuming responsibilities even in the public administration of Coro. However, important families of Coro, such as the Tellera, Chirino, and Arcaya opposed the monopolistic nature of the company and frequently engaged in conflicts to oppose the interests of the Zrraga-Zabalas. One of the most recognized notorious conflicts to emerge between the Zrragas and other white families, was related with the occupation and use of uncultivated lands in the Serrana of Coro by Luango communities.342 The Zrraga claimed the lands of Macuquita, yet the Luangos, represented by their leader Jos Caridad Gonzlez and supported by the families Tellera and Chirino, obtained a Royal Decree that declared the land to be realengo (land that belonged to the King, who could decide the use of it and the people who could live in there) and allowed them to continue cultivating and living on it.343 The social scenario mentioned above allows us to imagine the hybrid nature of labor in the region. The haciendas of the Sierra were originally cultivated by Indians and black slaves, but as the eighteenth century developed, an increasing number of free blacks participated in the field labor. By the year of the insurrection, free coloreds
342

Luango was the name given to ex-slaves coming from Curaao, who settled down in communities in the region of Coro. Jos Caridad Gonzalez, an African black who lived first in Curaao and later fled to Coro, spoke different languages and helped other Curaao slaves to move to Coro. He become the militia leader of the luango community which lived in Macuquita when, after traveling to Spain, he returned with a Royal Decree that authorized luangos to continue using the lands. See Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros, 22; and Lavia, Indios y negros sublevados, 108.

343

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doubled the number of slaves.344 This situation poses interesting questions regarding social relations between slaves and free colored people: who were those free blacks? Why were they free? Where did they come from? Were they manumitted, ex-slaves from non-Spanish colonies, or local maroons? 345 How were they related to other minorities and subaltern groups? These are questions that are only partially answered, and could shed new light on our comprehension of the social groups involved in the rebellion of Coro and their motivations. Recent research by Ramon Aizpurua has focused on the study of the economic and social relations between the Province of Caracas and the Caribbean, particularly Curaao, during the eighteenth century. In his book Curazao y la Costa de Caracas and in numerous articles, Aizpurua provides interesting and convincing evidence of the economic and social significance that Coro had for the island of Curaao, and viceversa. In his opinion, during the entire eighteenth century, Coro played a fundamental commercial role in the economic development of the island. The proximity of Curaao, the relative tolerance of the local authorities towards illicit commercial activities between the two regions, as well as the increasing interest that
344

On this, Lavia comments: The composition and social structure of Coro notably differed with that of the rest of Venezuela. There was a big mass of free blacks that contrasted with the higher proportion of slaves in other areas of the General Captaincy (of Venezuela); this phenomenon was, in part, due to the economic marginality of Coro regarding official circuits, and the closeness to Curaao, whose maroons became part of the free blacks who worked, along the slaves, in the Haciendas, in Lavia, Indios y negros sublevados, 99. Slaves had the right often called coartacin or manumisin - to buy his/her freedom by paying his/her price to the master through a system of periodical deposits. For a historic discussion on this topic see Lucena Salmoral, El derecho de coartacin del esclavo.

345

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Curazoleos showed in acquiring Venezuelan crops and products such as tobacco, salt, leather, and cattle were, among others, the reasons Coro and Curaao maintained strong economic bonds during that century. 346 However, Aizpurua shows that the economic aspect was not the only one to bring the realities of Coro and Curaao together. Maritime marronage was also a social practice that contributed to recreating social and cultural realities in both regions.347 Aizpurua has focused particularly on the presence and influence of the black population from Curaao in the region of Coro. He contends that, during the eighteenth century, slaves from Curazao fled to the region of Coro, where they settled, automatically obtaining their desired freedom.348 With some frequency, these slaves of built or stole small boats in which they crossed the sea that separated them from the mainland, facing storms, heavy sea and piracy. Once in Coro, these ex-slaves were free to settle down, earn a living as free workers, and also work small plots of land for

346

Ramn Aizpurua, Curazao y la costa de Caracas. Introduccin al estudio del contrabando en la provincia de Caracas en tiempos de la compaia guizpuzcoana (1730-1780) (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1993); Coro y Curazao en el siglo XVIII, En busca de la libertad, 69-102; El comercio curazoleo-holands, 1700-1756, Anuario de Estudios Bolivarianos X, no. 11 (2004): 11-88; Santa Mara de la Chapa y Macuquita: en torno a la aparicin de un pueblo de esclavos fugados de Curazao en la sierra de Coro en el siglo XVIII, in Boletn de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, no. 345 (2004): 109-28; and Esclavitud, navegacin y fugas. The term is developed by N.A.T Hall in his article Maritime Maroons: Grand Marronage from the Danish West Indies, in Caribbean Slave Society and Economy, eds. Hillary Beckles and Verene Sheperd (New York: The New Press, 1993), 387-400. A Royal Decree of 1750 gave freedom to slaves coming from Foreing Colonies (Dutch, French and British islands). See Real Cdula de Su Majestad sobre declarar por libres a los negros que viniesen de los ingleses u holandeses a los reinos de Espaa buscando el agua del bautismo. Buen Retiro, 24 de septiembre de 1750, AGN, Reales Cdulas, X, 332.

347

348

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their own benefit and consumption. Coros local authorities did not show any particular interest in controlling the flight of slaves from Curaao, since it helped in solving the labor shortage that the region experienced during those years. After arriving in Coro, these fugitive slaves, commonly called luangos, minas or curazaos obtained their freedom and formed a significant chain of small communities of luangos in the region. Aizpurua contends:
It is known that those fugitives, commonly known in the colony of Venezuela as luangos, minas or curazaos, because of their African or Caribbean origin, practically obtained their freedom when they arrived in Spanish territory; protected by the lack of interest of colonial authorities in benefitting their Dutch neighbors or helped by their blood-brothers who had preceded them (from the island or from Africa). Frequently, grouped and under the leadership of a charismatic character, they settled in their own communities, , where they struggled against local blacks for the control of their newly-born towns.349

As we mentioned in the previous chapter, according to Aizpurua, between 1749 and 1775, approximately 581 slaves fled from Curaao to Coro, an average of approximately 22 per year.350 Almost 86 percent of those maroons were men, and 14 percent were women. The author also notes that a significant percentage of the men, (32 percent) were skilled artisans, such as shoemakers, cooks, glassmakers, carpenters, barbers and surgeons, bakers, bricklayers, and ironworkers. Approximately 26 percent were sailors and fishermen, and the rest were field workers (24 percent), domestic slaves (9 percent), or dedicated to other various activities such as music, arts, and
349

Aizpurua, Coro y Curazao en el siglo XVIII, 232.

350

Aizpurua notes that there are exceptional years, like the years 1769 and 1770 when an impressive number of 125 slaves flew from Curaao to Coro. See Aizpurua, En busca de la libertad.

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crafts (9 percent). In the case of women, there was an elevated number of domestic slaves (71 percent) dedicated to cooking, cleaning, and sewing clothes (lavanderas, costureras), while field workers represented only 9 percent and those dedicated to marketing another 9 percent. These numbers allow Aizpurua to assert that a significant percentage of the slaves proceeding from Curaao were skilled workers who doubtless found the means to develop their respective trades in the region of Coro. In the opinion of Aizpurua, they must have settled in the city of Coro or in nearby areas, while domestics and field slaves settled in the more rural areas in or close to the Serrana of Coro . Taking into consideration the great number of slaves who fled from Curaao to Coro during the eighteenth century, Aizpurua contends that this migratory wave must have had a great influence on the social dynamics, the labor system, and cultural relations in the region. Currently there are no comprehensive historical studies that analyze the social and cultural influences of the Luango communities in Coro.351 Nevertheless, in the light of information provided by Aizpurua, there are some assumptions that we may develop: in the first place, the flight of Luangos to Coro increased the population of free colored workers in the region; skilled workers must have settled near the city but
351

Aizpurua comments: It is not the same to assert that some escaped slaves from Curazao arrived in Coro in the eighteenth century, as to assert that there was a permanent, abundant and diverse migratory flow. The impact of this migratory movement is still to be studied in full proportion, in its peculiar aspects such as songs, dances, music, costumes, culinary practices, and speech; and in deeper aspects such as the religious and mythic worlds where the origin and roots of Coros population relies, in Aizpurua, En busca de la libertad.

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fieldworkers probably settled in the Serrana. Therefore there would have been a portion of free workers who created Luango communities in the northern region of Coro, in towns like Macuquita and Santa Mara de la Chapa. In this sense, the agricultural development of the region of Coro, like the rest of the Province, was based upon a hybrid labor force (slaves and free workers). Secondly, the high proportion of males who fled from Curaao to Coro during the eighteenth century allows us to assume that Luango men probably established family ties with local free colored or slave women. Consequently, free colored people (local and luangos) and slaves shared common social environments, such as their work in the fields, and established family ties. According to Pedro Arcaya, slaves and the free colored of the Serrana shared some similarities in their work, but at the same time there were significant differences that affected their relation, the subjugation of slaves being the most important one. Usually, slaves worked for certain hours in their masters plantations, finishing their work early in order to spend some afternoons and weekends working the small plots of land (conucos) that their master had given them in order to avoid maintenance expenses.352 In this way, slaves preserved some economic independence from their masters.353 Free field workers did, basically, the same kind of tasks as slaves, but
352

See Acosta Saignes, Vida de los esclavos negros; and Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery, 497. Since the master really produced just a small plot of land, above which he believed he had entire dominion, he allowed his slaves to develop their crops in small conucos. There was the land of the Lord surrounded by smaller ones, belonging to the serfs. So it was considered normal that slaves only

353

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received payment for their hours or days of work. This situation must have created a significant contrast between free colored people and slaves. Slaves perceived the free colored population as privileged people who, unlike them, received money for their labor and, other than their labor obligations, did not have any kind of relationship with their masters. On the other hand, free coloreds who had family ties with slaves would have perceived them as unfortunate. The leader of the rebellion of Coro, Jos Leonardo Chirino, a local free zambo, was married to an enslaved woman, Mara Dolores, who belonged to the hacendado Jos Tellera. Their children were condemned to live in the same condition as their mother, since the colonial judicial system declared that children of enslaved wombs were to be slaves, and this could have been an significant personal reason that motivated Jos Leonardo to rebel.354 While it seems clear that some bonds existed among free coloreds and slaves, there is enough evidence to believe that Luangos formed separate and isolated communities apart from those inhabited by local free blacks. Javier Lavia shows this when he mentions that colored free workers normally cultivated the haciendas of Corianos, while Luangos worked on the royal lands of Macuquita. The inhabitants of

worked the time necessary to finish the job that was assigned to them. Arcaya, La insurreccin de los negros, 17.
354

Generally in the Province of Venezuela, masters did not support, and frequently impeded, marriages between free blacks and slaves, because they believed it had negative effects on the natural submission of slaves and also because they believed that the need to get money to support the family frequently drove slaves to steal. Legally, masters had the right to control their slaves marriages, but despite this, slaves and free blacks found the ways to live together and have families. See Acosta Saignes, Vida de los esclavos negros, Chapter XI.

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La Serrana especially white hacendados perceived the use of royal land by Luangos as an irregular situation with which they were not comfortable. 355 In addition, Lavia comes up with the interesting testimony of the wives of some Luangos suspected of collaborating in the rebellion, who declared that they were not aware that their husbands had any kind of relation with local free blacks.356 Discrepancies among creole free blacks and luangos were, in part, promoted by hacendados and official authorities who preferred to divide the colored population than to have them making joint demands and attempting to shake the colonial system.357 However, the increasing presence of Luangos in the region and the fact that they even received favors and privileges from the Crown to cultivate and live on royal lands created some sort of example for local free blacks and slaves who believed they could also forward claims to the Crown.

355

Manuel Carrera, a hacendado who collaborated in hunting black rebels, commented in a written communcation that it was rather bizarre and negligent, that blacks from Curaao were allowed to formed in the mountains a confusing incorporacin (company), with a Captain. See Informe detallado de Don Manuel Carrera al Capitn General de Caracas, 2 de junio de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 45. Lavia, Indios y negros sublevados, 99.

356

357

This is demonstrated by the creation of diverse black cofradias in various cities of the Province of Venezuela, or by the formation of separated militias: such as the pardos company and the luango company in Coro. In Coro, conflicts among hacendados, local free blacks and luangos occurred long before 1795. In 1770, for instance, a luango uprising revealed a struggle for land and access to water among these groups, with the consequent elimination of the company of Luangos and their relocation from Santa Mara de la Chapa to Macuquita. See Autos sobre disensiones y bullicios de los Negros Esclavos fugitivos de la Isla de Curazao a la Jurisdiccin de Coro, 1770, AGN, Diversos, XL. Also analyzed by Aizpurua in Santa Mara de la Chapa y Macuquita.

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Like slaves, most free blacks of the Serrana possessed, used, or rented plots of land on which they cultivated different kind of crops that they sold in urban centers or in the nearby areas. White landowners, free colored people and slaves were required to pay taxes (derechos de alcabala) on the transportation of agricultural commodities on the roads and in the customs houses of the region and at the main entrances to the towns. During the last decade of the eighteenth century, a new tax collector, Don Manuel Iturbe, was assigned to Coro. Prompted by the Bourbon reform spirit and arguing that the system of tax revenues was disorganized and poorly administered, Iturbe decided to establish a rigorous control over the Indian tribute and to locate new alcabalas in the region of the Serrana. This decision provoked great displeasure among the hacendados, the free colored population, and the slaves of the region who were economically affected by the measure.358 In the alcabala system, Iturbes tax agents evaluated the crops to be sold and charged an anticipated tax that, in many cases, was even greater than the price at which the products were sold. Alcabaleros were perceived by small merchants and produce sellers as corrupt and arbitrary agents who took advantage of their position to extract money and enrich themselves. This situation must have produced anxiety in
358

Aizpurua argues: It seems evident that the increase of what was collected had its origin simply in the increase of the population who payed the alcabala tax, people who perhaps previously did not have to go through that transaction. Since the people who went down to sell agriculture products from the Serrana de Coro, and who commonly passed through Cajuarao (the southern entry to Coro), were mainly small producers, Indians who paid or did not pay taxes, and free blacks and slaves, it is obvious that the discontent did not come only from three or four people (probably the important inhabitants of the region), as Iturbe mistakenly thought, but from more people, as represented in the numbers who joined the upheaval. See Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, 712.

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slaves and free colored communities that would see each other as potential allies in confronting government pressures and their masters exploitation. The local indigenous population, especially those paying tributes, also shared some of their concerns and actions.359 It was in this setting that a powerful wave of rumors began to circulate, inciting rebellious tendencies in the Serrana. According to the planter Manuel Carrera, some months before the rebellion, a black healer (curandero), named Cocofo, who circulated freely in the haciendas of the Valley, spread the news that the King had declared freedom for all the slaves in the Province, but local authorities and masters were hiding the papers and the truth from the population, in order to preserve their benefits and privileged positions. According to Carrera, the rumor circulated from one slave to another, and the same story was told again and again, causing them erroneously to believe that they had been made free.360

359

Several studies about slave rebellions in the Americas and the Caribbean have shown that, depending on the circumstances, slaves created alliances with different groups free blacks, maroons, Indians and even missionaries -, and those alliances were based on common concerns and prerogatives. In her study of the Haitian Revolution, Carolyn Fick shows that slaves on the plantations saw maroons as fellow slaves lucky enough to have gotten away; and the maroons saw their plantation counterparts as potential allies on whom they depended. See Fick, The Making of Haiti, Chapter 5. Viotti da Costa also shows how in certain circumstances nonconformist evangelical missionaries supported Demerara slaves in their demands and even gave them spaces for debate and for the planning of a rebellion in 1823. See Viotti da Costa, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood, Chapter 4. On several occasions, the rumor that the King had declared freedom for the slaves spread among diverse black communities throughout Spanish America. See Klooster, Le dcret demancipation imaginaire. In the Province of Venezuela, this rumor was linked to different sources such as the Cdigo Negrero of May 1789 and the Real Cdula de Gracias al Sacar. In his report, Manuel Carrera contends that this false idea spread in Coro thanks to a Royal Decree given to the luango Captain Jos Caridad Gonzlez, which stated that the royal lands of Macuquita were to be occupied and used by luango communities. The recognition of this privilege confused local slaves who believed that

360

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While Carrera pays special attention to this rumor as a clear cause of the uprising, he probably did not hear about other word of mouth expressions that reflected opinions about blacks perceptions of whites, and of the conflicting worlds in which they lived. After the rebellion of Coro, many officials, planters, and even blacks recalled some verses and songs that were pronounced in public gatherings before the rebellion and that included expressions of vengeance and suppressed hatred that could have reflected the planning of the rebellion, or that at least sought to intimidate whites. In the next section, we will see how these expressions were channeled into economic demands, tactical maneuvers, and intentions of negotiating with the local government.

3. Narratives of an Event: The Rebellion

According to most official testimonies, early in the afternoon of May 11, 1795, neighbors of the city of Coro heard and passed on terrible news: slaves and free colored people of the Serrana of Coro had risen against their masters; wounding and killing them with fire arms and machetes, they had sacked and burned their houses and fields, killed livestock and were aiming to reach the city to continue with their murderous actions. The demands seemed clear: they wanted the freedom of the slaves and exemption from commercial taxes.

the same decree had given freedom to them. See Informe detallado de Don Manuel Carrera al Capitn General de Caracas, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 45.

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That same afternoon, Lieutenant Don Mariano Ramrez Valderrain, Coros highest official, wrote an urgent report to Don Pedro Carbonell, the Governor of the General Captaincy of Venezuela. In the letter, he said that he had been informed four hours earlier that a black and mulatto rebellion had taken place in the Serrana of Coro. The rebels - he continued - have killed white hacendados and have sacked and burned their houses. He also mentioned that black slaves were clamoring for their freedom, accompanied by some free blacks and mulattos, and finally concluded that their purpose was to damage all the plantations and to go to the city of Coro in order to demand their freedom and tax exemptions.361 Complaining about the lack of military force to protect the city, Ramrez Valderrain asked for arms and troops to be sent urgently to help him defeat the rebel attack and defend Coro. Additionally, he commented that he had ordered vecinos (white and pardo neighbors) to arm themselves and be prepared to confront the uprising. Moreover, Ramrez explained that some groups of Indians had responded positively to his demands and were also prepared to defend the city from the colored rebels. On May 15, four days after the uprising, Ramrez Valderrain wrote a second report to Carbonell in which he announced that the rebellion was under control. In this letter, the lieutenant narrated his encounter with the rebels. He indicated that on the night of May 11, he sent some officials to approach one of the customs houses to

361

Oficio de Ramrez Valderrain, 11 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 33-4.

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verify if the rebels were nearby. The officials effectively confirmed that the rebels had been there and had killed three soldiers who guarded the gate. Knowing this, Ramrez Valderrain went during the middle of the night to a road that divided the city from the plains and gathered troops formed by neighbors, forasteros, whites, mulattoes, and some Indians who came from the town of Carrizal,362 and waited for the rebels to appear. They waited until seven oclock in the morning of May 12, and as they were about to retire, three hundred fifty men, even more, appeared in the plain, [and he] quickly turned back, marching quietly with the campaign canon and approaching them at a prudent distance. [The rebels] waved their flag and sent an envoi stating that freedom should be granted for the slaves, as well as exemption from the alcabala and others taxes for free men, and that they would do nothing, with the city given to them.363 Local officials answered with a cannon shot, and the Indians of Guaybacoa shot innumerable arrows that provoked panic among the rebels who started to run in different directions. The battle ended in a bloodbath; 25 blacks were killed on the battleground, while 24 others were wounded and then beheaded that same afternoon, and still others were sent to prison and interrogated by the authorities.

362

Unlike Indians from the Sierra, Indians from Carrizal did not pay tribute; they were exemptos. Ramn Aizpurua, e-mail message to author, October, 2009. se presentaron al llano trescientos cincuenta hombres, algo mas, retroced con presteza marchando con los caones de campaa, y acercandome a la proporcionada distancia, me bastieron su bandera y hicieron una embajada expresiva de decir se les concediese la libertad a los esclavos y la excepcin de derechos de alcabala demas impuestos a los libres, y que nada se ofreceria, entregandoles as la ciudad, in Oficio de Ramrez Valderrain, 15 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 34-5.

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The lieutenant explained that, due to lack of time, testimony from the rebels was taken only orally (a la sola voz). He comments that imprisoned rebels confessed that the rebellion had two chiefs: a luango named Jos Caridad Gonzlez and a free black named Jos Leonardo Chirino. They also mentioned that they were told that a Real Cdula ordering the freedom for all slaves had come from Spain and had been concealed by the local officials in order to maintain slavery.364 This information was used by the luango, Jos Caridad, to convince them to rise up and rebel. He also added that Jos Caridad had stated that if free blacks supported the slaves in rebellion, they would later rule a Republic.365 Ramrez commented that, apparently, Jos Leonardo was to lead the rebellion in the countryside, while Jos Caridad was supposed to organize the fight inside the city but, at this point, there was no uprising in the city. That same night, Jos Caridad Gonzlez and twenty one luangos appeared at the armory of the city of Coro, contradictorily he asked for weapons to support Ramrez actions against the rebellion, but Ramrez who suspected that Jos Caridad was one of the leaders of the rebellion, turned down his request and captured him and the other luango suspects. The lieutenant contended that after Jos Caridad was declared a suspect in the rebellion and sent to prison, he supposedly tried to escape from jail during the night and was

364

Ibid.

365

que si los libres ayudaban a los esclavos en su sublevacin ellos sera los que mandasen luego en Republica, Ibid.

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killed with two other luangos. Ramrez Valderrain never showed any written or signed testimony by Jos Caridad or any other luango or slave.366 At the end of his report, Ramrez concluded:
This same day, the fifteenth, I beheaded nine of the prisoners, confirmed as criminals, with no trial other than an oral one, because this is what was called for because last night the women of the luangos tried to bribe the jailer and because there is a great deal to be done. I acted based on the known truth without any form of written trial.367

Responding this report, Don Pedro Carbonell, Captain General of Venezuela, sent a letter to Ramrez Valderrain, congratulating him and his troops for their actions and for the favourable results of the encounter. However he encouraged him to follow the ordinary judicial process and to send him copies of the testimonies of the accused, the number of dead and sentenced blacks, as well as of those who were still in prison, in order to clarify the events.368 It is clear that Ramrez Valderrain did not

366

If it were true that Jos de la Caridad was a ringleader of the rebellion, it seems rather strange that he would put himself in risk of being captured by the authorities. His capture and that of the rest of luangos accompanying him, were the only arrests that happened in the city of Coro. En este mismo da quince he degollado nueve de los aprehendidos confirmados reos en la delinquencia, sin otro proceso que el de la voz, porque asi ha convenido, pues la noche del dia de ayer me habian coechado la mujer de los negros Luangos al Carcelero, y siendo mucho lo que hay que obrar executo a la verdad savida son forma de juicio escrito, in Oficio de Ramrez Valderrain, 15 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 35. Carbonell wrote I consider important for this case that Your Mercy send a report on the dead and sentenced, and information about the declarations that in voce were taken from some with other news and facts that Your Mercy may consider necessary for claritys sake in the case, in Oficio del Capitn General Don Pedro Carbonell, 26 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 37. Carbonell knew that Ramrez was not fulfilling the requirements of the law which, by a Royal Decree of 1774, established that authorities should allow those sentenced to give evidence and have legitimate self defense, consulting final sentences with the criminal chamber of the respective districts or with the Council, , On the contrary Your Majesty will feel unserved and will proceed against those who become transgressors of his sovereign intentions, in Disposicin general de las Leyes y demas reales

367

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take a written record of testimonies nor of the acts of sentencing and execution. Instead, he provided more detailed reports and asked other white witnesses to send their testimonies to the governor. Those testimonies always evoked the exceptional circumstances of the encounter: the size of the rebel force, the small number of whites (Spanish and criollos), the atrocities that the colored had committed, and the urgent need to restore order, discipline, and justice. In a third report, the lieutenant confirmed that he had controlled the rebellion and also that there was no longer any need for more troops since he had more than six hundred men, divided between the city and the mountains, arresting suspects, and patrolling the region. The following days, Ramrez sent more reports regarding on the capture of suspects and the executions of those sentenced. Still, he never provided the governor with any written documentation or proofs. He simply added that he was sure that the blacks he had captured were the most furious and atrocious, concluding that the haciendas were in a pitiful state, the houses all burned and sacked, the animals killed, and that those men did not even respect the sacred ornaments of the religious chapels.369 Twelve days after the uprising, Ramrez Valderrain sentenced fifty more people (free blacks, slaves, and Indians) to physical punishment, exile from the
resoluciones sobre los artculos diecisiete y diecinueve de la Real Pragmtica de diez y siete de Abril de 1774, AGI, Estado 58, no. 22.
369

In Oficio de Ramrez Valderrain, 17 y 18 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 57-

8.

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Province of Coro or death.370 Claiming that the local prison was overcrowded and that there were not enough people to protect it and control the flight of prisoners which represented a great danger for the region , Ramrez Valderrain justified the irregular and illegal nature of his decision. Presumably, by sentencing the accused and even the suspects to exile or death, the lieutenant was preventing the flight of prisoners and the possibility that seditious ideas could spread all over the region. Ramirez Valderrain specifically sentenced twenty-two free black militiamen to death because they allegedly participated in a rebellion in which they burnt and sacked houses, beat, injured and killed white men. He also contended that the people who participated in the rebellion had intentions of taking up arms in order to take the city and execute their plans to kill all the whites, eliminate tax payments, take control of the entire city, and follow the Law of the French.371 It is not clear what exactly Ramrez Valderran meant by the Law of the French, however, it seems that he believed that burning and sacking houses, as well as killing white people was closely linked to the application of the Law of the French. There is a clear shift in Ramrezs perception of the rebels motivations. In his firsts reports, the lieutenant contended that the main demands of the black rebellion were the freedom of slaves and exemption from taxes, but after interrogating the
370

The sentence depended upon their race and/or condition, and also upon their characterization as an accused or suspect. Venan los sublevados a coger la Ciudad, y poner en execucion sus designios de matar a todos los blancos, quitar la contribucin de Reales derechos, apoderarse del todo de la ciudad, y seguir de resto la Ley de los Franceses, in Oficio de Ramrez Valderrain, 23 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 30.

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suspects on the afternoon of May 12, when he reported on May 15, about the oral trials he only mentioned the exemption from taxes, and emphasized the rebels desires to follow the Law of the French and form a Republic. In other words, once Carbonell asked him to follow the proper legal procedures, Ramrez emphatically alleged that the final goals of the rebellion were to create a Republic and follow the French Laws without providing any proof. When he initially described his encounter with the rebels he did not mentioned that they proposed to apply the Law of the French or to establish of a Republic, but subsequently these appeared to be the most important motivations of the rebellion. Why would Ramirez change his account of the motivations? Several reasons might be entertained here. We may well believe that Ramrez Valderrain decided to dramatize the events by replacing the original rebel demands for freedom and taxes exemption with that of applying the Law of the French. In a way, the killing of whites and the sacking and burning of masters houses and fields evoked the stories of the events of SaintDomingue that circulated in the Atlantic world. Therefore, if the rebels first actions in Coro and Saint-Domingue were similar, surely, he implied their final designs were too. For the elites, the shadow of revolutionary republicanism had invaded Coro, and the consequences of the rebellion [often referred by them as a revolutionary movement] also assumed revolutionary proportions. On the other hand, we must remember that Ramrez Valderrain did not respect the proper judicial processes. He desperately took justice into his own hands, feeling the need to restore order rapidly.

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Once he achieved this, and after receiving the order from Carbonell to comply with the law, he may have sought the means to justify his legally unjustifiable measures by dramatizing and exaggerating rebel actions and demands. Yet, there is another new element, involving the participants and leaders of the rebellion, introduced by Ramrez in his subsequent reports. In the first report, he asserted that slaves, supported by some free colored, made up the group of rebels; but in his second report he implicates Jos Caridad Gonzlez, the chief of the Luango militia, as one of the ringleaders of the rebellion. Jos Caridad Gonzlez was the Captain of a Luango militia who was engaged in a conflict over land with the ZrragaZabala family in Macuquita. Since his arrival, with a royal decree in hand that allowed Luangos to live on and use the land, Jos Caridad had become an uncomfortable figure for some white families with important properties in the Serrana. Implicating him in the rebellion could have been an astute political move to get rid of the Luangos in the area or at least to restore some order regarding social and racial privileges and power in relation to the Luango communities. Venezuelan historians are still debating whether Jos Caridad was indeed head of the rebellion. Aizpurua shows that the presence of Luangos in the rebellion was particularly reduced taking into account the large number of them who lived in Macuquita.372 He comments: Primary sources confirm that 200 luango men lived in

372

According to Manuel Carreras brief, only one luango, Nicols Flores, was officially recognized to have actively participated in the rebellion. In Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro.

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Macuquita in the Valley where the uprising occurred If Jos Caridad Gonzlez and Jos Leonardo Chirinos were allied, why would Jos Leonardo rebel without the direct collaboration and participation of these Luango militiamen?373 Most of the Luango who were executed without testimony, were captured in the city along with Gonzlez, and their participation in the rebellion is doubtful. There is in fact no conclusive evidence about the participation of Jos Caridad in the rebellion of Coro. His implication in the case could have been based on accusations by free blacks and slaves who knew about the conflict between some white families and Jos Caridad, and they could have decided to place the blame on an outsider, or based on the accusation by white families who influenced Ramrez to suspect and implicate him.374 In any case, after Jos Caridads execution, official troops were sent to Macuquita in order to destroy a supposed maroon community that had allegedly contributed to the rebellion. This maroon community was never found. The official colonial record defined the rebellion as an event highly influenced by external forces: the influence of the Saint-Domingue slave movements expressed in the rebels motivations, on the one hand, and the leadership of foreign free blacks like Jos Caridad and the participation of the Luango militiamen, on the other. All these characterizations indicate a military campaign that emphasized ideological and

373

In Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro.

374

See Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, 712; and Lavia, Indios y negros sublevados.

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political forces proceeding from the exterior, and that gave far less attention to local political demands such as freedom for the slaves, or economic prerogatives such as the the abolition of estanco (tobacco monopoly) and the alcabala (commercial taxes).375 But the actions and testimonies of Ramirez also allow us to perceive an erratic procedure fueled by fear, one that stymied criticism and judgment of his leadership, and that constantly used fear of contagion to justify repressive decisions. One month after the events of the rebellion, Don Pedro Carbonell sent a report to the war Minister of Spain. In this Informe, Carbonell narrated the events of Coro, also praising the decisions and actions taken by Ramrez Valderran in controlling the situation. The governor exposed the main intentions of his Informe, which were to narrate the insurrection of the black slaves and free people of Coro, who intended to create a republic and receive exoneration from royal tributes.376 Clearly, he gives special attention to the creation of a republic in order to construct a more radical and extreme account; in others words, to present the rebellion as a revolutionary and seditious event; then he presents the exoneration from taxes as a secondary demand.
375

A similar case occurred in Cuba with the Aponte Rebellion. See, for example, Childs, A Black French General Arrived to Conquer The Island. There he states: The response by Cuban elites to the Aponte Rebellion echoed their explanations of the success of the Haitian Revolution. Because of their refusal to consider criticism of the slave system they commanded, planters proved unable to examine rebels motivations for revolt. Just as they explain the Haitian Revolution as the extension of French revolutionary politics to the Caribbean, they insisted that the Aponte Rebellion resulted from the external influence of the Haitian Revolution, Ibid, 142. Guha observes the same situation in colonial India. Multiple accounts show how authorities insinuated that peasants had lost their innocence thanks to the influence of outsiders. Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency, 220. Informe del Gobernador y Capitn General de la Provincia de Venezuela, del 12 de junio de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 71-3.

376

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However, the demand for the exoneration from the royal tributes itself could also have been read as a rejection of vassaldom in relation to the Spanish Monarch. In this sense, the rebels would have belied their loyalty to the King, and this rejection amounted to sedition. Presenting these two demands as the fundamental purposes of the Coro rebellion, Carbonell also seemed to justify the irregularity of Ramrez Valderrains procedures. In a sense, the rebel demands expressed by Carbonell seem contradictory. How would black people claim for both the formation of a republic and the exoneration of taxes? It seems obvious that the control of the city and the creation of a republic would implicitly reduce or eliminate those taxes.377 Several possibilities allow us to understand this ambiguity: first, one or the other of the two contradictory groups of demands were being invented or imagined by the official discourse; second, both demands were being made by rebels at different times; or third, the two sets of demands were being made by different groups of rebels. The Governor then began with the description of the rebellion. He affirmed that, from the beginning, slaves and free blacks from the Serrana planned to kill the masters and ruin the haciendas in order to take control of the city later, claiming freedom and exoneration of commercial taxes. For Carbonell, these represented the
377

Aizpurua highlights this contradiction. He contends: The truth is that, looking it objectively, there is a evident contradiction between direct demands (freedom for slaves, taxes exemption) and that of creating a Black Republic, in Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, 715. Nevertheless, it seems important to note that a Black Republic is not explicitly mentioned in the documents, there are references to the creation of a Republic, as being part of rebels demands, but not as a Republic exclusively governed by blacks.

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original purposes of the rebellion. Curiously, at this initial level, he does not mention the creation of the republic as an original demand of the rebels. In the next two paragraphs, the Governor recounted the actions of his officials in order to control the uprising: the sending of troops from Caracas and Puerto Cabello to Coro, and the actions and decisions brilliantly taken by Ramrez Valderrain. Particularly interesting is his narration of the events when the lieutenant confronted more than 350 militiamen. At this point, the rebels, in the Governors opinion, were demanding freedom for slaves, exoneration of alcabala taxes and other benefits for the free people, seeking to control the city in order to establish a republic. Taking into consideration the Governors Informe, we may well assume that at the moment of the confrontation with the official troops, the rebels were already clamoring for the formation of a republic. The Governors description of events was, obviously but not exclusively, based on previous Informes of Ramrez Valderrain or other officials. Thus, we should ask: Did Ramrez Valderrain mention the creation of a republic as a fundamental demand of the rebellion? The lieutenant did allude to the Law of the French as a pattern or model that the rebels wanted to follow or apply, but he did not explicitly mention the republic as a main goal of the rebellion. When he mentioned it, he put it as a possible menace but not as a substantial demand made by rebels. In fact, in previous reports that Ramrez Valderrain sent to the Governor, there are no allusions to the formation of a republic as a demand being made at the moment of confrontation.

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Therefore, we ask: How and why did Carbonell add the formation of a republic as a one of the purposes of the uprising? The comparison between a previous report of Ramrez narrating the moment of the confrontation and one paragraph of the Informe in which Carbonell details the battle reveals interesting discursive transformations. The two paragraphs share noticeable similarities but intriguing adaptations. On May, 15 of 1795, lieutenant Ramrez Valderrain had written to the Governor Carbonell:
three hundred fifty men, even more, appeared in the plain, [and he] quickly turned back, marching quietly with the campaign cannon and approaching them at a prudent distance, [the rebels] waved their flag and sent an envoi stating that freedom should be granted for the slaves, as well as exemption from the alcabala and others taxes for free men, and that they would do nothing with the city given to them.378

On June 12 of 1795, the Governor Carbonell wrote to the War Minister of Spain:
More than three hundred fifty men appeared on the plain, and waving their flag, they sent an envoi requesting that freedom for slaves, and the exemption from alcabala and other taxes for free men. The city offered to them, in order to establish the republic that rudely and criminally they imagined in their minds, and procured with the ferocity of their hands stained with the blood of their masters and other whites destroyed by the rage of the disgrace379

378

Oficio de Ramrez Valderrain, 23 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 33-4.

379

se le presentaron en nmero de ms 350 y batiendo la bandera le hicieron embajada, en que peda libertad de esclavos y exencin de alcabalas y dems contribuciones para los libres, entregndoles la ciudad con el fin de establecer la repblica que torpe y delincuentemente envolvieron en su idea y procuraban con la atrocidad de sus manos, manchadas con las sangre de sus amos y otros blancos destrozados ya la feroz de su ignominia, in Informe de Pedro Carbonell en que alaba al Teniente Justicia Mayor con motivo de la rebelin de los negros esclavos de Coro. 12 de junio de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 72.

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Here we can perceive the Governors transformation of Ramirez Valderrains account, by adding the creation of the republic as one of the rebellions demands at the moment of the confrontation. In his account of the events, Carbonell exaggerated and added a dramatic touch to the story by describing the rebel hands stained with blood and by appending adverbs such as rudely and criminally. He also pleaded in favor of Ramrez decisions and actions: if he had not acted in this manner, immediately punishing such criminal and disgusting offenses, his tolerance would have had dreadful and ruinous consequences.380 Did black slaves and free people demand the formation of a republic? It is not known. However, we certainly do know that they asked for their freedom and for exemption from commercial taxes. Official narratives transformed the events, but also the discourses produced during the rebellion. The documents issued by official authorities frequently allude to the Law of the French and to the Republic as the main claims of the rebels. Therefore we certainly know that revolutionary ideas and movements from France and Saint-Domingue had clear repercussions in the official narratives of the black rebellion of Coro. But what about the rebels? What did other witnesses have to say about the possible reasons of the rebellion? In witnesses testimonies we find that the formation of a republic frequently appears in second place, after exemption of commercial taxes and freedom. On May
380

si no hubiese obrado con la resolucin anunciada castigando inmediatamente unos delitos tan criminales y detextables, su tolerancia huviera sido de unas consecuencias temibles y ruinosas, in Ibid., 73.

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15, Don Hilario Bustos, Magistrate of Indians, wrote to the Governor of Caracas informing that while he was held captive by the rebels, he heard that they were proclaming freedom for slaves, the extermination of whites males, the servitude of white women, exemption from royal rights, universal pillage, insolence, outrage, and invasion of the city of Coro.381 In the light of the corregidors communication, it seems that the original demands of the rebels were, again, freedom for the slaves and taxes exemption for the free colored. Clearly, the rebels could not proclaim pillage and insolence. On the contrary these words allow us to appreciate the Corregidors interpretations. However, in the middle of this group of demands the concrete (freedom and tax exemption) and the imagined (pillage and insolence,) we find the destruction of white males and the servitude of white women as an important purpose of the rebellion or, at least, as a plan of action. Another neighbor, Don Andrs Manuel de Goribar who collaborated in the capture, interrogation and execution of rebels, wrote that the goal of the rebels was simply to take the city and kill all the whites.382 On May 31, another witness, Don Juan Hilario de Armas y Castro, wrote a brief description of the events of Coro. He affirmed that the night of May 11, blacks, mulattoes, and zambos, slaves and free people and a few Indians assaulted diverse
381

Proclamando la libertad de esclavos, el exterminio de los blancos, la servidumbre de las blancas, la extincin de los derechos Reales, el pillaje universal, la insolencia, el atrocimiento y la invasion de la Ciudad de Coro, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 41. Informe de Don Andrs Manuel de Goribar del 22 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 39

382

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haciendas, killing white males, taking their wives and children, and sacking and burning their houses. According to him, during the morning of May 12 four hundred and twenty five militamen came en son de Batalla to the city entrance. They sent an emissary to the city, to say that they would not do anything if we removed the alcabalas and gave freedom to the slaves; we answered with a cannon shot.383 In the light of this testimony, it seems that at some point the rebels decided to negotiate with the officials; apparently they offered not to do anything in exchange for the fulfillment of their demands. In other words, the rebels threatened the city surely continuing their actions against whites in the event that they did not receive what they desired. In addition, Don Juan Hilario de Armas commented that the rebels purpose was to obtain freedom for the slaves and tax exemption, and to kill all whites and colored people, in order to be left with their women, and apply the Law of the French.384 Once again, freedom and taxes exemptions represented the first goals of the rebellion; nevertheless Don Hilario de Armas notes that rebels actions were framed in terms of following the Law of the French. It is not clear what the Law of the French

383

Presentados en son de Batalla a la entrada de la Ciudad, a tiempo que por parte de ella se le esperava mandaron un emisario a decir que no se ofrecia novedad siempre que se quitasen las alcabalas, y se diese livertad a los esclavos; la respuesta fue dispararles una piesa de canon, in Informe de Juan Hilario de Armas al Gobernador de Caracas. Carora, 31 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 42-3 Los designios fuera de la libertad a los esclavos y exemcion de derechos eran matar todos lo blancos y gente de color, para quedarse ellos con las mujeres blancas, y seguir la Ley de los Franceses, in Informe de Juan Hilario de Armas al Gobernador de Caracas. Carora, 31 de mayo de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 43. Apparently, there were some pardos who opposed to rebels actions and demands and who fought along the whites against the rebel troops.

384

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meant, it appears as general and undefined program. Since their plans were supposedly to kill all the white males, those laws were to be imposed by colored people while white women would have to adapt to them. For the elites witnesses, the shadow of Saint-Domingue seemed to cover all possible explanations concerning the rebellion. On June 2, Don Manuel Carrera, a local hacendados, elaborated a long and detailed report regarding the events of the Rebellion of Coro. Carrera commented that while comitting their atrocities, each rebel proclaimed different ideas and goals. Nevertheless all of them coincided in demanding absolute freedom for slaves, tax exemption, the elimination of the tobacco monopoly and suppression of the alcabalas, the death of all whites regardless of age or name, and taking their white wives in order to marry them.385 What Carrera reported allows us to ask whether there were some rebels interested in exterminating the white men and taking the city, and whether others were using this discourse as a threat to obtain what they really desired: freedom and tax exemptions. The death of all whites and the possession of their wives in order to marry them, appears again as a powerful and violent discourse that expressed a program that whites having heard the stories of Saint-Domingue feared considerably. These assertions by witnesses that repeatedly represent slave rebels as people who wanted to rape white women and take them for themselves during the rebellion were not new or original, even in the Saint-Domingue rebellions of August 1791. As
385

Informe de Don Manuel Carrera, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 51.

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Winthrop Jordan shows, these representations of rebels as potential rapists of white women had circulated since the seventeenth century from Barbados to New York, and from South Carolina to Jamaica. Jordan asserts that in most of the cases there is a lack of evidence that such rapes actually occurred within the frame of the rebellious movements. As Jordan comments: Even when slaves were able to seize temporary local control, as during several revolts in Jamaica and at Stono in South Carolina in 1739, there were no such actual instances during the myriad excitements over slave plots in the entire history of the Anglo American colonies and nation.386 Such emotionally driven accusations were a traditionally established discourse frequently unspecific and repetitive that accompanied whites characterization of slave, and also Indian, rebellions throughout the Atlantic World.387 However during the events of the Haitian Revolution, these discourses of sexual violence took on important dimensions and became a recognizable violent feature of the black Revolution.388

386

Winthrop D. Jordan, Tumult and Silence at Second Creek. An Inquiry into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 150. This discourse was often used by British and Spanish colonists to characterized the cruelty and/or lustful nature of Indians, free blacks, and uncivilized others. Ana Alonso, for example, shows how in Northern Mexican warfare, both the colonists and the Apache captured and enslaved women and children. The capture of barbaric women by civilized men was represented as the redemption of these beings from a life of savagery. By contrast, the taking of civilized women by the barbarians was viewed as an insult to the honor of the colonist. See Alonso, Thread of Blood, 96. The case of black women in the Americas was a little different. White women had the advantage over women of color in every aspect of sexual coercion; for women of color, protective patriarchs were absent figures or, at worst, able to use their status to sexually oppress with impunity. See Sharon Block, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2006), and Peggy Sanday, A Woman Scorned. Acquaintance Rape on Trial (New York: Doubleday, 1996). The Haitian Revolution was generally described in violent terms. Accounts about slave cruelties and barbarities filled the pages of travelers diaries and witnesses writings. The same stories of an impaled

387

388

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The motivation of sexual rivalry was constantly evoked in the account of Saint-Domingue that circulated throughout the Caribbean. Numerous eyewitness testimonies about the Saint-Domingue rebellions recounted stories of white women who were raped by the blacks, and also stories of black rebels who stated that they wanted to murder only white males and that they did not want to kill white women but to get them pregnant.389 This violent characterization of the Saint-Domingue rebellions traveled throughout the Atlantic World, increasing the fear of white planters especially fathers and husbands and of the authorities. 390 It seems possible that, during the rebellion, Coro rebels used these discourses as effective threats which, they thought, could have helped them to achieve their real objectives.

white child, the massive rapes of white women and the opened wombs of pregnant women were repeated over and over, creating a particularly cruel and bloody characterization of rebellious blacks. Laurent Dubois invites us to explore the politics of violence in the Haitian Revolution by looking also at the politics of representation and on how black leaders themselves sought to channel and contain revolutionary violence. See Laurent Dubois, Avenging America: The Politics of Violence in the Haitian Revolution, in The World of the Haitian Revolution, 111-24; and also Nesbitt, Universal Emancipation.
389

See Jeremy Popkin, Facing Racial Revolution, Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), Chapter 3 and Chapter 5. Popkin analyses an interesting account of an anonymous author who survived the insurrection, and he wrote: I showed them [two blacks guards] how astonished I was at everything they told me, but I didnt make any response to it. I simply asked them why they were sparing the priests, the surgeons, and the women. They replied that they were keeping the priests so that religious services could be held, the surgeons to heal their maladies, and the women to take for their own and get pregnant, 53. Within the Iberian logic of honor, the attacks on the sexual purity of women (mothers, sisters, wives and daughters) were insults that put courage, virility, and virtue into question and had to be avenged if honor was to be restored. Therefore, women were a medium through which men could be dishonored, the chastity of women was what ensured the integrity of the patriarchal domain, the honor of the family as well as ethnic purity. See Alonso, Thread of Blood; Pellicer, La vivencia del honor en la Provincia de Venezuela.

390

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Francisco Jacot, a captain appointed by Carbonell to control the military situation in Coro, reported that Father Pedro Prez, a priest in the region, commented that weeks before the uprising blacks attended dances or zambas in which they danced a thousand obscenities and sang dishonest verses. He remembered one in particular that said: A black with placa is worthier than a whites head: flame up, flame down, bring out the machaca, cut off his head, the zamuros eat, drink the aguardiente.391 Captain Jacot could not believe what he had heard, and had replied that those were seditious songs. The Priest answered that black people sang them publicly some days before the upheaval.392 Another neighbor in the region, Nicols Coronado, told Captain Jacot about similar verses that blacks sang at dances. Some verses were in a language that he could not understand,393 but others were divulged in Spanish, one in particular caught Jacots attention:
Flame down, flame up, death to the white, life to the black: and Josef Leonardo with his gang, gathers the blacks at La Macanilla, and with his

391

Mas vale negro con placa, que caveza de blanco: candela arriba, candela abajo, saca la machaca, corta la cabeza, come los zamuros, beva la aguardienta, in Tercera pieza de Audiencia sobre Sublevacin de los Negros Esclavos y libres de aquella ciudad. Contiene las declaraciones de su Teniente, Don Josef de Zavala, Don Francisco Jacot y algunos ms, quoted in Castillo Lara, Curiepe, orgenes histricos, 41. According to Josefina Jordn, Placa was the name they used for certain coins from the Netherlands, and Machaca is an instrument to cut or smash, meaning cutting the whites head. See Josfina Jordn Acercamiento a la rebelin encabezada por Jos Leonardo Chirinos en 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 16-29. Castillo Lara, Curiepe, orgenes histricos. Ibid.

392

393

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volero made of royal palm, death to the white, black for the seed: white dig, black remain for the seed, the ones who live will see.394

In the report, Jacot explained that free blacks were used to dancing during religious festivities,395 and that they normally had permission from the Magistrates who sent officials with the purpose of maintaining order. However, one official concluded that he was particularly concerned with the phrase black for the seed, and that it was precisely after the uprising took place that he heard and understood that with this expression the blacks wanted to say that they would try to extend their offspring through white women.396 These rumors and songs not only revealed racial hatred by blacks towards whites, they seemed to reveal the planning of an uprising that was by no means a spontaneous event. In the verses, the word candela (flame or fire) could have been
394

Candela abajo, candela arriba, muera lo blanco, lo negro viva: y Josf Leonardo con su pandilla, junta a los negros en Macanilla, y con su volero de Palma Real, muera lo blanco, negro semillan: Blanco cava, negro queda para semillan, quien viviere lo ver, in Tercera pieza de Audiencia sobre Sublevacin de los Negros Esclavos y libres de aquella ciudad. Contiene las declaraciones de su Teniente, Don Josf de Zavala, Don Francisco Jacot y algunos ms, quoted in Castillo Lara, Curiepe, orgenes histricos, 42. La Macanilla was the name of a hacienda located in the Serrana of Coro, and a bolero was a kind of hat made of fibers of palm. These parties were usually permitted during catholic festivities, such as Christmas, Easter Sunday and Cruz de Mayo, among others. que con esta expresin queran decir los negros que trataban de extender su generacin en las blancas, in Tercera pieza de Audiencia sobre Sublevacin de los Negros Esclavos y libres de aquella ciudad. Contiene las declaraciones de su Teniente, Don Josf de Zavala, Don Francisco Jacot y algunos ms, quoted in Castillo Lara, Curiepe, orgenes histricos, 43. In this case, white women were not only the vehicles of male honor and dishonor. They also represented the most valuable point of males identity: the ability to reproduce themselves. This ability was seen to be crucial to the maintenance of social form and order. When black rebels reveal intentions of getting white women pregnant, they are doing both: dishonoring white males, and taking control of a new social order that did not include pure whites, just mixed-races such as pardos and mulattoes. See also Alonso, Thread of Blood, 90-6.

395

396

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used to refer to the uprising itself. The second song talked about an uprising with recognized participants like Jos Leonardo as a leader and his people. The verses may also have contained geographical references to the Serrana (flame up) and the city of Coro (flame down) and demonstrated a clear motivation: that of exterminating whites and extending the offspring of blacks through white women. As we showed in previous chapters, violent stories from Saint-Domingue found their way to the mainland before the year 1795. However it is interesting to note that it was only after the rebellion of Coro occurred, that officials said that they understood the meanings of these seditious songs, probably establishing retrospective connections between the Coro black movement and Saint-Domingue stories. Hence, before the uprising of Coro, Saint-Domingue may have been a violent image of a situation as yet not thinkable in the Province. But after it, Saint-Domingue rebellions were transformed into a feared reality. This association made by the officials was also based on the several times that witnesses had heard rebels alluding to the idea of exterminating whites, being left with the women to get them pregnant, and establishing the law of the French. Some historians have argued that it is evident how colonial elites fabricated and invented evidence to support the idea of the influence of the Saint-Domingue insurrection in Coro. However, the officials reported that these verses were sung in public before the rebellion, and at this moment were not intended to be understood by authorities and/or priests. Before the rebellion, the songs functioned as hidden

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transcripts: they were voiced in black dances, and their meanings were addressed to free blacks and slaves. 397 Therefore, they could not all be invented by the elites. But during the rebellion the phrases were used several to threaten whites. It also merits our attention, that these verses did not explicitly demand the exemption of taxes or freedom for the slaves. They clearly demonstrated blacks desire for revenge and alteration of the social order, which is expressed in a violent image of extermination of all white males and sexual possession of white women to get them pregnant with black seeds, perpetuating the black line and establishing a new social order with new laws. In August of 1795, the Real Audiencia de Caracas decided to initiate an investigation into the events of Coro. In order to clarify the chain of events, the members of the Audiencia asked some witnesses from Coro to go to Caracas to testify, while ordering others to send their testimonies. On September 7, 1795, Doa Nicolasa de Acosta, widow of Don Sebastian de Talavera and survivor of the rebel attacks, wrote a letter in which she described the events as she lived them. She affirmed that between 8 and 9 pm on May 11, some colored people came to her house, yelled at her, and asked her to open the door. When not receiving any response, they decided to burn the house. Don Joseph Mara Manzano, a friend who was accompanying her that evening, decided to go out to find out what was going on, and he was immediately
397

For a rich discussion about instruments of transmission of messages in social movements, the transparency and opacity of messages, such as songs, drumming and whistles, see Guha Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency, Chapter 6; on rumor see Allport and Postman, The Psychology of Rumor; on hidden discourses and transcripts, see James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University, 1990).

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killed by the rebels. A slave smashed one of the windows of the house in order to provide an exit for an enslaved sister who served there. Through that same window all the women of the house escaped from the fire. When the enslaved woman asked her brother why they were doing that to innocent people, he answered no white male will remain, not even for their seeds, that white women would have to adapt to their new laws, that slavery was over and so were the alcabalas.398 It demands our attention that at this point, previous to the confrontation with the official troops, some rebels contended that new laws had been established, and freedom for slaves and tax exemption were part of these laws. The idea of exterminating whites males and their seed as an action to be taken by the rebels appears again, and shows clear connections between the aforementioned verses sung in black dances and the rebels discourses during the uprising. These expressions of vengeance and suppressed hatred seem to constitute a discursive strategy either to attract black people to the movement or to threaten the white elites, with a view of forcing them to concede economic and political concessions. On September 23, Mara Dolores Chirino, slave of Don Joseph de Tellera and Jose Leonardo Chirinos wife, was interrogated by the Real Audiencia. After explaining details about the way some rebels came in to the house of her master, she affirmed that she did not know about the rebellion, which took her by surprise. She
398

Que no haba de quedar blanco barn, ni para semilla, que las hembras se havan de acomodar a sus nuevas leyes, que ya no havia esclavitud, ni Alcabalas, in Informe de Doa Nicolasa de Acosta, testigo de la insurreccin de Coro in Documentos de la insurreccin, 112.

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said that she had heard her husband drunk and fighting outside the house where she served, and that when she warned him about the proximity of her master, he answered her: Come on, that is a joke, this woman doesnt know what is going on.399 Later, Chirino and his allies began a fight with the slaves, and when white men came out of the house, they were all murdered by the rebels. Mara Dolores contended that she had heard in her neighborhood that colored rebels were demanding freedom for slaves and exemption from loyal taxes, but that she did not know the real motivations behind this weird situation. This testimony allows us to suspect that, like Mara Dolores, other black women were aware of a general discontent and demands regarding taxation and social injustice, but they ignored or probably denied, in order to avoid suspicion of complicity, the plan of action or the precise nature of the menace. From witnesses testimony, we have found a contrast between an official discourse that highlighted the rebels intentions of following the Law of the French and of creating a republic and the witnesses discourses that, even when mentioning that rebels wanted to follow the Law of the French by killing white males and taking their wives to marry them, contended that the main purposes of the rebellion were freedom and tax exemption. For the people of Coro, the rebels actions of killing whites and burning houses were evidence of the application of the Law of the French, yet we can still wonder whether the rebels wanted to follow this law and

399

Bamos no me vengas con bromas, esta no sabe lo que hay, in Declaracin de Maria Dolores Chirino, 23 de septiembre de 1795, in Documentos de la insurreccin, 116-17.

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establish a republic. Did they really want to create a republic? From official reports, we know that, at the moment of the confrontation with Ramrezs troops, the rebels sent an emissary to negotiate their demands for freedom and tax exemption. If the rebels were particularly interested in forming a republic, they would hardly have sent an emissary to negotiate. They would have confronted the troops in order to take control of the city. In my view, this situation reveals that the rebels used their actions killing some whites and burning their houses and fields - and discourses menacing plans of killing white males and taking their wives to threaten. Their actions reveal that they were not really seeking to create a Republic or an independent state. The violent representations of Saint-Domingue functioned as a way of demanding and provoking changes in their local circumstances. This same representation of Saint-Domingue was perhaps used by Government authorities to repress the rebellion violently and cruelly, and to punish its instigators and leaders. On the morning of December 17, 1796, the free black, Jos Leonardo Chirino, accused of being the head of the rebellion of Coro, was executed. His hands and his head were removed from his warm body and placed in separate boxes. The head, impaled on a pole, was placed at the beginning of the road that connected Caracas, center of the province, to Coro. His hands were sent to officials in Coro who had been ordered to display them at particular sites in the countryside, where Spanish lives had been extinguished by the black rebels. In the end, more than twenty-five black men were killed on the battleground. A similar number were executed without

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proper legal procedure. Fifty-five free black militiamen and nine of their sons were sentenced to naval impressment for a period of ten years. Several dozens of slaves, free blacks and Indians were sentenced to hard labor for periods of five to ten years, while others were exiled to different provinces of the Captaincy and several women were publicly flogged. Spanish officials executed rebels, brutalized the leaders body, and punished suspects in order not only to express the sovereigns power and restore the social order, but also to set an example and demonstrate the high cost of insurgency.

4. Saint-Domingue as a Language of Contention

Eugene Genovese argues that slaves uprisings in the Americas underwent a transformation from restorationist to truly revolutionary movements around the time of the Haitian revolution. According to him, this trajectory explains how rebel demands and goals changed over time, from separatist movements based on African political and social patterns to subaltern interpretations of the modern and bourgeois independent state. Genovese assigns importance to those rebellions that, like the Haitian Revolution, aimed to eradicate the white power structure and create a black independent state. Thinking of the rebellion of Coro in terms of Genoveses model seems problematic because the slaves and free colored people did not want to recreate an African-based order nor a black republic. The scores of testimonies stating that

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rebels killed white men, and damaged and sacked their properties in order to demand freedom for slaves and taxes exemptions carried an implicit understanding that slaves and free people of color sought to create a new society, with a new racial and social order. Apparently, none of the witnesses testified to a rebels desires to create republic or to restore an African-based society, and yet it is clear that the rebels sought a fundamental restructuring of society: one in which they could be free and would not pay taxes. However, it seems clear that the rebels could have used the creation of a republic or the intention of exterminating all whites males as discourses to threaten their enemies and negotiate their demands. Ramn Aizpurua suggests that to kill whites, blacks rebels [of Coro] did not need the example of the haitians, as they had their own experience of suffering the exploitation, abuse, and insults for more than two hundred years.400 I quite understand that, simply taking in account their own experiences and sufferings, slaves and free coloreds everywhere had sufficient reasons to resist and to rebel. But, on the other hand, throughout this chapter I have shown that blacks rebels certainly needed and used Saint-Domingue and its violent references also known to white elites - not necessarily as an example or model, but as a menace, as a mere possibility, as a way to call attention in part of the whites, and also as a language of contention.

400

Aizpurua, La insurreccin de los negros de la serrana de Coro, 717.

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In Bondmen and Rebels, D.B. Gaspar contends that the existence of a cultural distance between black slaves and white masters could lead the latter to read planned subversion into innocuous activities of slaves.401 White fear and paranoia existed and manufactured many things, and was used to justify repression, but could not slaves read that fear in their masters eyes? How large could the cultural distance between the two be? For the Spanish authorities in Venezuela, the Saint-Domingue rebellion was the breeding ground for many problems: the republican disease that sought to overthrow the monarchical system, and the abolitionist disease that aimed to end slavery and eliminate the traditional social and economic order. By controlling the entry of texts and people from France and Saint-Domingue, the elites sought to prevent the spread of the republican disease in the provinces.402 Nevertheless, SaintDomingue was a close reality and a close example of what could happen in a racebased society. News and rumors about Saint-Domingue spread all over the provinces of the captaincy. Elites read and talked about Saint-Domingue, and free colored people and slaves did so too. The cultural distance between masters and slaves was not great enough to isolate elites rumors and fears from the slaves ears and perceptions. The
401

Gaspar, Bondmen and Rebels, Chapters 9-10.

402

In his work regarding colonial India, Ranajit Guha argues that peasant rumors, propaganda, and subversive utterances could be read as sedition and planned subversion by imperial authorities. Indian elites created metaphors that conceptualized the state as a body, and rebellions as diseases that attack the political body. Like a disease, rebels ideas were spread all over, contaminating the rest of common people, like peasants. Elites saw symptoms of the diseases in their peasants words and actions; their fear manufactured events and actions and applied different kinds of repression to these groups because this was the only way to prevent and/ or protect themselves from rebels actions. Guha Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency.

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knowledge of Saint-Domingue was perhaps a hinge that connected elites and subalterns: elites feared Saint-Domingue, and slaves and coloreds recognized white fear, and used Saint-Domingue to express their anger and make their demands. SaintDomingue, therefore, functioned as a language of contention. In a letter written to the Real Audiencia, in December, 1796 one year and a half later - the Governor of Venezuela, recognized that the real cause of the rebellion of Coro was
The negligence of the masters of the Haciendas of the Valley, who have not provided slaves with the necessary Christian and political education and care, they [slaves] abandoned in their passions, violently razed to the ground everything they encountered.403

Therefore, the recommendations to prevent other possible slave uprisings continued to be the control of seditious ideas coming from the revolutionized Atlantic, but also the need to increase control and vigilance strategies also in the subtle form of education - over the black population. In fact, in the subsequent years after the rebellion, several measures were taken by the authorities and the elites of the region of Coro in order to impede black insurgency. Elites definitely did not trust their slaves anymore, and this even affected manumission. In the period of 1750-1810 there were a total 289 cases of manumission in Coro; 46.7 percent of these cases were manumission by testament, which is when
403

Que el unico origen de aquella sublevacion (), ha sido la negligencia de los dueos de las Haciendas del mismo Valle en la educacin y cuidado christiano y politico de los esclavos y dependientes, que abandonados a sus pasiones, arrasaron violentamente todo lo que encontraban, in Informe de Carbonell a la Real Audiencia, 26 de diciembre de 1796, AGI, Estado 58, no. 7.

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in the will, an individual decided to grant freedom to his/her slaves as an expression of gratefulness, or as an ultimate expression of Christian charity. Between the years 1795-1799 the cases of manumissions were completely suspended in the region of Coro, probably as a way of showing the lack of confidence in the part of whites to their slaves, or as a way of punishing slaves for their rebelliousness. In this sense, the rebellion made masters less prone to freeing their slaves.404 Colonial authorities also promoted important changes regarding the establishment of a new Military Command in the region of Coro, and the promulgation of new articles addressed to control the functioning of haciendas, the treatment of the slaves by their masters, and the presence of the Church in the Serrana of Coro. In October 27 1798, a Real Cedula assigned Andrs Boggiero as the new Commander of Coro, whose responsibility was to maintain the military, political and civil order of the region, and to apply the forty-seven articles of the Real Cedula. These articles were directed to different individuals such as the shopkeepers, fathers of family, mayordomos, hacendados, free blacks and slaves. One of the articles stated that the Commander should restrict the festivities of blacks who every Saturday night and even on weekdays get together to dance and sing. If the commander give them permission to do so, the slaves should talk and sing in our language, which is well-

404

Blanca De Lima, Libertades en la Jurisdiccin de Coro, 1750-1850, Maongo, no. 23, Vol. XII, Julio Diciembre, 2004, and personal communication with author July, 2007.

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known by them.405 In this way, the authorities intended to control the communicational strategies and codes to be used among the slaves, preventing the planning of an insurrection. Another article, ordered the establishment of a Catholic church in the Valley of Curimagua where the insurrection took place and the frequent presence of priests to give mass and to teach the Christian doctrine to the black population, so these communities could live in order and appropriate subordination. Likewise, the Real Cedula suggested masters to control the meetings between slaves and free blacks of the region, especially if they are not married, as well as encouraging free blacks to live in the recently founded town of Caburo, where there is a Church, and from were they could go everyday to the Valley in order to earn their jornales.406 In the following article, the decree states:
The Commander will take all the necessary measures to prevent that free mulattos, zambos and blacks pervert the slaves of this region, upon which they had have great influence until recently. This influence was the main cause of the black insurrection of 1795407

It is clear that the response of the colonial authorities to the black insurrection of Coro was the increase of control and vigilance over the black population of the region. However, there was also a group of measures that were directed to controlling the authorities of the region, especially tax collectors, administrators of the Cajas
405

Real Cdula sobre el establecimiento en Coro de una Comandancia Militar, como consecuencia del Movimiento Revolucionario de Jos Mara Chirino, 27/10/1798 AGN, Diversos, LXXV, 139-153. Ibid. Ibid.

406 407

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Reales, and lawyers who should be vigilant of appropriate execution of legal procedures. These articles ordered tax collectors to retrieve from the population the exact amounts of commercial taxes, tributes or aranceles approved by the King, and also demanded the Commander to keep an eye on the abuses that tax collectors might commit. Several articles were established to control judicial procedures, giving a central role to the Real Audiencia, which must be vigilant that everyone implicate in any case should follow the appropriate legal process, especially in criminal cases. An article stated that secretaries must elaborate written testimony of any civil or criminal case, and the report should be sent directly to the Real Audiencia. All these articles allows us to appreciate that the new Captain General, Manuel Guevara Vasconcelos, knew that blacks were not the only social group to blame of the events of Coro, and that all the population - white elites, colonial authorities and subalterns - needed to be controlled and reprimanded. It is still not clear whether the rebels of Coro wanted to follow the Law of the French to its ultimate consequences. What it is clear is that the elites interpreted the rebellion as a local expression of Saint-Domingue influences and Republican values, and rebels used those interpretations to threaten them and pursue their goals. In February 1801, Don Agustn Yraola, an hacendado in la Serrana wrote a report in which he stated that the news of the invasion of Toussaint to the Spanish part of Santo Domingo spread, and that local blacks joyfully cheered each other with refrains about

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Toussaint and his triumphs.408 In March, 1801 the same hacendado wrote a letter to the Governor of Coro in which he expressed his worries: slaves and colored people of La Serrana were joyfully celebrating the invasion of Santo Domingo by black Toussain409 and white families of the Serrana were moving to the city because, since the events of the rebellion, they feared those blacks celebrations. Slaves and free colored people were indeed aware of the latest events occurring in Haiti and Spanish Santo Domingo. They celebrated the circumstances while the elites only felt terrible fears.

408

Carta de Andrs Boggiero al Capitn General de Venezuela, 24/2/1801 AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XCV, 217. Sobre recibimientos de las noticias de Santo Domingo por los negros de Coro, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XCVI, 115, 152 and 225.

409

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CHAPTER V

Texts, Readings and Social Networks in the Conspiracy of La Guaira, 1797

On July 13 1797, the Captain General and Governor of Venezuela, Don Pedro Carbonell heard the first rumors about the planning of a republican movement in which hundreds of people from Caracas and La Guaira were supposedly implicated. The rumor of the conspiracy had traveled by way of particular channels that are worth commenting. Manuel Montesinos y Rico, a merchant in Caracas, and a participant in the conspiracy, told his barber, Juan Jos Chirinos, a militia pardo who worked in the barbershop of Jos Antonio Landaeta, that there was a group of people in La Guaira and Caracas planning a republican movement based in the principles of equality and liberty. On this occasion, Montesinos even provided Chirinos with a copy of a republican song, the Soneto Americano, and encouraged him to copy it and pass it along in order to gain more people to join the movement.410 What Montesinos did was not particularly risky or delicate because in the porttown of La Guaira, where the movement had a significant number of supporters, barbers and artisans were among the social groups attracted to a political project that was based on social equality and justice. Montesinos probably thought that the barber in Caracas would also be interested in participating in the movement and would be
410

Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 149.

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eager to share the news and the text with those of his class and calidad. Unfortunately for him and his co-conspirators, Montesinos was wrong.411 Chirinos shared the rumor of insurrection with two other barbers and militamen, Franciso Javier de Len and Juan Antonio Ponte. Juan Antonio Ponte went to Fray Juan Antonio Ravelo, ex-provincial of the Convent of San Francisco, and told him everything he had heard. That same afternoon, accompanied by the three barbers, Ravelo went to the house of the priest Juan Vicente Echeverra, former dean of the University, and told him about the plans of the insurgent movement. The Priest recommended them to keep the rumor in secret, while he communicated the news to the Governor and decided on a course of action. However, Chirinos also shared the information with another priest, Don Domingo Lander, who together with Echeverra and Ravelo went to the Bishops house. There, the three priests told the Bishop everything they knew about the conspiracy and the danger it represented to the Catholic religion, the Monarchy and the people. They all decided to communicate the news to Governor Carbonell.412

411

In a report about the causes of the Conspiracy of La Guaira, the priest Jos Ignacio Moreno commented that many people in La Guaira were influenced by the revolutionary ideas of liberty and equality that easily entered the coast, but he said that in Caracas the seed of republicanism had not yet been planted. In his opinion, Montesinos was wrong to think that he could win the fidelity of the people of Caracas for the revolutionary cause. See Observaciones de un ciudadano sobre la conspiracin descubierta en Caracas, el da 13 de Julio de 1797, y de los medios a que ocurrir el Gobierno para asegurar en lo sucesivo a sus habitants de iguales insultos por Jos Ignacio Moreno, 22/03/1798, AGI, Estado, 58, no. 24. Ibid., 150.

412

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The night of July 13, Carbonell received the terrible news. Concerned about the danger that this republican movement represented, he called some of the highest colonial authorities the Lieutenant of the King, Don Joaqun de Zubillaga; the Regent of the Real Audiencia, Don Antonio Lpez Quintana and the oidor, Don Juan de Pedroza and, jointly, they decided to capture Don Manuel Montesinos and to begin a formal inquiry process in order to discover the conspiracys participants, their origins, ideals, and procedures.413 Immediately after the conspiracy was uncovered, several members of the Real Audiencia and other colonial Authorities formed what was known as the Real Acuerdo, a group of oidores and commissioners entrusted with the responsibility of undertaking the inquiry and discovering the participants, their motives, the dimensions, and significance of the subversive movement. Right from the beginning, members of the Real Acuerdo discovered that the conspiracy had three main leaders: the Spanish prisoner Juan Picornell, and the white creoles Don Jos Mara Espaa and Don Manuel Gual.414 They also believed that the movement was the result of several circumstances; including the influence of the French and American Revolutions, as well as, the political confusion created by the struggles occurring in the Caribbean region.415

413 414

Ibid., 149-50; also Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

Ibid., Harris Gaylord, The Early Revolutionary Career of Juan Mariano Picornell, The Hispanic American Historical Review 22, no. 1 (1942): 57-81; and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro. Informe de la Real Audiencia de Caracas sobre sublevacin, 8/8/1797, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 233.

415

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Soon they also found out that the conspiracy had its origin in the port of La Guaira, and this reconfirmed their idea that the coast of tierra firme had been ideologically contaminated. Members of the Real Audiencia had a suspicion that one of the roots of the conspiracy was the significant presence and influence of foreigners that came from different regions of the Caribbean to the Port of La Guaira. In an informe written one week after the discovery of the movement, members of the Real Audiencia contended that the entry and exit to and from the port of many foreigners who carried ideas of liberty and equality generated a permissive and liberal environment that allowed revolutionary voices to be heard frequently on the streets and in public spaces. Also, written texts from France and Saint Domingue spread the false seeds of equality and liberty, introducing an anarchy presented as the source of an imaginary happiness that seemed real to all simple people.416 For the colonial authorities, it was clear from the beginning that the flexible and liberal atmosphere of La Guaira was fertile ground for the emergence of a movement that followed the French model, and went against the Monarchical system, slavery and the harmony and order of society. Historians of the Conspiracy of Gual and Espaa agree that the main goals of the movement were various, and that the establishment of free trade, the abolition of slavery with compensation to slaves owners, the elimination of Indian tributes and

416

Informe de la Real Audiencia de Caracas sobre la sublevacin que se ha descubierto en aquella Capital, 18/7/1797, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 232.

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the abolition of taxes, were among the most important ones. The movement also argued in favor of harmony between whites, pardos, Indians, and blacks, because all of them were seen as brothers in Jesus Christ. Gual and Espaa, both white creoles, obtained remarkable support from a group of pardos and whites, small merchants, royal officials, soldiers, and artisans from La Guaira and Caracas, with whom they shared a rich network of information related to the ideas of revolution, equality, and republican principles. The enormous quantity of documents produced by the Colonial State in the inquiry revealed that the conspirators produced and shared a considerable number of documents designed to instruct their followers in the Republican principles of the movement.417 Among these documents were proclamations of insurrection, poems, stories, songs, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, as well as other interesting revolutionary documents from France, Spain, Saint Domingue and Guadeloupe that represent fundamental sources for an understanding of the political roots of the conspiracy, but that also provide a favorable vantage point for understanding the diverse strategies used to impart political knowledge to the population and prompt their mobilization. 418 Based on the examination of the modes of communication,

417

These court records, known as Expediente de la Conspiracin de Gual y Espaa, are housed in the Archivo General de Indias (AGI), section Caracas, bounds 427 436. Aizpurua mentions that the Archivo General de la Nacin in Caracas also has several copies and originals of these records. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro. Through an analysis of diverse texts written by the conspirators, Adriana Hernndez offers an interesting study on the local adaptations of republicanism and the ideals of liberty and equality. See Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa.

418

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political knowledge and popular movements during the Age of Revolution, this chapter seeks to analyze the social dynamics and the processes of transmission of knowledge that could have promoted the emergence of the subversive movement of La Guaira in 1797. I aim to look into the way in which written materials were adapted to local conditions for the transmission of knowledge, intersecting with social networks of communication and with the colonial political context. There is a significant number of works in Venezuelan historiography that have studied the conspiracy of La Guaira of 1797 from different perspectives and with diverse purposes. However, as Ramn Aizpurua has recently suggested, many of these works have oversimplified the conspiracy depicting it, basically, as a preindependence movement, more radical and republican than the independence movement of 1810 itself.419 As happened with the Black rebellion of Coro, studying the Republican conspiracy of 1797 under the shadow of the subsequent movement of Independence not only obscures its real motivations, plan of action and achievements, but also leaves aside important aspects regarding the unique social composition and

419

See Jos Gil Fortoul, Historia constitucional de Venezuela (Caracas: Ministerio de Educacin, 1954); Pedro Grases, Derechos del hombre y del ciudadano (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1959), and La conspiracin de Gual y Espaa y el ideario de la independencia (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1997); Al Enrique Lpez Bohorquez, ed., Manuel Gual y Jos Mara Espaa: valoracin mltiple de la conspiracin de La Guaira de 1797 (Caracas: Comisin Presidencial del Bicentenario de Gual y Espaa, 1997); Joseph Prez, Los movimientos precursores de la emancipacin en Hispanoamrica (Madrid: Alhambra, 1977); and Lynch, The Spanish American Revolutions. Also see books and articles compiled in the CD-Rom: Doscientos aos: conspiracin Gual y Espaa, CD-Rom (1997; Caracas: Archivo General de la Nacin - Comisin Presidencial del Bicentenario de la Conspiracin de Gual y Espaa).

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complexity of the movement, its ideological influences and procedures regarding communication networks, strategies, and its political base. More recent studies have cut away these artificial threads that link the conspiracy of Gual and Espaa and the Independence movement, and provide a more cautious, detailed and particularized interpretation of the conspiracy itself. 420 A recent study made up of four essays by historians Juan Carlos Rey, Rogelio Prez Perdomo, Ramn Aizpurua, and Adriana Hernndez analyzes, for example, the political roots of the movement, its social complexity, its ideological force and its significance for the Colonial State. In this volume, two works, one by Ramn Aizpurua and the other by Adriana Hernndez, offer interesting perspectives that examine the movement from within, connecting it not with subsequent events, but with the local colonial context and analyzing it taking into account the larger Caribbean political scenario and social context. In his work, Ramn Aizpurua offers us a detailed analysis of all the testimonies of the Conspiracys participants, and paints an extremely interesting picture of the social composition and networks upon which the movement was structured. His work allows us to understand the motivations, aspirations, and frustrations of diverse groups of men and women that gathered to discuss their political and economic concerns and social conceptions, and that ended up generating alliances based on apparently

420

Rey and others, eds., Gual y Espaa.

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common cause.421 Aizpurua argues that the incompatibility of the different political agendas advanced by each group of conspirators could have been one of the reasons for the failure of the movement. In this way, Aizpurua invites us to revisit the conspiracy from the perspective of an insider, and, although he recognizes the limits and problems that testimonial sources represent, his minucious study provides us with a realistic picture of racial rivalries, social confrontation and resentments, and political aspirations in Venezuela during the Age of Revolution.422 Although it is pointless to characterize the conspiracy as a pre-independence movement, after reading Aizpuruas work, it seems impossible to understand the independence movement itself without considering his hypothesis that the conspiracys failure was the result of diverging agendas, and the impact it had in the colonial state and among the population at large. In this chapter, I use Aizpuruas

421

Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

422

Aizpurua suggests, as have other historians, that court records are a valuable and necessary source for recovering subaltern voices from the past, that might not otherwise be heard. While not underestimating the limitations of these records, Aizpurua shows that examining such evidence responsibly can make a critical difference in accounting for the activities of political agitators visible and legible. In fact, the stories of the insurgents chose to tell can be instructive in their own right, subtly inviting us to see movements, communicational strategies and social networks. See, for example, his note on the testimony of one of the conspirators, Juan Rusiol, who seemed to have been under the threat of torture. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 228, note 22. The historiography of slave conspiracies has produced interesting debates on the use of reliable sources. Winthrop Jordan, for example writes: the central document is a written record, produced by a white planter in his own handwriting, of what he thought he heard some slaves say under unusual and extremely stressful circumstances. Jordan emphasizes that readers are not hearing the direct voices of slaves, but rather their voices filtered through the hearing and writing of a white elite. See Jordan, Tumult and Silence, 28. Also see, for example, the debate over the Denmark Vesey Conspiracy of 1822 in the special issue of the William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 1 (2002), and Aisha Finchs study on the Cuban conspiracy of La Escalera, Insurgency at the Crossroads: Cuban Slaves and the Conspiracy of La Escalera, 1841-44 (PhD diss., New York University, 2007).

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work as a starting point for analyzing the distinctive ways in which different actors and social groups participating in the movement produced a common language and shared the same webs of information. I am interested in understanding the communicational strategies and discursive formulas that these groups used in order to recruit people of different races, social status and educational backgrounds. Adriana Hernndezs essay offers an interesting analysis on how Republicanism was adapted to the Venezuelan context.423 Her work is particularly focused in the study of the programmatic documents of the conspiracy, that is: all the documentation that the conspirators produced in order to explain the motivations, goals and procedures of the movement, to recruit people and to build the Republic. Hernndez explains how pivotal revolutionary concepts such as liberty and equality suffered transformations at the local level. Her work also allows us to explore how conspirators felt and perceived their realities and the conspiracy itself. In this chapter, I share Hernndezs interest in dissecting the political base of the movement through the reading and analysis of some of the texts the conspirators produced, but I also aim at uncovering the influence of political ideas from the Revolutionary Caribbean in the La Guaira conspiracy. Like Hernndez, I believe that the La Guaira Conspiracy offered a new view of racial and social equality, with the necessary regeneration of a civic corpus that integrates the whole population; here I argue that not only the French and the American Revolutions, but also the Haitian Revolution was used to enrich the
423

Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa.

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political landscape and spark the curiosity and imagination of the people of color in the Province of Venezuela.424 In this chapter I work with historiographic sources and primary documentation. Most of the primary documentation has been drawn from the court records housed in the Archivo General de Indias, and particularly from the Expediente of the Conspiracy. Although these trial records have been examined by previous historians, and continue to be examined by current historians who are offering new and refreshing interpretations, in this chapter I aim to offer a new focus centered on the written materials that fed the movement, and also on the texts produced and shared by the conspirators. I would like to show not only how the insurgents used specific narrative formulas to spread knowledge among different social groups, but also show that the written materials that conspirators of La Guaira produced were influenced by Caribbean revolutionary events and representations. 425

424

Venezuelan traditional historiography has not paid enough attention to the influence that Caribbean turmoil had in the Conspiracy of La Guaira. Most of these works assume that the conspirators leaders (Juan Picornell, Manuel Gual and Jos Mara Espaa) were directly influenced by French revolutionary ideals and republican ideologies, but they do not mention anything about the groups of people of color that participated in the movement and their sources of knowledge, nor anything about how French colonial visitors, prisoners and refugees could have influenced people in different towns of the Province of Venezuela. For this chapter, I have particularly revised documentation that contains information regarding written materials and reading practices, especially bounds 430, 432, 434 and 436. AGI, Caracas, 427436.

425

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1. The Revolutionary Port of La Guaira: Social Groups, Reading Circles and the Emergence of a Conspiracy

The coastal port-town of La Guaira, almost devoid of land to be developed, and bathed by the Caribbean, became one of the most important ports of the Province Venezuela during the seventeenth century, when cacao constituted one of the main export staples of the Province. During the eighteenth century, the Guipuzcoana Company was established in la Guaira with a monopoly for shipping and commercializing cacao in the Spanish market and with the idea of curbing the prevalent contraband.426 During this period of time, the port of La Guaira became an important trading center: through this port, manufactured goods, cloths and wheat entered the Province of Venezuela, and tropical agricultural products such as tobacco, indigo, and, especially, cacao were sent overseas. The influence of this sourceintensive commodity on the economy of the region was impressive, transforming the port of La Guaira into an important trading center in the region. In fact it has been demonstrated that the connection Spain-La Guaira represented 90 percent of the legal

426

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the crown received reports that described contraband activities between Venezuelan merchants and the Dutch, therefore the companys emergence was closely related to the Dutch presence in Curaao and their illegal trade with the Province. See Roland Dennis Hussey, The Caracas Company, 1728-1784; Eugenio Piero, The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas.

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commercial activity of the Province of Venezuela during the last decade of the eighteenth century. La Guaira was, in fact, the legal port of the Province of Caracas.427 La Guaira was a major setting for social interaction between people of different origins and nationalities. People from different regions of the Atlantic world arrived to La Guaira in order to pursue commercial activities or to settle in the General Captaincy of Venezuela. Atlantic historiography has recognized the importance that ports and port-cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had for the consolidation of the Atlantic commercial economy and for the social-political integration of the Americas - especially Latin America and the Caribbean regions into the broader western economy. As we mentioned in previous chapters, ports and port-towns were places where different languages and cultures intersected, where commercial exchanges took place and where, of course, information arrived permanently and spread easily. During the eighteenth century, the Port of La Guaira followed this model, it was a place where not only merchandise was traded, including African slaves, but where people with different backgrounds and origins, met and exchanged information and ideas.428
427

See McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia, Chapter 4; Eduardo Arcila Faras, Economa colonial de Venezuela, Vols. 2, 2th ed. (Caracas: Italgrfica, 1973), p. 97; Hussey, The Caracas Company, 1728-1784; and Piero, The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas. In fact, some historians argue that Caracas received European goods through La Guaira that were either consumed in the city or distributed to others towns; Caracas also provided storage for local agricultural products that were transported to La Guaira to be exported to Europe. The port of La Guaira, also received products directly from other areas such as the coast of Barlovento and the central coast (Litoral Central). See Catalina Banko, El capital comercial en La Guaira y Caracas (1821-1848) (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1990), 340-43. See Knight and Liss, Atlantic Port Cities.

428

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Like many other Caribbean cities, La Guaira expanded as a result of both its central position in Venezuelas legal trade, and its military role in the defense of tierra firme. Attacked by buccaneers and by the English, Dutch, and French armadas, La Guaira was also transformed into a fortified and walled city. Located at the entrance to tierra firme and being the most important port serving the city of Caracas, La Guaira played a fundamental role in the military protection of the region: in fact the highest rank military posts in Venezuela were the colonel of the Caracas Battalion, and the Commanders in the ports of Puerto Cabello and La Guaira. From the seventeenth century, colonial authorities recognized the importance of protecting La Guaira from possible invasions, and for controlling smuggling activities promoted by buccaneers and pirates; between 1660 and 1700 various fortresses were built, such as: the fort of Catia La Mar, the fort del Peon, fort El Colorado, fort El Zamuro and fort el Gaviln. All these military constructions transformed La Guaira into a great fortress that allowed it to control an important extension of the coast from the hills where the fortresses were located. The eighteenth century also represented a period of major investment in the fortification of La Guaira, and these projects brought employment to hundreds of local workers and artisans, while also leading to the recruitment of many slaves. In 1764, the Governor and Captain General, Don Jos Solano, wrote: the port of La Guaira is defended by several batteries on the shore, and these are connected by a wall to two more batteries on the hills of the town.429 Between 1790 and 1799,

429

Quoted by Luis Enrique Gonzlez, La Guayra, conquista y colonia (Caracas: Grafarte, 1982), 157.

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approximately 800 militiamen (infantry and artillery officials, non-commissioned offices and paid soldiers) served in La Guaira.430 The French agent, Jean Franois Dauxion Lavaysse, visited the port-town of La Guaira during the first decade of the nineteenth century and described it as a badly built town, but tolerably well fortified. He mentioned that La Guaira was the commercial port of Caracas, separated from it by a distance of five leagues. According to him there was a population of approximately seven thousand souls in 1807, and a garrison of eight hundred men. He ends his short description of La Guaira, saying before the revolution, La Guaira did not have a Governor, it was governed by the commander of the fortress, who united [in] his person the civil and military authority.431 The British merchant and traveler, Robert Semple, spent some days in La Guaira in 1810. Referring to its population, he wrote: The population of La Guaira is reckoned to be about eight thousand, of all colors. Of these comparatively few are Europeans, or even white creoles, a far greater proportion being people of color.432 In general terms, the population of the region of La Guaira during the last decades of the eighteenth century resembled the social composition of the rest of Province of

430

Gary Miller, Status and Royalty of Regular Army Officers in Late Colonial Venezuela, The Hispanic American Historical Review 66, no. 4 (1986): 667-96; and Gonzlez, La Guayra. By Revolution, he meant the movement of Independence in 1811. Dauxion Lavaysse, A Statistical, Commercial and Political Description of Venezuela, Trinidad, 55-6. Semple, Sketch of the Present State of Caracas, 35.

431

432

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Venezuela: there was an important proportion (approximately 50 percent) of free colored population (pardos, morenos and mulattos), more than 20 percent were black slaves, approximately 10 percent were Indians and 15 percent were whites (Spanish and Creoles). The proportion of white and black populations varied between rural regions and urban centers: nearby haciendas of cacao located in the coast had an important number of black slaves and less white population, while in urban centers and towns the proportion of white population and free mixed-races increased. The population of La Guaira was diverse and heterogeneous: travelers noticed however that there were less white Europeans and white creoles than people of color. 433 Most of the white elite families were occupied supervising the production of their haciendas in the nearby areas, but they were also occupied in commercial activities. The number of Spanish and white merchants increased rapidly once free trade was established and the Guizpuzcoana company ceased its operations. With Free trade established, many of these white men, former employees of the Basque company, gained economic independence and political power, were to control the operations of the Port and exercise decisive military influence.434

433 434

Ibid., 35; also see Gonzlez, La Guayra; and McKinley, Caracas antes de la independencia.

For example, Martn Antonio de Goenaga, Francisco Sinza, Juan Xavier Arrambide, and Jos Montesinos Rico, all of them merchants of the Port. Jos Mara Espaa, and Fermn Medina were hacendados in La Guaira. Also Agustn Garca, commander of La Guaira, Juan Jos Mendiri, royal accountant and guardamayor of the port, and Joaqun Sorondo, an employer of the Real Hacienda. See Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

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There was also an important presence of free people of color who autonomously produced food, goods and provided services in La Guaira. There were artisans of color black, pardo and zambo carpenters, masons, and barbers and small merchants pulperos and bodegueros that directly and indirectly participated in the economic development of La Guaira. There were also independent peasants, sharecroppers, and muleteers that cultivated and transported fruits and vegetables close to La Guaira, and also transported goods and people from La Guaira to Caracas, and viceversa. There were free women of color who worked as domestic service, laundresses and seamstresses. Slave men, women and children worked in agriculture in the nearby haciendas, or as domestic service, as well as in construction, petty trade and port activities in the town.435 Like in other cities of the Province of Venezuela, all of these social groups experienced tensions and frictions, tensions that were based on the differentiated participation in political decisions and social status, as well as on racial distinctions and inequality. Many elite creoles, for example, envied the privileges of the Spanishborn, but at times these two groups were brought closer together by their common economic and commercial interests. In the same way, pardos resented the way whites treated them, but when the philosophy of the Enlightenment and the circumstances of the French Caribbean islands made their way into the port-town of La Guaira, both
435

For example, Narciso Del Valle (barber in La Guaira), Andrs Renoir (hairdresser and jeweler in La Guaira), Josefina Acosta (domestic in La Guaira), Martn Amador and Juan de Andueza (both bodegueros). See Reservada entre el Comandante Interior de La Guaira y el Gobernador de Caracas, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LIX, 268. See also Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

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these groups started talking openly about revolution, espousing the ideals of equality and liberty, and finding a common interest in uniting and planning an insurrection. In a previous chapter, I showed that the presence of almost one thousand prisoners, refugees and slaves from Martinique and Saint Domingue during the years 1793-1795 did not pass unnoticed among the inhabitants of La Guaira, who frequently held discussions about the events of the French Islands, and used these examples to express their inconformity with the system, emphasizing the need to transform it. Several reports of observers of La Guaira mentioned that the presence of these unwanted French and Dominguans visitors created the ideal environment for a conspiracy. For example, a report sent by the Real Audiencia to Spain in August 1797 three weeks after the conspiracy was uncovered stated that La Guaira was affected by the presence of more than eight hundred prisoners and slaves that had been sent by the Governor of Santo Domingo, adding although they were isolated, this was not enough to impede their contact with the Spanish; some of these [Spanish] loved them, and the enunciations and phrases of these prisoners influenced them, especially the young population of both sexes and from all classes.436 Also, Jos Mara Reina, accountant of the Port in 1796, commented that during the time of his stay in La Guaira he noticed that it was necessary to control the vices so typical of port-towns, where the diversity of nationalities promotes corruption, disorder and
436

Real Audiencia informa a V.M. con mas extensin y documentos lo que va resultando del proceso concerniente a la conjuracin que se empez a descubrir en la noche del 13 de julio de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 233.

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insubordination. He observed that the colonial rule was flexible and permissive, but what ended opening up the floodgates of popular passion was the arrival of more than nine hundred French republican prisioners from Santo Domingo who, despite the vigilance, had relatively free relations with the general public.437 In 1797, the priest and dean of the University of Caracas, Jos Ignacio Moreno wrote a long statement about the motivations of the Conspiracy of 1797, also recommending measures to prevent new conspiracies. In this text, Moreno clearly stated that the prisoners and slaves sent from Santo Domingo to La Guaira inflamed the fire of sedition among the population of La Guaira, which since 1794 had been receiving news and texts from France and the turbulent French colonies.438 Numerous declarations and testimonies of the accused and witnesses of the conspiracy confirm this idea of the influence of the French visitors on the conspiracy of La Guaira. Aizpurua, for example, offers several accounts of Spanish, white creoles and pardos confirming that different people in La Guaira had contact with the prisoners and were receptive to their political ideas. Jos de Rusiol, sergeant of the Battallion of Caracas stationed in La Guaira and one of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, commented that he saw a general inclination of the people of La Guaira to embrace the maxims of liberty and equality, observing that people talked openly

437 438

Informe de Jos Mara Reina, 15 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 430, no. 44.

See Observaciones de un ciudadano sobre la conspiracin descubierta en Caracas, el da 13 de Julio de 1797, y de los medios a que ocurrir el Gobierno para asegurar en lo sucesivo a sus habitants de iguales insultos por Jos Ignacio Moreno, Agosto, 1797 AGI, Estado, 58, no. 24.

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and without any caution about the establishment of a Republic.439 Likewise, witnesses and suspects of the conspiracy of La Guaira noticed that some people in the port even had friendship with the prisoners. Jos Manuel Del Pino, a pardo involved in the conspiracy, declared that Narciso Del Valle, a pardo barber of La Guaira, was friends with two French officials who were imprisoned, one Monsieur Franqu and another one named Rouseau, or Rossel.440 Another pardo, Jos Cordero, declared that Del Valle commented that some of the French prisoners had the intention of provoking a revolution in this Province, and he knew this because his friend Monsieur Fronqu had told him so. In a revealing testimony, Jos Mara Espaa asserted that when the French prisoners of Santo Domingo arrived
They started talking favorably about the Republican government and about the new system adopted by the French, about the articles that emanated from the convention, and consequently they showed their hatred for our constitution. In this way, they expressed themselves to the pueblo, but particularly to those who were in direct contact with them, such as Narciso Del Valle, Jos de Rusiol, Don Joaquin Sorondo, Don Manuel Gual, Don Joseph Antonio and myself.441

In this testimony, Espaa mentioned the names of individuals that were part of social groups that held meetings and discussions about political matters; people who shared readings, copied and circulated texts, and who were involved in the planning of the republican conspiracy in La Guaira and Caracas. Most historians agree that a
439

Declaracin de Jos de Rusiol, del 10 de noviembre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 430, no. 51, quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 250. Declaracin de Manuel del Pino, 14 de noviembre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 431, no. 64, quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 253. Declaracin de Jos Mara Espaa del 2 de mayo de 1798, AGI, 433, no. 91.

440

441

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socially heterogeneous group planned and supported the conspiracy of La Guaira. According to Casto Fulgencio Lpez, there were two main groups of supporters: the group of La Guaira, led by Jos Mara Espaa and the group of Caracas, led by Manuel Gual. However, a closer look at the expediente and its considerable number of testimonies, reveals a more complex web of social relations, upon which the conspiracy was built. The study of Aizpurua provides us with a fairly clear idea of how the different social groups were conformed, what kind of threads connected them as well as their roles in the conspiracy. Aizpurua shows that these groups not only responded to geographical areas - La Guaira and Caracas -, but to other criteria such as occupation, racial identity and calidad. In first place, there was a group of people in La Guaira who were in contact with Jose Mara Espaa, a white creole born in La Guaira in 1761 but temporary raised in Bayonne (France). Espaa was the Corregidor of the town of Macuto a small town near La Guaira , he owned and managed some haciendas of cacao and coffee in Naiguat and possessed several houses in the towns of Macuto and La Guaira. He was recognized as an educated and enlightened person with a copious library and diverse intellectual interests. High-ranking white Spanish and creole officials, hacendados and merchants of La Guaira met around Espaa, conforming reading circles where books and texts circulated, and having discussions about the French and the American revolutions, and

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about the turbulence in the French colonies.442 Among these were high ranking officials like Don Agustn Garca, commander of La Guaira who used to attend these meetings until his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel.443 Juan Jos Mendiri, the interim accountant and Guardamayor of the Port, Patricio Ronn, an Irishman Lieutenant of the Royal Corps of Engineers and Extraordinary commander in La Guaira, and Juan Lartigue de Cond, a Frenchman who was captain of the corps of engineers of La Guaira. There were also other lower rank characters who belonged to the military body of La Guaira that also attended the meetings and contributed to the conspiracy by recruiting people and connecting different groups. This was the case of Jos Rusiol, a man from Catalua, second Sergeant of the Caracas veteran battalion stationed in La Guaira; Bonifacio Amezcaray, second Lieutenant of the Royal Army ships, and Joaqun Sorondo, an employee in the Real Hacienda, among others.444 The white creole Manuel Gual also attended some of these meetings and exchanged information and news between the different regions. Gual used to be a
442

Jos Rusiol declared that in these meetings they read diverse texts, from history books to political proclamations. Among the texts they read were: The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France, an account in the Cause of death of Louis XVI, a History of the Revolution in North America, the Declaration of Independence of the united thirteen provinces of America, and the Constitution of Pennsylvania, among others. See Declaracin de Jos Rusiol, 6 de junio de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 430, no. 51. Also quoted in Gmez, La revolucin de Caracas, 24. In a declaration, Jos Rusiol asserted that in previous years he had seen a paper in the hands of Garcas secretary that contained several articles referred to the planning of an Aristocratic republic, preserving the nobility, slavery and class distinctions, but proposing various dispositions against religious institutions, in Declaracin de Rusiol, 31 de octubre de 1797, AGI, 430, no. 51, quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 232. Grases, La conspiracin de Gual y Espaa; Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell; and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

443

444

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captain of the veteran battalion of La Guaira but retired from his military service, and dedicated himself to the administration of a Hacienda in Santa Luca, located in the Valleys of El Tuy, 20 miles away from Caracas. Gual was also in charge of supervising with Patricio Ronn the building of forts in La Guaira. He made frequent trips between his hacienda, Caracas and La Guaira, and was in part responsible for establishing communication among the group of conspirators of Caracas and the one in La Guaira.445 In Caracas, he mainly met with white elite families to discuss texts and revolutionary ideas. Gual and other white creoles such as Don Juan Manuel Salas, Doctor Luis Peraza, Don Nicols Ascanio met with Don Vicente Estrada in the bodega Los Traposos in Caracas and in the house of a white lady, named Doa Ana de Castro.446 Accompanying high-rank militiamen in La Guaira, there were also other informal groups of white people, connected by family ties or by their national origin, or by their occupation: some were merchants, like Juan Xavier Arrambide, Francisco Sinza, Martn Antonio Goenaga and Montesinos Rico brothers, others were professionals, like Doctor Pedro Canibens (Espaas brother-in-law), Doctor Juan de
445

Manuel Gual was the son of a lieutenant colonel Mateo Gual who arrived in Venezuela in 1743 with the Victoria Regiment. In 1744, the elder Gual decided to remain in Venezuela, and the crown rewarded him by granting him the title of Lieutenant Colonel. Miller notes: He repeatedly asked the crown for a promotion, each time noting that officers who entered the service when he did were by then generals in Spain, while he floundered in Venezuela as lieutenant colonel. Although he served interim appointments as commander in Puerto Cabello and as governor of Cuman, he remained a lieutenant colonel for nearly 30 years until his death in 1777. Manuel Gual suffered the same fate as his father, he retired from the army with the rank of Captain in 1796 in part because his repeated pleas for promotion went unanswered. See Miller, Status and Royalty of Regular Army Officers, 683. Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell.

446

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la Tasa, pharmacist Toms Cardozo and an employee in the Real Hacienda, Domingo Snchez (also Espaas brother-in-law). All of them used to attend some of the meetings that Jos Mara Espaa and Patricio Ronn arranged.447 In La Guaira there was a group of pardos that met around the barber and official of the pardo battalion, Narciso Del Valle. Del Valle had a barbershop, close to the Church and the military barracks that pardos and common people visited. In his shop, they read diverse texts, listened to oral readings and discussions, and debated the updates they heard about European and Caribbean politics. Aizpurua contends that a considerable number of the pardos who participated in the conspiracy were recruited by Del Valle. Jos Cordero belonged to this circle, and was also responsible for establishing relations with Jos Rusiol, the leader of a group of veteran white militiamen; Jos Manuel Del Pino, Juan Moreno, and Manuel Granadino, all of them soldiers of the battalion of La Guaira. Del Valle also established a relatioship with Lorenzo Acosta, the lieutenant of the free blacks in Carayaca, and even gave him money to recruit people for the revolutionary cause of La Guaira. According to Acosta, Del Valle told him that they were planning a Republic to get rid of the alcabalas, the rights, the estanco of tobacco, the rights for burying and for baptisms,
447

Grases, La conspiracin de Gual y Espaa; Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell; and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro. The location of these meetings varied: sometimes they met in the houses of Ronn and Espaa, on other occasions they went together on walks to the river where they had lunch and enjoyed a fresher climate. Jos Mara Salas comments that he attended some of these meetings, attended also by Don Agustn Garca, Don Patricio Ronn, Don Pedro Canibens, and Don Manuel Gual, when he was in town. He comments: We talked about news in Spain and France brought by the Gacetas and papers that came from Spain and Trinidad. Declaracin de Jos Mara Salas, 17 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 431, no. 59, quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 262.

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and that everyone will be equals, like they are in France, they will be ruled by judges elected by themselves, and get rid of those who are bad.448Acosta spread the news of a possible revolutionary movement in La Guaira among the people of Carayaca, but he was not successful recruiting and organizing them to go down to La Guaira. Regarding the leadership and participation of social lower groups in the conspiracy, historian Casto Fulgencio Lpez affirms:
In the history of this revolution the name of Jos Rusiol is barely mentioned, merely to say that he was condemned, the names of Narciso Del Valle, Agustn Serrano, Jos Manuel Del Pino, and Juan Moreno, are hardly mentioned either. They were humble soldiers who paid with their heads the beautiful purpose of giving us liberty.449

With the title Conspiracy of Gual and Espaa, traditional historiographic narratives of this political movement have emphasized the role that white creoles played in the planning of the conspiracy, leaving aside the important voices and participation of lower rank officials and people of color. Aizpurua recognizes that the social groups that, formally or informally, were to be involved in the conspiracy were connected thanks to the activities of six ringleaders: Narciso Del Valle, Jos Cordero, Jos Rusiol, Jos Mara Espaa, Manuel Gual and Patricio Ronn. All of them encouraged people to read and circulate revolutionary texts, recruited people to attend their discussions, and sought to communicate with each other with the purpose of elaborating a political plan; however, the configuration of a common cause among
448

Declaracin de Lorenzo Acosta, 5 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 429, no. 30, quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 307. Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 90.

449

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these groups was in great part promoted by another participant: Juan Baustista Picornell. On December 3, 1796 a Spanish prisoner was sent to the already turbulent Port of La Guaira. A member of various scientific and literary societies in Spain, and a teacher and writer, Juan Bautista Mariano Picornell was the leader of a group of plotters who had planned a revolutionary movement to take place in Madrid on San Blas day, February 3, 1796. Picornell, like many other Spanish academics of his time, had ties with the masonry which imbued him with the philosophy of the French Revolution and which offered a critical posture towards the rule of Charles IV and the absolutist government of Manuel Godoy, known as the Prince of Peace.450 The Conspiracy of San Blas aimed at overthrowing the Monarchy and planned the establishment of a Republic. The plot was planned with the assistance of other professionals and students, such as Manuel Corts de Campomanes, Juan Manzanares, Sebastin Andrs Aragn and Jos Lax, among others. All of them produced texts to induce people to unite, arm themselves and join the revolutionary cause. Apparently, by the beginning of 1796, more than three hundred people in Spain were part of the conspiracy, however it was uncovered in February 1796, and the conspirators condemned to die on the gallows.451

450 451

Gaylord, The Early Revolutionary Career of Juan Mariano Picornell. Ibid., and Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell.

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The Spanish government later decided to sent the accused, one by one, to the American colonies to complete sentences with the idea of preventing the contagion of their ideas in the Peninsula. Juan Picornell arrived in La Guaira in December 1796, and Captain General Carbonell ordered him imprisoned and held without communication until he could be sent on to Panam. The rest of the conspirators (Sebastin Andrs, Jos Lax, Manuel Corts and Juan Manzanares) arrived to La Guaira during the next year, and by May 1797 the San Blas conspirators were together again, but this time in the colonial port.452 In prison, Juan Picornell discovered that he was not an unwelcome visitor; his jailers became his friends and confidants, and held conversations in which the discussion about republican and liberal ideas was common and gained supporters. Seen as victims of Spanish persecution and the object of Godoys injustices, the conspirators of San Blas won the confidence of some officials who gave them special treatment and favors, including the privilege to communicate freely with the people of Caracas and La Guaira who wanted to see them. Jos Rusiol, for example, was the one responsible for escorting Picornell from the Port to his prison cell when he arrived and, after this, he continued to have frequent communication with him. Don Pedro Canibens, a doctor at the Hospital in La Guaira and Espaas brother in law, also used to visit Picornell with the excuse of examining him, and he frequently brought his practitioner Juan de la Tasa. Sergeant Jos Cordero, a young man of color attached to
452

Gaylord, The Early Revolutionary Career of Juan Mariano Picornell.

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the Caracas battalion, was also allowed to visit Picornell on different occasions. The barber Narciso Del Valle also visited Picornell to shave him. According to Lpez, at the beginning of 1797 Picornell had been interviewed in his jail by almost everybody involved in the conspiracy.453 In these visits, they learned about Picornells revolutionary opinions also expressed in his writings: Spain had tyrannized America, slavery was an outrageous imposition, Spain gained unfair economic benefits from America, and a new more equalitarian and liberating government needed to be established, in which all would be equals and commerce would be opened up to all nations. However, Picornell also learned a lot from the locals. He soon realized that the Spanish colonies were by no means unaware of French revolutionary ideas. La Guaira, in particular, had been affected by the presence of more than nine hundred French prisoners and slaves from the Caribbean colonies that remained in the port from 1793 to 1795, as well as by the great number of visitors who carried information and news about revolutionary events, by the circulation of written materials and the emergence of social spaces for political discussion, reading circles where ideas were exchanged. For Picornell, this environment seemed ideal for stirring a new mobilization with the same cause as the frustrated San Blas conspiracy. However, Picornell had to confront the particularities of the colonial world; the political and economic circumstances in Venezuela were different from those in the Peninsula, as were the social divisions and
453

Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 75.

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tensions. Picornell needed to listen to his visitors in order to understand their frustrations and aspirations, for him it was not difficult to realize that political, social, and economic grievances accumulated over the years made many people in Venezuela keen to receive revolutionary ideas, but adaptations to local circumstances needed to be made.454 Picornell was a prolific writer of revolutionary texts, but he was also a teacher, and he knew that he needed information from his pupils in order to write appropriate texts, adapted to the local political and social contexts. So, in prison Picornell began to write different texts that he shared with all of his visitors with the idea that they circulate these among their families, friends and neighbors. The fundamental aim of various of his texts was to gain support from the population of color, therefore these were written in a style and discourse appropriate for reading outloud to the people of color, using familiar narrative formulas such as epistles, dialogues and stories, short and easy enough to be memorized and to be retold orally. One of these texts was entitled The Life of the Admirable Bitatusa, an autobiographic text that narrates the story of Bitatusa an anagram for Picornells middle name Bautista -, a young soldier at the service of the King of the apoleses an anagram for espaoles, Spaniards who, influenced by the ideas of a philosopher Dadver an anagram for verdad, truth , abandoned his military career and

454

See Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell; Gaylord, The Early Revolutionary Career of Juan Mariano Picornell, and Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro.

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dedicated his life instead to reading and enlightening himself, Bitatusa learned that in order to stop bowing down before the King and his tyranny he had to instruct himself. The lesson was clear: the pueblo must study because education was the practice capable of granting them liberty.455 There was another paper entitled Revelation to Fray Jos Mara de la Concepcin, a text in which Picornell told the story of a priest who received a visit from the spirit of Jos Leonardo Chirinos, the leader of the black rebellion of Coro of 1795. In this story, the spirit of Jos Leonardo is in heaven because he died as a martyr, he appeared to the Fray to tell him in the name of the Father that Americans must recover their liberty and that they will count on the support of almighty God. The priest told the Bishop about the miraculous apparition, but he ended up in jail. Desperate, the priest asked God for help, and miraculously he received pen and paper, so he began writing an Exhortation to the Americans, a text in which he presented the Rights of Man and the benefits of abolishing slavery, and enjoying liberty and equality. In this text, Picornell sought to eradicate the idea people had about republicanism as an anti-religious and atheistic movement, presenting God as
455

Unfortunately substantial part of these papers were burned or hidden; once the colonial authorities uncovered the conspiracy, many of the conspirators sought to destroy any written evidence. In order to learn about their content, historians have had to rely on the numerous declarations that describe the texts. Jos Mara Espaa, for example, commented: In order to prepare the spirits, [Picornell] produced a text in jail entitled The life of Vitatusa that was basically directed against the King, the nobility, and the priests, another one entitled Revelation of Father Fr. Joseph de la Concepcin, in which the zambo martyr Jos Leonardo, principal accused for the rebellions in Coro, is canonized, and where the Americans are incited to declare their freedom, and another entitled Letter from a grandfather to his grandchild, in which the grandfather exhorts the child to follow the cause of freedom in the event that an upheaval should take place in the Americas. See Declaracin de Jos Mara Espaa, 2 de mayo de 1799, AGI, Caracas, 433, no. 91, 49-49v.

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someone who would support the new order and its values. Additionally, he merged this representation with the characterization of Jos Leonardo as a martyr: instead of showing him as a disloyal rebel, he used the recent memory that people had about the zambo leader and his striking death as a rhetorical strategy to evoke powerful emotions of empathy and compassion in the people of color. In this sense, his political discourse was articulated and transformed by the emotionalization of the recent memory of black insurrection.456 Another paper, entitled Letter from a Grandfather to his grandchild, also writen by Pirconell, circulated in La Guaira. This was a text written as an epistle from a grandfather who lived in Cdiz in Spain to his grandchild living in America. The old man describes the tough circumstances that Spaniards experienced in la Peninsula, where they were all oppressed by a bad government, and where agriculture, commerce and the arts were devastated by the tyranny of the King. He also commented that he knew that America also experienced oppression and misery, but that he had heard that a revolutionary movement was being planned some place in America, and he exhorted his grandchild to participate and be part of the important changes that were about to take place in America.457

456

See Ibid., and Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell. Tropes of rage and abuse infused representations that people produced about Jos Leonardo Chirinos and his frustrated insurrection, Picornell perceived these feelings and articulated them in his writings. He must have heard about Jos Leonardo in La Guaira, probably from Jos Rusiol, who also escorted and accompanied Chirinos in La Guaira, after he was captured and submitted to Caracas. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 239. Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 80-1.

457

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Picornell also wrote another paper entitled: A Dialogue between a black Lieutenant-Colonel of the French Republic and a Black Spaniard, his cousin. In this text, written as a dialogue containing questions and answers, Picornell tells the story of what happened when these two characters saw each other, the black Spaniard impressed by the way his cousin is dressed up as a French Officer asked him about it, and the Black French answered that in France all men were equal and free, and as such they could attain both military and political positions.458 Obviously, this text sought to transmit how the republican system, based on the prerogatives of liberty and equality, highly benefited the people of color. These papers circulated among the population of La Guaira and became an important media for transmitting knowledge about revolutionary movements in Europe and America, about the Republican system, and its political maxims and values. As Adriana Hernndez comments, these propagandistic texts contained repetitive ideas and motivations. These papers
Created conscience of how the King and his functionaries oppressed, insisted in the idea of responsibly defending the American fatherland patria americana -, and legitimated the idea of rebellion as a resource to identify revolutionary equality and fraternity with the Christian love for others and divine justice.459

Interestingly, these texts also used references taken from the local context (such as Jos Leonardo, the American grandchild and the Spaniard black) and
458

Declaracin de Jos Cordero, 27 de octubre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 428, no. 25. Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa, 365.

459

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incorporated them into the Atlantic revolutionary circumstances. With this rhetorical strategy its author created a mirror in which Venezuelans could see themselves as agents of revolutionary political change, and also as beneficiaries of these transformations, especially the people of color, who represented the majority of the population. These texts were read and listened to numerous inhabitants of La Guaira. In fact, Jos Rusiol, Jos Cordero and Narciso Del Valle appear as the main agents in charge of spreading these texts among their own groups of people. The medical practitioner, Juan de la Tasa, for example, commented that he read some of the papers that Rusiol had given him the one about Bitatusa, the sermon of the Fray, and another song that a fray from Santo Domingo gave to him, but that he burned.460 The pardo, Jos Manuel Del Pino also declared that at Del Valles barbershop, he read a paper about the apparition of the spirit of Jos Leonardo to a priest, and the letter from the grandfather to his grandchild and that Rusiol had given these to Del Valle. Del Pino also commented that he saw the text about the black cousins in the hands of the merchant Jos Montesinos y Rico, but that this was later burned, along with the writings that Del Valle had provided him.461

460

Delacin de Juan de la Tasa, AGI, Caracas, 428, no. 23, also quoted in Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa, 363. Several declarations allow us to appreciate the care that some of the participants of the conspiracy took of these texts. Narciso Del Valle who possibly received them from Rusiol or Picornell himself circulated them in his barbershop, but afraid of being discovered there, he gave them to Jos Cordero who kept them in a drawer. However, once the news that the conspiracy had been discovered by the Authorities arrived in La Guaira, Cordero gave the writings to Miguel Granadino with instructions to

461

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Taking into consideration that the majority of the population was non-literate, it is difficult to determine the effects and results that the texts achieved; however, these were written in familiar discursive formulas, such as epistles, dialogues, tales, and stories, that facilitated reading out loud and the comprehension of their contents among the less educated groups. In this sense, the transmission of principles of freedom and abolition, republicanism and equality was transformed in two ways: by adapting the contents of the writings to the local environment, producing a feeling of empathy and identification, and by making substantial adjustments in the discourse narrative in order to reach different sectors of the population, especially the vast majority of non literate people of color. Being a teacher, Picornell had clear ideas about how to capture the attention of different kinds of readers (and listeners) and use effective communicational resources; he even instructed others in how to do so. Following the example of Picornell, Narciso Del Valle, for example, decided to write a text to recruit the black people of Curiepe. According to Rusiol, in this letter Del Valle exhorted them to unite in order to make of this province the same that the French and the British Americans had done in their countries [] commenting also about the natural equality and the other rights of men. Apparently, Del Valle previously sent the paper to Picornell and to Manuel

bury them, but he instead decided to burn them, and Cordero got mad with Granadino and told him that he acted badly, because this was a work that had taken Don Juan Picornell six months of work. See Declaracin de Jos Cordero, del 16 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 428, no. 25; Declaracin de Jos Manuel del Pino, 15 de noviembre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 431, no. 64, and Declaracin de Miguel Granadino, del 2 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 428, no. 23. All of them quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 243.

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Gual who agreed that this letter should not be sent to the zambos of Curiepe because its style and instruction was more elevated than the intelligence of these men, and that they should be addressed in a more comprehensible way.462 Taking into consideration Picornells effort in producing a good number of texts to instruct people of La Guaira on the revolutionary cause and the numerous conversations he had with his visitors, some individuals, organizers of the frequent meetings and reading circles, decided to ask Picornell for his experience and support to coordinate and give shape to an insurrectionary movement in the Province of Venezuela. This group of people helped Picornell escape from jail and worked closely with him in the elaboration of a political plan, including the production of a number of texts that continued seeking the support of the people of La Guaira and Caracas. In the next section I will look on some of these texts in order to understand the rhetorical strategies used and how they were adapted to the local context, creating a common language of political debate and confrontation among diverse social groups.

2. Books and Manuscripts in the Conspiracy of La Guaira, 1797-1799

One of the first decisions that members of the Real Acuerdo took after identifying the main leaders of the conspiracy was to go to their homes in Caracas, La Guaira and Santa Luca in order to seize all the manuscripts and written sources that

462

Declaracin de Jos Rusiol, 4 de noviembre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 430, no. 51.

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could provide them with additional indications about the motivations and character of the insurgency movement. On July 17 1797, the official Francisco Espejo and his secretary went to the house of Jos Mara Espaa, who had escaped from La Guaira the night before, and began to search for documents and texts in his desk and in his library. That same day, the oidor Don Antonio Fernndez de Len and his secretary were searching the house of Manuel Gual in Santa Luca. They found out that Gual had left his hacienda two days earlier, and they decided to look for documents that could shed light on the participants, motivations and characteristics of the movement. Fernndez ordered his officials to seal all the chests found in the house and carry them to Caracas. At the bottom of one of them, in secret compartments, some of the most important manuscripts and texts of the conspiracy were to be found. The Colonial authorities discovered that the conspiracy was not improvised; numerous documents showed that a group of people had planned the movement for months. The conspiracy of La Guaira was devised by people initially inspired by French enlightened literature, and by manuscripts from the French and American revolutions, but fed with ideas, manuscripts and information that foreigners from France, the Caribbean and Spain who visited the Province shared and spread. Moved by their own concerns and interests, the conspirators also produced their own body of documents, such as songs, instructions, constitutions and political plans that gave shape to the movement to local circumstances.

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2.1. Prohibited Books in the Libraries of the Conspirators

Both Jos Mara Espaa and Manuel Gual were educated white creoles that possessed libraries containing several French titles. The presence of these French books did not necessarily indicate an inclination to revolutionary ideas, but rather their taste for French literature and Enlightenment currents, so common among men belonging to their social group. As historian Casto Fulgencio Lpez wrote, Jos Mara Espaa had one of the most qualified libraries in the town of La Guaira, a library of approximately 90 titles in 200 volumes.463 This library was inspected by Francisco Espejo in August, 8 1797. The list of books includes one of the most popular reformist Spanish authors such as Feijo and his most famous works the: Teatro Crtico and the Cartas Crticas; and several books about geography, mathematics, agriculture, such as the Descripcin Geogrfica de la Region Magallanica by Francisco Saija, Manual de Trigonometrica by Pedro Manuel Cedillo, Naturaleza y virtudes de las Plantas by Francisco Ximenez, and Tratado del Cultivo de Tierras by an French author. There are many books about Maritime matters and sailing, and many others about geographical descriptions of America and the Antilles; as well as Spanish, French and English dictionaries. Of the ninety titles, thirty were in French, and among these there were some books about French politics and the Revolution that were immediately
463

AGI, Caracas, 427, 3, 16-26. I thank Ramn Aizpurua for sharing these documents with me.

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seized by Espejo and upon which I will comment later on. The library of Espaa was the typical among any modern reader in the Americas, with lots of books about politics, economics, and commerce and useful subjects, such as agriculture, mathematics, geography and dictionaries. In addition, I found a list of the books that were seized from the libraries of the conspirators by the officials after uncovering the plot and that were sent to Spain afterwards. This list not only allows us to recognize some of books that these leading characters possessed, but also the kind of texts that were considered dangerous and promoters of insurgency by colonial officials. A box, containing thirty-eight volumes and sixty two copies of the text The Rights of men and of the citizen, was sent by the Real Audiencia to the King in September 1802. These books had been collected by the commissioners Antonio Fernndez de Len and Francisco Espejo in the houses of the conspirators in July 1797, and remained in the hands of the Real Audiencia until they decided to send them to Spain.464 The list contains eighteen titles. All of the books, except the sixty two copies of The Rights of the men and the citizen, were written in French and

464

This list contained books belonging to different libraries, some belonged to Jos Mara Espaa, others to Manuel Gual, and yet others to Jos Rusiol and Jos Mara Salas, a captain in La Guaira who did not necessarily participate in the Conspiracy, but who attended some meetings and shared readings with some of the conspirators. Libros que se recoxieron a los reos de la Sublevacin descubierta en 1797, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 352. The books apparently remained in the hands of the members of the Real Audiencia, who used them in their investigations until they sent them to Spain in 1802. See, for example, Declaracin de Jos Mara Salas del 23 de octubre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 431, no. 59.

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belonged to diverse fields, such as history, politics, agriculture, travelers chronicles, marine engineering, and philosophy. Here is a description of the books seized during the investigation of the conspiracy and sent by the Real Audiencia to Spain in 1802: 1) One volume of the work Bibiothque amusante et instructive, contenant des anecdotes interessantes et des Histoires curieuses tires des meilleurs auteurs, a book written by Jean Pierre Niceron and Franois Joachim Duport du Tertre. The book, found inside a drawer of Espaas desk, contains several essays about the diversity of human nature. From a comparative perspective, the authors explored differences between people of different nations and regions. Topics such as beauty, memory, chastity, women, vengeance, marriage and infidelity, festivities, justice, health and medicines, death and predictions are studied comparatively with the intention of offering to the readers a general knowledge about the people of different nations and regions. Indigenous communities of the Americas are mentioned several times to show how they differ from Europeans in their nature and the way they live. 465 2) Two volumes of the Dictionnaire de la Marine Franoise avec figures, par Charles Romme. This is a dictionary that emphasizes the importance of maritime sciences for the development of nations and the improvement of
465

Jean Pierre Niceron and Franois Joachim Duport du Tertre, Bibliothque amusante et instructive, contenant des anecdotes interessantes et des Histoires curieuses tires des meilleurs auteurs (Paris: Chez Duchesne, 1755): http://books.google.com/books.

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commercial activities. The book was thought of as a guide for any reader to have a general idea of maritime notions and basic concepts.466 3) Two volumes of the book Histoire General DAmrique. Unfortunately, I could not find any reference for this book. The title mentioned on the list is incomplete and no additional information is given about authors or printing house, which makes it really hard to identify. 4) Ten volumes of the book Histoire de LEglise. This is a book written by the Abbot de Choisy between the years 1700 and 1723. Ten volumes compiled the history of the Church from the year 100 BC until the year of 1715. The Holy Office prohibited these volumes because they considered that the author committed many historical mistakes and imprecisions regarding the history of the Church.467 5) Seven volumes of the book Histoire Philosophique et Politique des tablissements et du commerce des europens dans les deux Indes, written by Abb Guillaume Raynal. Raynal was a French writer and philosopher who wrote several books on philosophy, politics and commerce, and about the Americas. These volumes represented an encyclopedia in which information

466

Charles Romme, Dictionnaire de la Marine Franoise avec figures, par Charles Romme, Correspondant de LAcademie de Sciences de Paris et Professeur de mathmatique e dHydrographie au Port de Rochefort (Paris: Chez P.L. Chauvet, 1792): http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57125662.r=Dictionnaire+de+Marine.LangEN. Abb De Choisy, Histoire de LEglise (Paris: Chez Christophe Davi, 1701-1723): http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54250306/f2.

467

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on the New World was accompanied by philosophical reflections about slavery and colonialism. In this work, Raynal praises commercial activities and trade but clearly denounces slavery and calls into question the principles of colonization. The volumes are considered the most significant work of Raynal in which he made a contribution to democratic propaganda. After three successful editions, some including virulent attacks against despotic powers; the book was included in the French and Spanish Index of Prohibited books in 1774. According documentation provided by the commissioners, these volumes belonged to Jos Mara Espaa.468 6) One volume entitled Histoire de Bayard. The complete title of this book is Histoire de Pierre du Terrail, dit Chevalier Bayard, san peur et san reproche. This book, written by M. Guyard de Berville, is a biography of a French knight, the Chevalier de Bayard, who fought in the war between France and Italy in 1504. The book could be considered a Chivalry book that praises French blood and braveness.469 7) Two volumes of an unidentified book entitled Examen des Finans. 8) One volume of an unidentified book entitled Catechism de Bayonne.
468

Abb Guillaume Raynal, Historie philosophique et politique des tablissement et du commerce des europens dans les Deux Indes (Amsterdam: n.d., 1770): http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k109690m. See also Auto de Antonio Fernndez y Francisco Espejo, del 23 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 427, 3, quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 244. M. Guyard de Berville, Histoire de Pierre du Terrail, dit Chevalier Bayard, san peur et san reproche (Lyon: Chez Barnuset, 1786).

469

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9) One volume entitled Lettres Juives, ou Correspondance philosophique, historique, et critique entre un juif voyageur Paris et ses correspondans en divers endroits. Written by Jean-Baptiste De Boyer DArgens, this book offers a general description of life in Paris, offering interesting comments about the changes in political and social relations. This book belonged to the captain Jos Mara Salas, who was interrogated for sharing some of his books with the conspirators; he declared that during his stay in La Guaira, he attended several meetings with the insurgents but not those in which the virtue of the Republics of France or North America were a topic of conversation.470 10) The first volume of a book entitled Oeuvres de Rousseau. This book seems to be the first volume of the approximately eighteen volumes that compiled the entire written work of the French philosopher and political thinker, Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseaus writings such as Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, and On The Social Contract represented cornerstones in modern political and social thought and made a strong contribution for democratic government.471 His books were prohibited is Spain because they were considered anti-monarchical and contrary to social harmony. This book also belonged to the captain Jos Mara Salas who had lent it to the conspirators.
470

Declaracin de Jos Mara Salas del 23 de octubre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 431, no. 59, also quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 262. Jean Jacques Rousseau, Oeuvres Complets (Paris: Chez de Maisonneuve, de limprimerie de Didot Le Jeune, 1793-1800).

471

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11) Two volumes, first and second, of an unidentified book Histoires de Tamerdam. 12) One volume of the book Bibliothque Phissico Economique Instructive et Amusante. This book, written by Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, offers a general appraisal of the latest improvement and inventions in agricultural production, labor and new occupations, domestic economy and administration, healing and diseases. This book had nineteen volumes, but the Real Audiencia possessed only one.472 13) Two volumes, the third and fourth, of the book Recueil de pieces galantes en prose et en vers, written by Madame Henriette de Coligny, Comtesse de la Suze and Monsieur Paul Pelisson. This is a book of Belles Lettres that includes stories and poetry on human feeling such as love, joy and jealousy.473 14) One volume of the book Oeuvres Choisies de J.B. Rousseau, Odes, Cantantes, Epitres, t poesies diverses. This is a book divided into five parts: odes, odes in music, allegories, poetry and epistles. It was written by Jean Baptiste Rousseau, a French poet and writer who acquired great reputation during the eighteenth century for his poetry and comedies, although he was also accused

472

Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, Bibliothque Phissico Economique Instructive et Amusante (Paris: Chez Buisson, 1782-1793): http://gallica.bnf.fr.ark:/12148/bpt6k2057380/f2. Madame Henriette de Coligny, Comtesse de la Suze and Monsieur Paul Pelisson, Recueil de pieces galantes en prose et en vers (Lyon: Chez Antoine Bondet, 1695).

473

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of writing obscene and libelous verses. In this work, he wrote several odes dedicated to social values such as justice, laws and the obligations of men.474 15) The seventh volume of the book Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de LAmerique contenant LHistoire Naturelle de ces Pays, Lorigine, Les Moeurs, La Religion et Le Gouvernment des habitants anciens et moderne; Les Guerres sur les evenemens singulaires qui y son arrivez pendant le long sjour que Lauteur y a fait: le Commerce et les manufactures qui y son tablies, et les moyens de les augmenter. This book written by Jean-Baptiste Labat, a French Dominican who was appointed procurator-general of all the Dominican convents in the Antilles in 1696, was a treaty that compiled his observations on the West Indies. The book gives a general description of the geography, vegetation and animals of islands such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Grenada and Saint Domingue. His book pays special attention to the history and everyday life of black people, with a special chapter on Black wizards and the system of slavery. The book also provides a complete description of the different crops produced in the islands, especially the production of sugar cane with several illustrations made by the author.475

474

Jean Baptiste Rousseau, Oeuvres Choisies de J.B. Rousseau, Odes, Cantantes, Epitres, t poesies diverses (Paris: Janet et Cotelle Libraries, 1823 [1723]). Jean-Baptiste Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de LAmerique contenant LHistoire Naturelle de ces Pays, Lorigine, Les Moeurs, La Religion et Le Gouvernment des habitants anciens et moderne; Les Guerre ser les evenemens singulaires qui y son arrivez pendant le long sjour que Lauteur y a fait: le Commerce et les manufactures qui y son tablies, et les moyens de les augmenter (La Haye: Chez P. Husson, 1722-1724).

475

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16) One book entitled La Police de Paris dvoile, written by Pierre Manuel, procurator of the insurrectionary Paris commune in 1792 and member of the national assembly of Paris during the first years after the Revolution. He wrote several revolutionary pamphlets such as La Bastille dvoile (1789); La Police de Paris dvoile (1791), and Lettres sur la Rvolution (1792).476 17) One volume of an unidentified book entitled Les Contemporaines ou Aventuresdes Musjotier temmes de lage present. 18) Sixty two copies of a text entitled Derechos del hombre y del ciudadano. This is the Spanish translation of the original French text Dclaration des droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen, written during the French Revolution and adopted by the French National Assembly as an important document for the Revolution. According to the Real Audiencia this was a small notebook (librejo or cuadernillo) printed in Trinidad or Guadeloupe, of a type that commonly circulated in the French colonies and that was introduced in Venezuela through Trinidad. In this declaration, it is argued that the natural and imprescriptible rights of man" are "liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression." The declaration called, among other things, for the destruction of aristocratic privileges by proclaiming an end to exemptions from taxation, freedom and equal rights for all men, and access to public office based on talent. The

476

Pierre Manuel, La Police de http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84120585.

Paris

dvoile

(Paris:

n.d.,

1791):

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monarchy was to be limited, and all citizens were to have the right to take part in the legislative process. Colonial authorities believed that this text corrupted the order of society, and confuses, through numerous artificial, weak and dangerous phrases, the reason of men.477 The volumes collected by the Authorities in the houses of the conspirators allow us to perceive the kind of knowledge and information that officials believed were the source of inspiration for the conspiracy. The commissioners Antonio Fernndez de Len and Francisco Espejo declared that they seized books prohibited by the State and others worth of being prohibited because they contain maxims contrary to our government.478 However, the list shows that by the time they seized the volumes a wider set of motivations intervened: in first place we can perceive a sort of francophobia that made any book written in French a source of revolutionary contamination, in this sense officials were looking for evidence that could help them build connections between the conspirators and the French revolutionary movement. The sixty two copies of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the Oeuvres of Jean Jacques Roussseau, the Histoire Philosophique and Politique by Raynal, and the text of Pierre Manuel were evident sources of French revolutionary contamination, but the Oeuvres Choisies of Jean Baptiste Rousseau, the Recueil de pieces galantes written by Madame Henriette de Coligny, and the Histoire de
477

Real Audiencia de Caracas prohibe la lectura del librillo titulado Derechos del Hombre y del Ciudadano, y cualquier otro papel sedicioso, 18 de diciembre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 432, no. 85. Auto de Antonio Fernndez de Len y Francisco Espejo, 23 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 427, no. 3.

478

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Chevalier Bayard by Guyard de Berville were not revolutionary texts, they were rather eighteenth century French literature dedicated to enlightened topics, although some of them promoted favorable views of France and the French people that must have produced concern among the Spanish authorities. Secondly, the officials also collected a group of books that referred to topics such as the geography of America, agriculture, technology, commerce and administration. These books were seized not because they were considered revolutionary but because they broached certain topics such as slavery, exploitation, free trade and taxes, that were matter of concern for both French and Caribbean revolutionaries. The Bibliothque Phissico Economique Instructive et Amusante by Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, the Dictionnaire de la Marine Franoise avec figures by Charles Romme, the Bibiothque amusante et instructive by Niceron and Franois Duport du Tertre, as well as the Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de LAmerique by Jean-Baptiste Labat, are included in this group. The latter in particular contained a section dedicated to a description of the Caribbean islands, the production of sugar and other crops, the slave trade, the slavery system and the everyday life of free blacks and slaves. Therefore, the volumes collected by the colonial officials responded to a pattern: they were all written in French, some contained information about the French revolution and its principles (such as the texts of Raynal, Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Declaration of Rigths of men), while others were simply about general

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enlightenment topics in literature, theater and agriculture. Various of these French books contained information about the agricultural exploitation of America, and indirectly denounced the slavery system. Most of these books were to be found in the libraries of accommodated white creoles, such as Jos Mara Espaa, Manuel Gual, the brothers Montesinos Rico, and Jos Mara Salas, individuals that had the economic resources to buy books, as well as the education to read them in French, and even translate them into Spanish. We know that characters like Juan Jose Mendiri the port official - collaborated with the collection of written materials in the port, and that the white creole Juan Xavier Arrambide and the pharmacist Jos Cardozo copied and translated texts and documents that circulated among various social groups of La Guaira.479 The pardos Narciso Del Valle and Jos Cordero, however, also had some French books borrowed from someone or bought in the port - and asked the French hairdresser Andr Renoir to help them translate some of these.480 Nevertheless, these pardos represented rather an exception; pardos and free blacks had more easy access to brief texts, commonly manuscripts, such as the ones that Picornell used to write. Considering the evidence found in the lists of books and documents, I believe French revolutionary books were read by some of the conspirators of La Guaira, but locally produced texts adapted to local situations were much more popular and accessible than
479 480

See Chapter I.

According to Renoir, he only helped them to translate French books on medicine, comedies and grammar. See Declaracin de Andr Renoir, 4 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 428, no. 23.

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the Rousseaus and the Raynals, only to be found in a reduced number of libraries possessed by the white elite.

2.2 Texts and Manuscripts produced by the Conspirators of La Guaira, 1797

The chests that the authorities confiscated from Guals hacienda in Santa Luca contained several revealing documents: a text in french, entitled Instruction about the Civil Constitution of the Clergy by Mr. Mirabeau, written in January 1791, a text that contained recommendations on the adaptations that the Church and the clergy must make with the establishment of the New Republic and its Assembly; The Declaration of Independence of the thirteen United Provinces of America presented to the General Congress, July 10 1776; and a Letter of Don Miguel Rubn de Celis, a Spanish official living in Bayonne who wrote to others in the Peninsula, in November 1792, a text in which the author criticized the Monarchical system, and praised the values of liberty and equality. The Authorities also found a number of manuscripts that they had not seen before: several letters, lists and papers containing instructions, recommendations, proclamations, songs and illustrations related to the planning of a republican conspiracy in La Guaira. At this moment, the colonial authorities understood that the conspiracy was not an improvised or spontaneous movement, they discovered that a group of people had been working together to produce a body of documents designed to give shape to the movement.

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White Spaniards and creoles, like Juan Bautista Picornell, Manuel Corts, and Manuel Gual, leaders of the Conspiracy of La Guaira collaborated actively in the circulation of Republican ideas and values among the colored population; they especially took time and effort to produce a body texts to help others understand the republican movements principles, motivations, procedures and plan of action. In fact, once Juan Bautista Picornell accepted being one of the leaders of the conspiracy, he started writing different documents addressed to the rest of the conspirators and to the population in general. Some of these texts were written in jail, others while he was in hiding in a house in La Guaira. Three texts, in particular, are worth mentioning: the Ordenanzas (Constituciones), the Instructions, and the Exhortation to the Pueblo. Drafts of these documents circulated between Picornell and his co-conspirators, in fact, on several different occasions individuals copied these texts and produced different versions of them. Nevertheless, the substance of the documents remained the same.481 The Ordenanzas (or Constituciones) is a document that contained 44 articles regarded as essential by the revolutionary commanders in the Province of tierra firme in order to restore liberty to the pueblo Americano. In general, these articles encouraged revolutionaries to follow an organized plan of government that contemplated the preservation of tranquility and order in society together with unity
481

Different versions of these texts are to be found in the archives. In his book Lpez, for example, referred to the copies that belonged to Montesinos Rico (AGI, Caracas, 427, no. 1. which differed slightly from the copies to be found at the Archivo de la Academia Nacional de la Historia (Caracas). See Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 347 - 56.

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and loyalty between individuals. The Ordenanzas emphasized the importance of following a plan while conforming a Government Board (Junta Gubernativa), taking possession of public offices, buildings, and documents, and determining the responsibilities, and salaries of the new public posts. Regarding the election of the Junta Gubernativa, the seventh article of the Ordenanzas said: Only those neighbors hacendados that beforehand have proven their constant patriotism, love for the poor and knowledge in the matters of Government can be elected as individuals to this Board.482 Likewise, the Ordenanzas attributed importance to respecting the Church and the clergy, as well as all religious buildings, adornments and images. It also clarified that priests and nuns should receive the same payments they received before the revolution, but in the event that they should act against the general happiness they would be treated as traitors. The Ordenanzas contained several articles designed to control the payment of taxes. It proclaimed the unrestricted cultivation and commercialization of tobacco, and the abolition of food taxes (specifically rice, bread, fruits, vegetables, and roots). Other items were to be automatically reduced 25 percent while the new government adopted its definitive decisions. Likewise, the text abolished commercial taxes paid by shopkeepers, and all the alcabala taxes that muleteers, hacendados and small
482

Ordenanzas, AGI, Caracas, 427, no. 1, in Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 347-56. For an interesting and detailed analysis of the political and social implications of the Ordenanzas see Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa.

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cultivators had to pay. With these articles, the movement responded to a traditional demand of the eighteenth century popular movements: the payment of taxes. This issue was constantly regarded as a expression of monarchical oppression and the cause of many of the miseries that common people suffered.483 Regarding the social question, the articles for thirty-two to thirty-six introduced new depositions to establish the value of natural equality. Article 32 says:
Natural equality among all the inhabitants of the Provinces and Districts is declared: and it is mandatory that the greatest possible harmony prevail among whites, Indians, pardos and morenos, treating each other as brothers in Jesus Christ and equals in front of God, establishing distinctions between one and another only on the basis of merit and virtue, the only real basis for distinguishing between one man and another.484

It is interesting to note that the text does not explicitly mentioned Blacks, but morenos. Strictly speaking morenos were the result of the combination of whites and blacks, but the word morenos was frequently used to denominate free blacks as well. In the text, it seems as though morenos was used as a euphemism; considering

483

In this sense, the conspiracy of La Guaira responded some of the same motivations as many of the eighteenth century popular movements in Latin American: especially due to the economic pressures caused by the Bourbon rationalizing project. The mounting economic grievances that followed increases in taxes and commercial monopolies produced several social protests one of whose main goals was the elimination of taxes or tributes, such as the Tpac Amaru rebellion, the insurrection of Aymara highland communities from La Paz, the Indian uprising of northern Potos, the comuneros rebellion in New Granada, and even the black rebellion of Coro, all occurring during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. See Lester D. Langley, The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998); Serulnikov, Subverting Colonial Authority; Thomson, We Alone Will Rule. Ordenanzas, in Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 354.

484

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that for a significant number of white persons it would have been particularly hard to be considered equal to a black.485 The declaration of equality among the entire population implied the elimination of two colonial institutions: Indian tributary taxes and slavery. Article number thirty four declared the abolition of slavery because it was considered a system contrary to humanity. In this sense, it was presented as an obligation for all masters to present their slaves to the General Board in order to determine their monetary value, adding that the masters would be economically compensated for them.486 Social equality and the abolition of slavery were both important distinguishing features of the conspiracy, whose leaders hope for the integration of the vast majority of people of color into the movement. However, the articles show that there were also concerns regarding the occupation of the newly-liberated slaves. Two solutions are mentioned: the new citizens could join the military, or could and should continue to work as peasants and jornaleros, in order to collaborate with the agricultural and commercial development of the region.

485

There were other texts, such as songs, dialogues, and tales where the word blacks was explicitly mentioned. So, we should leave open the possibility that depending on the public to which texts were directed, the authors decided whether or not it was convenient or not to write blacks or morenos. Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 354. As Hernndez comments, it is clear that the conspirators had to consider seriously the issue of the abolition of slavery and its economic effects: they proposed an interesting solution, similar to expropriation: the justa compensacin, which would apply only for those masters who voluntarily present their slaves to the junta. See Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa, 375.

486

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The principles of freedom, abolition, and equality were introduced into Venezuela, but they were interpreted, transformed and adapted to fit local social and political contexts. As we mentioned before, revolutionary texts were transformed in two ways: in their discursive narrative and in their contents. For the first case, I have found that many of the texts produced in the local context transformed revolutionary writings into letters, dialogues, songs, and tales that provided a narrative appropriate for teaching revolutionary principles to the semi-literate people of color. In fact, some of the concepts expressed in the Rights of Man and the Citizen were adapted to fit into the Dialogue between the French and the Spanish black cousins, the Revelation of the Fray, and the Ordenanzas, where liberty and equality played fundamental roles. But also the contents of these texts were adapted to respond American social reality. In Venezuela equality meant the elimination of the racial distinctions that had been constructed by the elites to maintain hierarchy and reinforce the social distinctions no longer reflected by economic differences. The proclaimed equality not only implied the application of the same law to peasants, professionals or merchants, it also implied the application of the same laws to whites, pardos, Indians and blacks. Another conspirator, the white Spaniard Manuel Corts, was responsible for composing and adapting lyrics from revolutionary songs to the Venezuelan reality. In one of his pieces, entitled the Soneto Americano, he underlines the brotherhood that

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should prevail between people of the new republic, which would be composed of Whites, Blacks, Indians and Pardos. The song said: The Whites, the Blacks Indians and Pardos, Lets admit all That we are brothers That we are all united With a common interest To make war against Despotism Long live our Pueblo.487 In the Carmaola Americana, another song composed by Manuel Corts after he escaped from La Guaira to Guadeloupe, the people of color are called the shirtless (descamisados) and are clearly compared with the French revolutionary sans culottes, in sum, depicted as people that have been tyrannized by the Monarchy.488 The French Sans culottes Had shaken the world, But the shirtless here Would hardly be less successful

487

Soneto Americano, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 2. According to Lpez, this song was sung at the celebrations and meetings that the conspirators attended. Lpez, Juan Bautista Picornell, 375. In revolutionary France, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, and made up the bulk of the revolutionary army during the first years of the revolution. Some of their demands were popular democracy, and social and economic equality. See Albert Soboul, The Sans-Culottes: The Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government, 1793-1794 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).

488

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The Shirtless are already Dancing!489 The song also mentions that equality and fraternity among men of all races will prevail; equality, in this case, not only refers to social status but to the color of the skin and the purity of blood. The principal aim of these texts was to gain the support of the pardos and free blacks that represented the large majority that suffered injustice and the inequality of the racial system. In this way, the information of the French and the Haitian Revolutions that had arrived in La Guaira during the previous years experimented adaptations that revealed the racialized nature of local political tensions and social confrontation in Venezuelan society. Although the abolition of slavery was one of the conspiracys demands, the slaves and their abolition are barely mentioned in these songs. The Instructions was another text written by Picornell that contained twenty two steps or articles - to be followed by the conspirators while taking control of the Province such as: the proclamation in public settings (Long live the Law of God, Long live the Pueblo Americano, Death to the Bad Government), taking possession of public offices and buildings, the formation of patrols by the neighbors and inhabitants of each town, and the conformation of a Government Board. Regarding the election of the Junta Gubernativa, the Instructions differed in some respects from the Ordenanzas, notably where it stated that every citizen will be incorporated into neighborhoods (barrios) and will elect two persons to be part of

489

Carmaola Americana, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 85.

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an election board that will appoint the Junta Gubernativa. Everyone it says will give his vote to a person known for his affection to the fatherland, for being particularly enlightened and prudent, without regard for his color or for any other feature that could have the most minimal influence.490 In this case, there is no allusion to the hacendados as those most appropriate for joining the Junta, which leave us with the question: why do these two documents present this fundamental discrepancy? Hernndez believes that the Instructions could have be written before the Ordenanzas, and probably Picornell, despite his preference for an equalitarian republic, had to make adjustments to count on the approval of the white creole hacendados who would have not been comfortable with the idea of having people of color in the Juntas.491 Two articles of the Instructions, number fourteen and fifteen, allow us to appreciate the importance attributed to the abolition of slavery in the movement but not necessarily to the role of the slaves in achieving it. Number fourteen says that after the Government Board is established and sworn in, in the main square of the town, the slaves living in town will present themselves in the square, two by two, they will have on their arms a chain easy to remove, together with any other symbol of their enslavement, and their masters will present a brief written information about them;
490

Instrucciones para el Comandante en Xefe del Exercito Revolucionario del Pueblo Americano de Caracas, AGI, Caracas, 434, no. 16. Lpez quoted another version found in AGI, Caracas, 429, no. 35. There was another paper entitled Borrador de plan globo de Revolucin also written by Picornell, this text contained the same articles as the Instructions. This is the one that Hernndez quotes, see Hernndez, Doctrina y gobierno en la conspiracin de Gual y Espaa, 370.

491

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then, a person will remove the symbols of enslavement and, hugging them, the secretary will announce in the name of the fatherland, the president and the other individuals that they are free and will be recognized as citizens.492 In the text, the abolition of slavery is represented in a ritualized act in which the united Pueblo Americano is not just a witness, but rather an actor, a beneficiary that grants liberty to the slaves. At the same time, and by way of contrast, the slaves are depicted as passive characters, as recipients of a prize: their liberty. They dont remove the chains by themselves, but passively wait until someone removes slavery from them. Here, the abolition of slavery is not the result of the struggle of slaves as it would have been in the case of Coro but the consequence of the determination of a supposedly mestizo government to eradicate the slavery system. While it is true that rumors and texts coming from the turbulent French colonies permeated the environment of the Province and gained significance within the emerging social spaces for political debate; the reluctance to use of the word blacks in some texts of the conspiracy, the ambiguity regarding the participation of black people in the conformation of the Juntas, and the vision of slaves as passive recipients of a freedom granted by someone else, give us enough evidence to ask: What kind of example was the revolution of Saint Domingue for the Conspiracy of La Guaira? Depending on the social context, Saint-Domingue was both a feared and an admired model.

492

Ibid.

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Several declarations show that white participants feared the fate of Saint Domingue and convinced themselves into joining the conspiracy because they feared that people of color could reproduce the same actions as their counterparts in Guarico, Saint Domingue. Manuel Montesinos Rico, for example, declared that Manuel Gual persuaded him to convince other friends to join the movement because if they do not accept, they could become the victims of blacks and zambos. Another participant of the conspiracy, Martin de Goenaga, said that in a meeting in Espaas house, he heard someone saying: if we dont unite with the people of color, we will die as victim of their fury. Likewise, Jean Lartigue, remembered a conversation in which Gual asserted that it was necessary to abolish slavery to prevent events as unfortunate as those of Guarico where whites were victims of the people of color.493 Also as the plan of the conspiracy developed, many whites also expressed the fear that the revolution would incite violent responses from slaves and people of color against the whites. People of color participating in the conspiracy, on the other hand, looked at the revolutionary movements of Saint Domingue with admiration and as an example to be followed in tierra firme, where they were victims of inequalities and discrimination. However, as Aizpurua comments, pardos mistrusted their white co-conspirators, as

493

Declaracin de Manuel Montesinos y Rico, 6 de septiembre de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 431, no. 62, Declaracin de Martn de Goenaga, 24 de julio de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 428, no. 21, Delacin de Jean Lartigue, 4 de agosto de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 427, no. 16. All quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 264-65.

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they had doubts that the conspiracy would be a success and feared that in case of failure the whites will remain free, and will put the blame on us.494 An understanding of the specific politics and social conflicts in Venezuela allows us to see how representations of the French and Saint Domingue revolutions refracted and reformulated events and ideologies, as they were not apprehended as monolithic political structures, but as meaningful moldable frameworks within which differentiated social groups in colonial Venezuela found space to produce their own representations and interpretations. In the conspiracy of La Guaira, Saint Domingue was understood by some conspirators mainly pardos and people of color - as a model, and by others whites creoles - as a menace to be deflected by assuming the leadership of the conspiracy and providing some controlled benefits for the people of color.495 Revolutionary ideas did travel, but individuals in each locality and cultural context channeled words and ideas through particularized circuits and webs. In La
494

See Delacin del sargento Miguel Granadino, 31 de julio de 1797, AGI, Caracas 428, no. 23, and Declaracin de Narciso Del Valle, del 29 de julio de 1797, AGI, Caracas, 427, no. 7, both quoted in Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 267. In this sense, Alejandro Gmez and Ramn Aizpurua argue that the revolution led by Victor Hugues in Guadeloupe could have been an appropriate model for the whites of the conspiracy, who agreed to grant freedom to the slaves but recommended that they remain in the Haciendas while the General Board decided their final destination. As Dubois argues, Hugues system condemned slaves to a permanent political incapacity as it prevented them for becoming anything other than plantation laborers. See Laurent Dubois, A Colony of Citizens. Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, 187). Gmez shows that Manuel Gual and Patricio Ronn had, in fact, a relationship with Victor Hugues who, at some point, even agreed to support the revolution in tierra firme. See Aizpurua, La conspiracin por dentro, 284-87. Gmez, La revolucin de Caracas, and Las semillas de la libertad lanzaron su precioso grano ms all de los mares: la ley de los franceses, Akademos no. 1, vol. 7, 2006.

495

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Guaira, the authors of the written propaganda had to deal with the ambiguity that the example of Saint Domingue represented: they tried to offer the promise of a multiethnic political movement to the people of color, while guaranteeing political control and social order to white elites. The incompatibility of these two postures could have been one of the reasons for the failure of the movement.

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CHAPTER VI

The Intesification of the Haitian Revolution and its Impact in Venezuelan Colonial Society

I confess that much as I desire the independence and liberty of the New World, I fear anarchy and revolution even more. God forbid that other countries suffer the same fate as Saint-Domingue. It would be better to remain another century under the barbarous and senseless oppression of Spain. Francisco de Miranda, 1798496

1. We can not trust black slaves anymore: Contestation and Negotiation between White Elites and Black Subalterns.

The revolutionary events of Haiti, the disorder of the French islands, and rumors of chaos and atrocities made white elites reconsider their relationship with their slaves and with free colored people. Rumors of revolution made them suspicious about people of color, not only increasing their fear of them, because they knew what they were capable of doing, but undermining a sense of confidence that appeared to have existed before 1791. For Venezuela, the response by whites to black insurrection

496

Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan white creole who led the first movement for Independence of Venezuela. Quoted in Anthony Pagden, Spanish Imperialism and the Political Imagination. Studies in European and Spanish-American Social and Political Theory 1513-1830. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990) 12.

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and the Haitian Revolution was fear, control, and repression in proportional doses. However, they also showed their willingness to make concessions that could calm the spirits of blacks who expressed their discontent in a number of uprisings throughout the last decade of the eighteenth century. Diverse strategies were developed in order to offset the possibility of black insurrections and movements in the region during the last decade of the eigheenth century. For example, both Captain Generals, Pedro Carbonell first, and later Guevara Vasconcelos, and their officials issued orders requiring greater vigilance from white masters and local authorities. They asked them not to give firearms to their slaves or to free blacks, to prohibit free people of color and slaves from working as foremen (mayordomos) on the haciendas, to establish hunting squads to capture and control black fugitives, to restrict manumission, and also to recommended masters to moderate their punishments. In this way, white elites resorted to a multiplicity of responses to the perceived threat of black subversion. In contrast with the naked coercion employed in the case of the rebellion of Coro, here I will show that elites also used more subtle measures of control amd made concessions to improve the material conditions of slaves, curtailing the abuse by masters and local authorities. Slaves and free colored, for their part, perceived the shift in colonial authorities dispositions and took advantage of the new spaces of negotiations to demand attention, make accusations and elevate petitions. In orders issued in 1795, the Captain General Carbonell emphatically stated: Experience and reflection have made me recognize the danger of putting firearms in

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blacks hands as their haughtiness has increased in intensity in recent years,497 therefore he prohibited masters and mayordomos from providing slaves and free people of color with firearms, except for the knives and machetes they used for working in the fields. In the last line of this document, the Captain General concluded: With this understanding, under no circumstances, is it convenient to trust the black slaves anymore.498 One of the first things that the colonial authorities demanded from white hacendados and masters was to examine the social composition of the power structure in their haciendas. In Venezuela, many hacendados lived between their haciendas and the houses they owned in urban centers. Generally, during most of the year, masters were absent from their haciendas. For the administration and control of the haciendas they designated a mayordomo. A mayordomo was the person entrusted with the task of controlling the slaves and the free workers labor, the process of collecting, and storing crops or producing merchandise, as well as for the transportation and commercialization of the products. In a way, the mayordomos replaced the master when he was absent, and often they were responsible for determining and even

497

Comunicado del Capitan General de Venezuela, Carbonell, a los Gobernadores de la Provincia AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, tomo LV, 235. Idem

498

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administering the punishment of slaves.499 For this reason mayordomos often constituted one of the most feared, but also most hated, figures in the haciendas. In social terms, the mayordomos were usually whites or pardos. Their higher social status in relation to the population of free blacks and slaves, reinforced mayordomos authority to rule the hacienda. However, it was not easy to find a good mayordomo, and frequently masters employed free blacks and even slaves they trusted in the position.500 In 1801, the Captain General warned the hacendados not to employ people of color as mayordomos and not to give them any sort of authority. He argued: It is convenient to have the haciendas, especially those close to the coast, managed and ruled by their own owners or, if this is not possible, by white mayordomos. This decision was coherent with the lack of confidence and suspicion in blacks that the authorities felt and promoted after the development of the Haitian Revolution. Colonial authorities and elites needed to maintain the subordination of the colored communities of the haciendas and plantations, and kept free blacks and slaves
499

A document from the eighteenth century described the role and importance of mayordomos in the haciendas: In his job the mayordomo takes on the role of the master and the father at the same time. The master put his confidence in him, and also put in his hands the subsistence of his family. With the purpose of maintaining the tranquility of his conscience, his credit, and his reputation, the mayordomo should comply with his obligations in Documentos para la Dicesis de Mrida, quoted in Jos Rafael Lovera, Vida de Hacenda en Venezuela, Siglos XVIII al XX, (Caracas: Fundacin Bigott, 2009), 290. I have found several cases of free blacks and slaves that served as mayordomos. One example was a captured runaway slave named Juan Alexandro who had escaped from Jos Antonio Bolvar, a resident of Caracas and owner of a nearby hacienda. Bolvar had proposed he be mayordomo of the hacienda, and although he did not want to do the job, he was forced to do it. As mayordomo, he had differences with a slave mulatta, who was one of the masters mistresses, and she invented the charge that Juan Alexandro had stolen cacao. Bolvar harshly punished him, treating him like an animal (literally making him live sleep and eat with mules and horses), Juan Alexandro escaped from this atrocious punishment. Procedimientos contra esclavos fugitives en los montes de Capaya y sus declaraciones AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 469-569, 481v.

500

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under strict control and vigilance. The authorities not only prohibited the use of firearms among slaves, and required the designation of white mayordomos, they also asked masters to keep slaves and free blacks away from any foreign or unknown visitors, away from the possible arrival of people from other nations, and from fugitive slaves who were seen as transmitters of rumors. As I have showed in previous chapters, the colonial authorities easily blamed French visitors and fugitive slaves for transmitting false information and stirring mobilizations among slaves, free people of color, and Indians, but they also attempted to prevent communications or family bonds between slaves and the maroon communities. As I showed in the chapter on Coro, it was not easy to control the relationships between slaves and maroons, and traditionally authorities had been always inclined to think that slaves upheavals were frequently stimulated from the outside, especially by maroon communities.501 Runaways were a matter of concern for Venezuelan authorities and elites during the Age of Revolution because they could have provided encouragement and material support to potentially rebellious slaves. Cumbes and palenques502 had long provided refuge for fugitive slaves and thieves: in fact, cumbes were seen by the

501 502

See Acosta Saignes, Vida de Esclavos Negros en Venezuela, and chapter IV of this work.

Cumbe and palenques were the names given to the relatively autonomous maroon communities made up of fugitive slaves that were established near the haciendas, or urban centers. As Jane Landers contends: Located on the peripheries of European cities, and also on the fringes of indigenous worlds, maroons communities borrowed elements they found useful from both the dominant and native cultures. See Cimarron and Citizen, African Ethnicity, Corporate Identity, and the Evolution of Free Black Towns in the Spanish Circum-Caribbean in Jane Landers (ed.): Slaves, Subjects and Subversives.Black in Colonial Latin America (Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006), 123.

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authorities as uncontrolled communities where vices accumulated, and maroons were characterized as robbers, smugglers, and criminals who stole away other slaves, provided shelter and support to recent runaways or to others of their type, and carried on contraband trade with pirates. Hacendados feared cumbes for many reasons: one was that they knew that these communities, living on the borders of colonial life, often depended on their haciendas to steal crops, firearms, instruments for agricultural work, or animals. It was common for whites to assume that the maroon communities contributed to slave uprisings, with resources for example, weapons, food, animals and people. Runaways were seen not only as sources of inspiration and communicators, but also as supporters who helped insurgents to hide and provided them with resources. The rumors of conspiracies and insurrection between 1794 and 1796 in Venezuela had the effect of encouraging the flight of slaves. In fact, the government and white elites feared that the haciendas of the General Captaincy would get wiped out not only as a result of slave uprisings but also through continuous and pervasive defections from the slave order.503 In 1794, the Captain General ordered the establishment in different regions of Venezuela of squadrons of soldiers some squads were paid by the merchant guild and others by hacendados themselves to monitor slaves zones, dismantle maroons communities, and reestablish order among

503

See Jeremy Adelman, Sovereignty and Revolution in the Iberian Atlantic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), Chapter 2.

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the colored population in the rural regions.504 In September 1794, in the Province of Caracas the merchant guild created five patrol squadrons of twenty-four soldiers each to monitor slaves zones. In the subsequent months more patrol squadrons started to function in the province: three more in January 1795, seven others in March 1795.505 Many runaways of the Province of Caracas were captured by these squadrons. Members of the squadrons wrote lists with the names of the blacks, the years they had been living under these conditions, the area where they were captured, and the products and/or animals they supposedly had stolen (generally cacao, tobacco, and horses). They were sent to jail in Caracas, where they were kept during several months in order to continue an investigation of their circumstances and their purposes, and to decide on their sentence.506 The declarations of these runaways provide valuable material for a construction of the history of the everyday life of these maroon communities in Venezuela. These documents show how maroons drew on a variety of
504

Sobre establecimiento de patrullas de vigilancia en Cracas, Agosto 1794 AGN, Real Consulado, Actas, 2526, 37-38, Del Capitn General de Venezuela al Justicia Mayor de Carora, sobre establecimiento de milicias urbanas para controlar alzamientos de esclavos y de gente de color, junio 1795 AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LV, 353, and Lista de los esclavos cimarrones aprehendidos por las Patrullas, de las que se han presentado a sus dueos despus de su establecimiento, Mayo 1795 AGN, Diversos, LXIX, 113. These squadrons operated in the following departments of Caracas: Caracas, Petare, Sabana de Ocumare, Guarenas, Caucagua, Capaya, Guapo, Turmero, Cupira, Ro Chico, San Felipe, Puerto Cabello, Maracay, and La Guaira. See Lista de los esclavos cimarrones aprehendidos por las Patrullas, de las que se han presentado a sus dueos despus de su establecimiento, Mayo 1795 AGN, Diversos, LXIX, 113. I do not have a definitive number of apprehended runaways, because the lists seem incomplete. I had access to a large expediente that has the declarations of twenty-four runaways. One of the runaways assured that there were more than fifty runaways in the area, but others contradicted him. See Procedimientos contra esclavos fugitives en los montes de Capaya y sus declaraciones, AGN, Dversos, LXVI, 469-569.

505

506

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African cultural models, the ways they established their authority, and how they became stable communities based on small-scale settled agricultural production, not necessarily dependent on theft. However, in the context of my research, a look into this source has allowed me to understand the reasons why slaves resisted white oppression by escaping, and how the authorities and the white elites related the maroons to slave insurrections and even to the Haitian Revolution. The most frequent questions that these runaway men and women confronted during the investigation were: why did they escape, how did they live and organize themselves in the forests, and whether they were willing to initiate a black insurgent movement. Most of them escaped from their haciendas for, more or less, the same reasons: heavy physical punishment, deprivation, and humiliations; terrible living conditions such as lack of food or of an appropriate place to sleep , sexual abuses on the part of the mayordomos and masters, and severe labor exploitation.507 A proportion of the twenty-four investigated runaways were working as free laborers (jornaleros) on haciendas in the area, but ten of them declared that they lived in a small maroon community. They lived in small houses made by themselves, and

507

I studied twenty-four declarations of runaway men and women in the Province of Caracas. Of these twenty-four maroons: thirteen declared that they had escaped because of the humiliations and severe punishments they suffered in the hands of their masters and mayordomos; four declared that they had escaped mainly because working conditions were unbearable they had to work when they were sick; four others said that they fled because they did not receive enough food or clothes - one said that he was discontented because his master did not give him enough tobacco -; and of the rest, two were free blacks captured by mistake, and one said he was lost because he was a Dutch slave and he could not speak Spanish. See Procedimientos contra esclavos fugitivos en los montes de Capaya, y sus declaraciones, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 469-500.

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surrounded by fields cultivated by them and for their own consumption. They organized their work in the fields, and followed a captain. The captain named Miguel Gernimo (alias Guacamaya) had escaped six years before because of the severe living conditions he suffered on the hacienda. He said that he had never stolen anything, that instead of stealing he preferred to cultivate his own crops. In the fields he encountered other fugitives, and they decided to cultivate produce together, each of them taking care of a conuco (plot of land for small-scale agricultural production). Everyday, Guacamaya called them to pray the rosary in the afternoon, and if someone refused to do so, I made him leave the place. The same happened to those who did not want to work properly. Miguel Gernimo was asked if he was seeking to provoke an upheaval among the fugitives and slaves of the area, and he clearly answered: We did not have any other intentions than living there, free from the tyranny of our masters.508 Althought authorities were not completely convinced by his declaration, they assigned a punishment for each of them for having escaped: some were whipped in jail, others were delivered to their masters with permission to whip them, and others were assigned to new masters. One slave women was punished so severely by her masters, that she asked to go back and live in jail. In May 1795, Miguel Gernimo was punished in jail with fifty strokes and given the order to return to his master, who was to put shackles on one of his feet.509

508 509

Idem, 476v. Idem, 479.

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Some members of the squadrons did not agree with the judges decisions, and made serious accusations against Miguel Gernimo and two other slaves, Domingo Antonio and Silvestre. According to them, these slaves escaped not for the reasons they expressed, but because they wanted to flee from their condition as slaves, producing tumults and shaking off the yoke of subordination.510 In the opinion, of the members of the squadrons, the slaves escaped in order to provoke slaves uprisings, and not because they wanted to escape the punishments of their masters. They alleged that fifty strokes were nothing, and that these slaves deserved more severe bodily punishments in public and even the death penalty, as an example so that slaves can see what would happen if they tried to escape. The judge maintained that his decision was final, and that those were the proper punishments for maroons whose only fault was to have escaped from their masters and remain fugitives. He added that he could not sentence a capital penalty for these men, based only on rumors and suspicious accusations.511 But the rumors and accusations of black insurrection in the province of Caracas started to flow more intensely in 1795 and 1796. Several hacendados and members of the squadrons declared that the slaves of Caucagua and of the Valleys of El Tuy intended to rise up in order to recover their freedom, freedom that they heard had been granted to them by the King through a Royal Decree, which has been
510 511

Idem, 544. Idem, 545.

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published in the Valleys of Caucagua.512 Rumors spread that the blacks of the region had intentions of killing one of the chiefs of the squadrons, Rafael Heredia, in order to be free, in the same way that the slaves of the Guarico (Haiti) did. Another squadron chief, Miguel Jos Sanz, sent a communication to the Captain General saying that these rumors should not be ignored, and that they must be wary of any movement or signal of insurrection, in order to quickly take control of the situation. Sanz clearly felt threatened by the menacing rumors. He was the chief of ten squadrons in Caucagua, Capaya, Guarenas, Petare, Sabana de Ocumare, Barlovento, La Guaira, La Victoria and Turmero.513 These rumors suggested that blacks of the region could have resented the pressure and control that the relatively recent squadron raids represented. The threat of killing the chief of a squadron was a clear enough indication that the prospects of slave insurrection seemed to respond more to the increased vigilance than to the Haitian revolution. But still, the reference to the slaves of Guarico was powerful and attracted the attention of local authorities. Blacks perceived both the fear of local whites and the discursive power of Haiti, and took advantage of these to threaten. For their part, whites perceived the danger of insurrection in even the most innocent black expressions. A conversation, a song, the sound of drumming at night, or a opinion critical of whites - elites felt that these were all evidence that a tumult of
512 513

Idem, 548.

Carta de Miguel Jos Sanz al Capitn General de Venezuela, 26/8/1796 AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 548v.

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blacks was being planned. According to Joaqun Zubillaga, Lieutenant of the King and Interim Governor of the Province of Caracas, these expressions should not be underestimated
Because although they were no more than obscenities or isolated voices among the slaves, mulattos, and zambos, they could over time produce the fatal consequences of preparing their spirits for an uprising, like the one that took place in Coro a year ago.514

With this concern in mind, in September 1796, Zubillaga ordered Juan de La Torre to undertake an investigation with the support of the members of the squadrons in the Valley of Caucagua to find out whether there were intentions of planning a black uprising, and what the relationship was between whites and blacks, and maroons and slaves. Interestingly, the mentioning of Coro in the text of Zubillaga allows to appreciate that Coro reinforced the concerns and fears that the St. Domingues rebellions had already awoke in the authorities That same month, a strong rumor spread among the population that a slave, named Anselmo had injured a mayordomo on the hacienda of Blanco Uribe, in the Valley of Caucagua. Juan Agustn de La Torre decided to visit the region immediately in order to head the inquiry into a case that was clearly related to the rumors, spread by hacendados some months before, that a black insurgent movement was emerging in Caucagua. De La Torre spent two months in the Valley, observing blacks (slaves, free workers, and fugitives) as well as their relationship with whites. He also took the
514

Comunicacin del Gobernador interino, Don Joaqun Zubillaga, en respuesta a la carta de Miguel Jos Sanz, con respecto al rumor del possible alzamiento de los negros esclavos de Caucagua AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 549.

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declarations of two white men (a hacendado and a free worker), and of one slave who had supposedly seen the confrontation between the slave Anselmo and the mayordomo. The first person to declare was the hacendado Diego Muoz. He said that he was fairly sure that the slaves of his hacienda, located in Caucagua, were looking forward to an uprising, because someone told them that a Royal Decree from the King had given them their freedom but that we, the whites, are hiding it from them.515 Apparently, Muoz shared his concerns with a free white worker named Carlos Hernndez who told him that he had been told that a black from the Hacienda of Camejo usually visited the slaves of other haciendas during the night in order to spread the news that in Guarico, the blacks got away with it (se salieron con la suya), and were now free, and that they themselves could do the same because they were stronger.516 According to Muoz, this slave was willing to lead the insurrection, and he proposed beginning by killing one of the chiefs of the squadrons, Heredia, as a signal for the start of the uprising. De La Torre decided to request a formal declaration from Hernndez. The white worker practically repeated the same story as Muoz; involving the black visitor who came at night, referred to Haitian blacks, urged the slaves to rebel, and encouraged them saying that they were stronger and could achieve the same ends.
515 516

Idem.

Expediente del caso del delito del esclavo Anselmo que hiri al mayordomo de la Hacienda de Blanco Uribe, 21/9/1796, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 554-565.

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Hernndez also said that this black was willing to lead the rebellion and suggested killing Heredia. He also mentioned that this man had connections with others black groups in La Sabana de Ocumare, Capaya, and Curiepe that shared the same goals, and believed that together they could achieve their purposes. In his declaration, Hernndez recommended asking more questions to a slave named Hilario who had probably heard the black visitor himself in one of his visits. De La Torre called the slave Hilario to declare. Asked what were the reasons that drove the slave Anselmo to injure his mayordomo, Hilario answered that Anselmo was injured too and he was defending himself from the mayordomo. Hilario also added that the only black who had visited them was a slave named Vicente who came to the hacienda for a baptism because he was the godfather of the child. He met him but did not hear a word about any royal decree, or anything about maroons and leaders (cabecillas).517 In the end, he concluded that he knew nothing about insurrections or about the slaves of Guarico. Evidently, if the slave did have information and had heard the rumors, he decided to remain in silence and not to comment on them. In view of the apparent ignorance of Hilario, de La Torre decided to keep quiet too and stop the investigation, because he was not sure about the slaves knowledge of a black insurgency, and did not want to exchange more information with them that could give them hopes or inspiration to plan a movement on their own.518

517 518

Idem, 558. Idem.

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In this way, the silence of the slave forced de La Torre to remain in silence about the rumors of the blacks of Haiti, and about the aspirations of the blacks of the region. However, in this case in particular, Haiti seems to have functioned as a model that blacks used theoretically but not necessarily in practice, in a way, it allowed them to get the attention they wanted, without necessarily taking up arms and rising up.519 De La Torre closed the case, but also submitted a long report about the general situation of slavery and of free blacks in the region. He concluded that he had only heard rumors and voices of insurrection, but that he could not find any clear evidence or motive for a black movement. Instead, he believed that there was a general disorder of customs (desorden de costumbres), and a lack of authority and control on the part of the whites. Some slaves escaped from one hacienda to work in another just like a free worker; landlords did not control their workers, employing blacks regardless of their condition, without asking for a card of liberty (carta de libertad), and without inquiring where they came from. In his opinion the blacks lived in a general disorder and responded with insolence.520 He believed that there were some measures that could be taken by masters and colonial authorities to impose some restraints on the slaves. For example, he argued

519

Regarding the use of Haiti as a theoretical but not practical reference in Cuba see Ada Ferrer, Cuba a la sombra de Hait: Noticias, Sociedad y Esclavitud, 214-219. She argues: It is evident that the majority of slaves that declared felt attracted, in theory but not in practice, by the revolution of Haiti, 219. Informe de De La Torre al Gobernador interino Joaquin Zubillaga, sobre sospecha de sedicin en los Valles, 25/09/1796, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 566-568.

520

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that there should be restrictions on the consumption of alcohol which incited slaves to be disobedient and disrespectful with their superiors, and to have seditious conversations. He also recommended not to give the role of mayordomo to a black, or even worse to a black woman, as some hacendados had done in the Valley, because the moment you give a black the authority to rule others, you do not know if he will inspire them to rebel and to shake off the yoke of subordination.521 But de La Torre also argued that there were other concessions that should be taken to keep the slaves contented and calm. For him, the happiness of the slaves assured the tranquility of the province. Therefore, he suggested for example, the controlling of the activities of local shopkeepers (pulperos). With stores in the small towns of the area, these tyrants he said bought agricultural products from thieves usually maroons at very low prices, and sold these same products to slaves and free blacks at very high prices, gaining more than fifty percent of the value of the product. Likewise, these pulperos did not use measures or weights, and sold everything just the way they wanted. De La Torre noticed that the slaves who went to the town to buy some products they lacked on the haciendas or in their conucos felt frustrated by the abuses committed by these shopkeepers. De La Torre also noticed that the price of meat was very high, and that blacks, who are very attracted to eating meat can only eat it occasionally during the course of the year. He recommended the authorities open new roads that could connect the
521

Idem.

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central valleys with the plains where cattle were raised, and in this way provide the population of the valleys with better-quality meat at a more reasonable price. In this way, hacendados could provide their slaves with better food and they would consequently be more contented to work. De La Torre also argued that these roads could be used to control the contraband of cacao from the valleys to the plains, an activity that was supposedly controlled by maroon communities. De La Torre made a fourth recommendation that calls our attention. He suggested the supervision and improvement of tobacco crops in the valleys, so the slaves could consume tobacco of better quality. He wrote:
I believe that blacks get upset when they dont have tobacco, and also because of the bad quality of that which grows in the valleys. It is undeniable that these slaves prefer tobacco to meat. If you ever find a slave lacking both, he will prefer tobacco to meat.522

The observer was impressed by the many times that slaves had complained to him about tobacco. Slaves thought that I had the authority to remedy this. De la Torre felt the need to calm these slaves by arguing that they had a bad year with tobacco, but that better times would come. However, he confessed: I have always noticed the bad quality of the tobacco grown in these valleys, and this is something that creates great displeasure among the slaves.523 So he recommended importing the tobacco from other regions to the central Valleys.

522 523

Ibid, 568. Idem.

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Comparing the runaways reasons for escaping mentioned above with the observations and recommendations of De La Torre, allows us to notice coincidences and to get a clearer idea of the situation of the blacks in the Valley of Caucagua. Runaways and slaves, indeed, demanded better living conditions in terms of the food they could buy, the consumption of meat, and also complained about the lack of tobacco or the poor quality of it. 524 But what about the cruelty and punishment imposed by masters and mayordomos? According to our records about the maroons of the Valley, mistreatment and physical punishment represented 50 percent of the complaints by runaways.525 It was unlikely that slaves and maroons complained more about the quality of tobacco than about the mistreatment by their masters. Why did de La Torre not mention anything about the punishments and the cruelty? My interpretation is that a claim for better treatment for the slaves would have contradicted de La Torres recommendations to establish greater control over the slaves. In a sense, his recommendations were two-pronged: on the one hand, tightening control and increasing submission of the slaves and maroons, while at the same time improving living conditions (food and tobacco) which did not necessarily endanger due subordination and order. Heavy punishments would be part of

524

Some runaways said that they never had the chance to eat meat on their haciendas. One said that his master only gave him plantains and corn to eat, not even grains or bread. Another said that he never got water and one day he was so hungry that he ate the food of the beasts. Procedimientos contra esclavos fugitivos en los montes de Capaya y sus declaraciones, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 469-569, 481v. See Procedimientos contra esclavos fugitivos en los montes de Capaya, y sus declaraciones, AGN, Diversos, LXVI, 469-500.

525

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maintaining order, so he did not even need to mention this in his report. Considering this, I believe that some complaints of blacks caught the attention of the authorities, while others did not prompt an immediate response because they implied recognizing the problems and failures of the system. So the authorities were willing to recognize and negotiate certain demands, but not others that might have compromised or undermined their authority over the black population. The cases mentioned above show us that fear of black insurrection not only justified more control, but also the search for consent and the recommendation for better treatment on the part of the masters, as a way of decreasing slaves and free blacks motivations for rebellions. Free blacks and slaves appreciated this inclination on the part of the authorities and manipulated it for their own purposes. In December 1797, the free blacks and slaves of Curiepe sent a letter to the Captain General of Venezuelan denouncing that they were treated in a miserably way by the white hacendados of the region and by the Justicia Mayor of Curiepe. They also complained that the commercial taxes were too high. Immediately, the Captain General sent a letter to Jos Ans, Justicia Mayor of Curiepe, alerting him that in the current circumstances he was not to oppress or allow anyone to oppress the blacks of the region.526 Enraged, Jos de Ans answered that all those denunciations were lies made up by a group of blacks who dont want to work and who live miserably because they do not accomplish their tasks. He also

526

Comunicacin del Gobernador y Capitn General al Justicia Mayor de Curiepe, 11/1/1798 AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXVII, 240.

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added that these blacks did not show any respect for his authority, believing that they depend directly on your Government and Captaincy. In the end, Ans assured the Captain General that he was a good man (hombre de bien) and he had always treated them gently, fulfilling his responsibilities and preventing complaints from anyone in town.527 Additionally, Ans commented that he had heard that the real origin of the blacks discontents was that they were treated by pardos with contempt, but that he was not even sure about this rumor either, because he had witnessed blacks and pardos having a friendly relationship and attending public celebrations together. In the end, Ans assured that he was aware of the importance of keeping people of color contented, but that he could not control the malicious intentions and rumors of some of the blacks who in order to provoke fear, stir up hotheads and spread false rumors that seriously damage the population.528 Such was the case of a black man from Curiepe, Juan Pablo Castellanos, who seeking to improve the situation of black people in the town, supposedly went to Caracas in order to directly express his protest to the Captain General. The cases mentioned above, showed that Haiti brought more attention in part of the whites to slaves and the colored population, who did not lose any opportunity to speak up and make clear their demands in order to win better material conditions. For the elites the situation was completely different, the Haitian Revolution made them
527

Comunicacin de Don Jos Ans al Gobernador y Capitn General, acusa recibo de su carta, 22/1/98 AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General LXVIII, 261-63. Ibid, 264.

528

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reconsider their relations with subalterns, heightening their suspicions and underminining their confidence in their slaves. The colonial authorities, in particular, became more aware of the need of keeping blacks of the region contented while controlling the potential emergence of new subversive movements. This concern led them to pay more attention to the relationshiop between masters and slaves, and especially to any complaints rised by the latter. The shift of local authorities relationship with free blacks and slaves will become more evident as increasing negative and fearful views of the blacks uprisings arrived in the region of Venezuela thank to the great number of Spanish Dominican who migrated to the region and shared their own fearful and horrifying stories of the invasion of Toussaint and his troops. The next section will analyze the kind of stories that these immigrants shared and their impact on the authorities and elites.

2. Toussaint Invades Santo Domingo: The Presence of Spanish Dominican Families in Venezuela and their Stories of Chaos

On January 20, 1801, Captain Josef Blade arrived in the Port of Puerto Cabello on his ship Nuestra Seora del Carmen. Blade had left Puerto Cabello at the beginning of December 1800 with a load of foodstuffs and cacao which he transported to Spanish Santo Domingo. On January 6, 1801, he and all the population of the city of Santo Domingo received the news that the Black Toussaint and his people were

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heading to the city of Santo Domingo in order to take it. Immediately after hearing the news, the governor of the Spanish section of the island, Don Joaqun Garca, ordered all men (older than 16 years and younger than 60 years) to organize themselves and be prepared to defend the city from the atrocious actions that the black troops of Toussaint could commit.529 Blade left the port of Santo Domingo on January 14. Twelve passengers accompanied him, most of them were white women from the city of Santo Domingo who wanted to escape from Toussaint and his blacks. Blade also told Miguel Marmin, Commander of Puerto Cabello, that many people in Santo Domingo were boarding ships with different destinations, such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the different ports on the coast of Venezuela. He was sure that in the next months many more ships would come to Venezuela bringing people from Santo Domingo who were afraid of the invasion of Toussaint and his people.530 Blade was right, between January and May of 1801, more than one thousand emigrants arrived at different ports and cities of Venezuela.531

529

Comunicacin de Don Miguel Marmin, Teniente de Puerto Cabello, al Capitn General de Venezuela, 20/1/1801, in AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XCVI, 229-234. Ibid.

530 531

See Estado que manifiesta el nmero de personas emigradas en este Puerto, as particulares como de los Cuerpos Poltico y Militar, y de la Real Hacienda procedentes de la Ysla Espaola de Santo Domingo, Maracaibo, 21 de marzo de 1801 quoted in Fernando Carrera Montero, Las complejas relaciones de Espaa con la Espaola: El Caribe hispano frente a Santo Domingo y Saint-Domingue, 1789-1803 (Repblica Dominicana: Fundacin Garca Arvalo, 2004), 505.

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The Haitian Revolution provoked an incredible mobilization of people in the Atlantic World. Plantations went up in flames; hundreds of people of all colors were killed; Spanish, British, and French armies invaded; and thousands of residents fled. Throughout the last decade of the eighteenth century and during the early years of the nineteenth century, ships carried thousands of white refugees, their slaves, and free people of color from Saint-Domingue to ports in other Caribbean islands, Europe, Spanish America, and North America. The historiography that has studied the impact that these people had on each location is vast and rich, and has raised interesting questions regarding the complex web of representations and images that these refugees produced and reproduced about race, freedom, and republicanism in the western world during the Age of Revolution.532 The stories that these refugees told and retold have provided interesting ways for historians to restore the connection between the French and Haitian Revolutions, and the rest of the Atlantic World. As Ashli White contends: Saint-Dominguan exiles raised as many questions about being a republic as they did

532

On Saint-Domingue refugees, their mobilizations, and their stories, see Carla A. Basseaux and Glenn R. Conrad, eds., The Road to Louisiana: The Saint-Domingue Refugees, 1792-1809 (Louisiana: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of South Louisiana, 1992); R.D. Meadows, Engineering Exile: Social Networks and the French Atlantic Community, 1789-1809, French Historical Studies 23, no. 1 (2000): 67-102; Soler, Las repercusiones de la Revolucin Francesa en el Caribe espaol; Ashli White, A Flood of Impure Lava: Saint-Domingue Refugees in the United States, 1791-1820 (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2003) and Encountering Revolution. Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2010); Susan Branson and Leslie Patrick, Etrangers dans un Pays Etrange: Saint-Dominguan Refugees of color in Philadelphia, in The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, ed. David P. Geggus (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001), 193-208; Jennifer Pierce, Discourses of the Dispossessed: Saint-Domingue Colonists on Race, Revolution, and Empire, 1789-1825 (PhD diss., State University of New York at Binghamton, 2005).

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about slaveholding and, in the case of the United States, these questions forced Americans to confront the paradox of being a slaveholding republic.533 When Toussaint decided to invade the Spanish section of the island, a wave of Spanish Dominican refugees, carrying with them the stories of terror about the Haitian Revolution and its black leaders, fled to other Caribbean islands and to different ports in Spanish America. Like the Saint-Domingue refugees, these Spanish Dominican refugees also brought their stories and interpretations of the invasion of the black troops, republicanism, race, and slavery. Their accounts were framed in a narrative that depicted them as victims of a revolution that leaped across the territorial borders, invaded their hometowns, and forced them to leave their land, their possessions, and their slaves. These refugees became masters of the narrative: they provided detailed descriptions of how they had to confront the fury of the sea, the danger of pirates, and the pain of separation from their families.534 The circumstances that these refugees had endured attracted not only the interest of colonial officials who tried to offer them support, but also of common people who met them in the streets and in the market,

533 534

White, Encountering Revolution. Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic, 3.

Natalie Zemon Davis and Carlo Ginzburg have shown us that when the condemned seek to portray themselves as victims, they become masters of the narrative. Both historians have proven that the study of narrative strategies is a valuable model for understanding the relationship between individuals perception and the broader political, social, and cultural forces that shape them. See Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth Century France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987) and Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms. For interesting discussions of the politics of victimization, see John C. Torpey, ed., Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) and Robert Elias, The Politics of Victimization: Victims, Victimology, and Human Rights (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).

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and who came face to face with a powerful and fearful version of the Haitian Revolution: a version which reduced it to chaos, disorder and devastation. Many of the refugees who came to Venezuela during the Haitian revolutionary events were Spaniards from the colony of Santo Domingo. Most of these families began to move from Spanish Santo Domingo to Venezuela by the end of 1795 (when the Spanish section of the Island was ceded to France), but the most significant wave of refugees arrived during the first months of 1801, as a result of the occupation of the Spanish section of the island by Toussaint Louverture. Most of these families did not have Venezuela as their final destination; in fact, many of them visited different places in the greater Caribbean until they found a definitive place to settle. The island of Cuba was among the most popular destinations of these families who wanted to recreate the same political, economic and social conditions that they had enjoyed in Santo Domingo before the revolutionary turbulences occurred.535 However, while they stayed in Venezuela, these refugees spread a radical version of the Haitian revolution as an extremely chaotic event that brought disorder and destruction to the political and and the social order. They shared powerful representations of what happened when a territory became ruled by blacks who were depicted as savages, violent, and insolent subjects, naturally prone to authoritarism and anarchism. In addition, these refugees were also a clear and direct evidence of the expansionist intentions of Toussaint and
535

About Dominican refugees in Cuba, see Carlos Esteban Deive, Las emigraciones dominicanas a Cuba (1795-1808) (Santo Domingo: Fundacin Cultural Dominicana, 1989) and Ferrer, Cuba en la sombra de Hait: noticias, sociedad y esclavitud.

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his revolution, a movement that, in the refugees opinions, did not follow any political plan and did not respect territorial boundaries and sovereignty. In this sense, the refugees narratives generated a more negative, harsh, and fearful version of the blacks and the subaltern politics than had existed previously in the province, and reinforced the increasing suspicions that elites developed on their slaves and free colored workers. As we mentioned before, the Spanish section of Santo Domingo had been ceded by the Spanish Crown to the French Republic in 1795 with the Treaty of Basle. The Treaty stated that the colony was to be ceded in exchange for the evacuation of territory occupied by the French troops on the Iberian Peninsula. In 1795, the French government appointed a commission to undertake the civil administration of the Spanish section. Among these men were: Mr. Roume de St. Laurent, named as the French agent in Spanish Santo Domingo, General Etienne Lavaux, already Governor of the French section of the island, General Rochambeau, named to a similar post in the Spanish section, and General Kerversau. Nevertheless, different circumstances delayed the official cession; one of the most important was that France lacked the military force to replace the Spanish military personnel, nor did it count on the economic resources necessary to establish a government. Although it was official, the fact is that the cession of this section of the island to the French never took place.536

536

For a complete description of the cession of Santo Domingo to France, see Wendell G. Schaeffer, The Delayed Cession of Spanish Santo Domingo to France, 1795-1801, The Hispanic American Historical Review 29, no. 1 (1949): 46-8, and Deive, Las emigraciones dominicanas.

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In spite of the delay in carrying out the provision of the Treaty of Basle, many Spanish inhabitants left the island because for them it was evident that there was no going back. By this time, many of the richer Spanish proprietors and merchants had fled with their goods and their slaves to other Spanish American destinations. I have found that some families reached the coast of Venezuela in 1796 with the intentions of settling and developing commercial activities there. Venezuelan colonial authorities were reluctant to accept the presence of these refugees from Santo Domingo on the mainland because their slaves could become a source of revolutionary contagion among other slaves and free people of color. In May 1796, for example, several families from Santo Domingo arrived in the port of La Guaira and the port of La Vela de Coro. Many of these people were merchants, and brought with them agricultural and manufactured goods, such as textiles, tobacco, and alcohol that they intended to sell in the province. They demanded exemption from the 22 percent of commercial tax that the Real Hacienda applied to anyone importing merchandise into the Province of Venezuela. According to them, they did not have to pay such taxes when they left Santo Domingo and they believed that their special condition exempted them from paying commercial taxes in Spanish ports. In a communication to the Captain General, one of the Dominican merchants, Jos Peralta, stated that he had left the comfort of his home and his land to follow the Spanish flag, sacrificing everything he owned for his loyalty to the King. He added

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that he was sure that the King, who is willing to relieve the pain of his beloved vassals, people who have abandoned their island and have followed the flag, driven by their loyalty and love, would grant them these favors. Peralta used a discourse of victimization, listing the number of sacrifices he had made and the number of risks he and his family had taken when putting their health in jeopardy and leaving everything for their loyalty to Spain. He, and all of the other Dominican merchants, expected exemption from commercial taxes as a way of compensating them for their fidelity to the Crown.537 Quatermaster General Esteban Fernndez de Len argued that the exemption of commercial taxes for Dominican merchants only applied to other Spanish islands like Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad, but not to Venezuela. Local authorities considered that only the Crown could make a final decision about any exemption from taxes, and in consequence they requested the payment of taxes for commercial products, except for those goods that were for personal use and consumption. In a report to the Crown, Fernndez de Len stated that it was preferable to create some difficulties for the Spanish Dominicans to enter the province, as a way to dissuade others like them from coming to Venezuela. He argued that most of them bring slaves contaminated with the ideas of freedom, especially since the French agent Mr. Roume arrived. These ideas could cause a terrible impression in this country, as
537

Testimonio del Expediente de Don Jos Peralta y varios vecinos del comercio, solicitando se les declare libres de impuestos los efectos que traen por su emigracin a la Provincia de Venezuela, 5/1796, AGI, Caracas, 507, no. 991.

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the population is made up in large proportion by slaves.538 Fernndez de Lens response shows that the colonial authorities did not favor the entrance of these refugees and their contaminated slaves on the mainland, where ideas spread more easily and quickly. However, when Toussaint invaded the Spanish section of Santo Domingo in 1801, the colonial authorities responded positively to the entry of refugees in the province, as they came in larger numbers and brought stories of terror that could not be ignored. In 1798, the tensions between the legitimate French authorities assisted by the Captain General of Santo Domingo, Joaqun Garca and Toussaint Louverture changed the fate of the Spanish section of the island. By this time, Toussaint had made up his mind to invade Santo Domingo. According to many historians, Toussaint had sufficient reasons to invade: in the first place, he wanted to abolish slavery and the slave trade on the entire island because he was sure that men, women, and children who were French citizens were kidnapped, taken to Santo Domingo, and sold as slaves. In the second place, considering his confrontation with the French government, Toussaint also needed to control the eastern part of the island which could be used as a base for French military operations against him. Toussaint forced General Roume, the Franch agent in Santo Domingo, to issue a decree calling for the occupation, and

538

Comunicacin de Esteban Fernndez de Len a Don Diego de Gardoqui, 6/1796, AGI, Caracas, 507, no. 991.

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under huge pressure Roume signed the capitulation. On April 27, 1800, Toussaint ordered the occupation of the Spanish part of Santo Domingo.539 Eight months later, and after defeating Rigaud in the south, Toussaint led his troops to San Juan de la Maguarn and divided his army of 20,000 men into two groups. One group entered the southern area of the Spanish section, and the other, led by his nephew Moyse, entered the northern region. On January 10, rumors circulated among the population of Santo Domingo that Toussaint and his troops were close to the city. In order to prevent Toussaint from capturing the French officials, Joaqun Garca gave them passports, and on January 13, Generals Chalantee and Kerversau left the city.540 The French generals arrived in Puerto Cabello (Venezuela) on January 18, 1801. Upon their arrival, the commander of Puerto Cabello, Miguel Marmin, in accordance with the law that prohibited the entry of French people into the province, ordered them to stay on board and leave for the port of La Guaira. The French generals sent a letter to the Captain General, Manuel Guevara Vasconcelos, pleading for their entry into the province, arguing that instead of rigorously applying the laws, the commander of Puerto Cabello should listen to the voice of humanity, politics, and the

539

Schaeffer, The Delayed Cession of Spanish Santo Domingo to France, and Dubois, Avengers of the New World, Chapters 10 and 11. Pasaporte otorgado por Joaqun Garca a Antonio Chanlantte, General de Brigada francs en la parte espaola de Santo Domingo, 13/01/1801, AGI, Estado, 59, no. 14, 3.

540

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common cause that today unites Spain and France.541 They also explained the circumstance of the invasion by Toussaint Louverture of the Spanish section of Santo Domingo and the need to receive the Venezuelan governments support in order to continue their trip to France. In France they would communicate to the French government the deplorable state to which the horrible ambition of Toussaint had reduced the entire Island of Santo Domingo. The generals were sure that Toussaints intentions were to extend his dominion beyond the limits of the island, and to control all the communication networks such in a way that soon France would not have any direct information apart from those that which Toussaint the enemy communicates.542 Captain General, Guevara Vasconcelos, sent the Generals a reply in which he stated that in the current circumstances they would receive them in the province, and that he understood the importance of Spain and France becoming allies against the terrible menace of Toussaint. Therefore, on January 23, he authorized their landing, offered his hospitality, and expressed his willingness to safeguard the archives that these generals had brought with them. The archives contained valuable documents regarding military, administrative and political affairs for both the French and the

541

Carta de los Generales Chanlantte y Kerversau al Gobernador y Capitn General de Venezuela, AGI, Estado, 59, no. 14. Following the Treaty of Aranjuez, Spain became the active ally of France on June 27, 1796, and the following November a war started between Spain and England. See Schaeffer, The Delayed Cession of Spanish Santo Domingo to France, 55. Comunicacin de los Generales Franceses al Capitn General de Venezuela, 3/1801, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, XCVI, 51-52, 85-87.

542

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Spanish sections of the Island.543 Among these documents there was a long report written by Chalantte that showed how the relations between Toussaint and the French generals had deteriorated in 1799 and 1800. In this report, Toussaint was described as a traitor, usurper of the Antilles, and as a tyrannical ruler who had submerged the island in the worst state of anarchy.544 While in Caracas, General Kerversau wrote another report with the intention of explaining the procedures and the general nature of Toussaints political actions and their effects on the island. Kerversau again contended that Toussaint was a traitor who had assumed different positions and allied with different parties, with the sole intention of pursuing his personal ambitions. He wrote:
I have witnessed Tusain (sic) oppressing whites while persuading them to join him; exterminating people of color while listening to their sacred songs and clamors for piety, and ruling blacks after having killed some of the chiefs that had influence over the population.545

In the opinion of Kerversau, Toussaint used the republic as an instrument to establish the tyrannical rule, of an ambitious and haughty caracter. The invasion of the Spanish section was, precisely, a strategy to eliminate the presence of the French in the entire territory. He concluded:

543

Comunicacin del Capitn General de Venezuela autorizando el desembarco de los Generales Franceses, 23/01/1801, AGI, Estado, 59, no. 14. Relacin sobre el estado de la parte francesa y de la parte espaola de Santo Domingo, por Antonio Chalantte, General de Brigada y Comisario del Gobierno Francs en la parte espaola, 8/5/1800, AGI, Estado, no. 14. Extracto de la principal relacin sobre los acontecimientos de Santo Domingo por el General Kerversau, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, LXXXV, 316 324v, 317.

544

545

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For those of you who do not know Toussaint, forget your illusions: as long as the colony continues he alone will rule. There will be laws, but these simply reflect his will; there will be authority, but only his, because this is what happens in a colony ruled by an unruly and traitorous black.546

In this last paragraph, Kerversau allows us to perceive his racial prejudice against Toussaint. Kerversau argues that republicanism in the hands of blacks like Toussaint become a tyrannical system, not because blacks dont know what republicanism is and how it works, but because blacks have a haughty and arrogant character and are prone to authoritarianism. In the following months, several accounts and reports written by the Dominican refugees who came to Venezuela reinforced this negative image of Toussaint and of the black men who made up his troops. These accounts could only have aggravated the racial and social tensions already existing in the Province of Venezuela, promoting greater resistance on the part of the colored people and increasing fear, and the urge to control and repress on the part of whites. On January 20, 22, and 23, 1801 three ships, carrying two hundred seventyone Dominican refugees arrived at the Port of Maracaibo, one of the most important cities in the northwestern region of Venezuela. Although the governor of Maracaibo, Fernando Mijares, was surprised by the unexpected arrival of these refugees, he soon made arrangements to receive them and ordered the neighbors of Maracaibo to welcome them in their homes and provide them with food and shelter. He also decided

546

Ibid, 322.

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to send two of these ships back to Santo Domingo carrying food from the region, and with orders to pick up more people willing to escape from Toussaint.547 The Governor noticed that the great majority of the refugees were women, children, and domestic servants. Of approximately twenty-five families, there were only four male heads of household. The reason why Dominican husbands did not board the ships was that Joaqun Garca, Governor of Santo Domingo, had ordered that the men should stay to confront Toussaints troops. However, once Garca capitulated on January 27, everyone in Santo Domingo tried to flee from the city with their families.

Table 1 Number of Dominicans in Maracaibo, January 1801 March 1801548

Ship Ventura 01/20/1801 Santa Cecilia 01/22/1801 Soledad 01/23/1801 Ntra. Seora del Carmen 01/29/1801 Ventura 02/4/1801 Dinamarquesa549 02/14/1801
547

Whites 53 11 55 33 101 85

Criados 43 6 28 54 68 12

Slaves 0 11 64 0 0 0

Total 96 28 147 87 169 97

Comunicacin del Gobernador Fernando Mijares al Capitan General de Venezuela, 23/01/1801, AGI, Estado 60, no. 3. This table compiles 13 reports in Relaciones del nmero de personas emigradas de la Isla Espaola de Santo Domingo y llegadas al Puerto de Maracaibo (enero marzo, 1801), AGI, Estado, 60, no. 3.

548

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San Cristobal 02/23/1801 La Elisa550 02/22/1801 Soledad 02/27/1801 Nuestra Seora del Carmen 02/27/1801 Americana 02/27/1801 San Quins and Santa Julita 03/02/1801 Nuestra Seora del Rosario 03/28/1801 Total

295 4 90 32 14 289 21 1,083

4 6 0 0 2 14 0 237

1 0 0 0

300 10 90 32 16

7 0 83

310 21 1,403

It is interesting to note that the first three ships that arrived in Maracaibo (see table 1) brought a total of one hundred fifty-two slaves (seventy-five plantation slaves and seventy-seven domestics) that represented 56 percent of the emigrants aboard. This was exceptional because in subsequent ships the proportion of slaves decreased significantly. Deive explained this situation: once Toussaint entered the city, he strictly prohibited Dominican masters to take their slaves with them. He argued that he could not allow the exit of the people upon whom the agricultural development of
549

In this ship arrived Don Leonardo Del Monte y Medrano with his family and five criados. Del Monte was a Magistrate of the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo. Apparently he stayed in Maracaibo until 1809, when he and his family moved to Cuba. His son Domingo del Monte was born in Maracaibo on August 4, 1804. Domingo del Monte was a recognized man of letters and critic, and accused of participating in the Conspiracy of La Escalera in 1844. In this ship arrived the governor and Captain General of Santo Domingo, Don Joaqun Garca, and his family. Garca stayed in Maracaibo for three months and a half. He arrived in La Habana on July 20 1801.

550

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region depended. Garca tried to persuade Toussaint, but he only allowed the Dominicans to take their domestic slaves (who were included in he category criados) with them, which they surely did, as almost 17 percent of the refugees were named as criados.551 White refugees portrayed themselves as victims of Toussaint Louverture, whose invasion forced them to leave their homes and haciendas, abandoning also their slaves and possessions, and separating them from their families and communities. Their narratives also described the dangers they faced in the Caribbean sea, not only because of the bad climate and strong winds, but also because of the presence of pirates who pursued ships in order to sack them. This was the situation that the refugees on board the ship Ventura confronted when an English frigate captured them. The pirates boarded their ship, took everything they could from the families including twenty four slaves , broke everything else, and when they tried to fondle the women, the Priest Valverde bravely opposed them, claiming that they would have to kill him before committing these atrocious actions against the women. Another ship also carrying families from Santo Domingo suffered the impact of strong winds and a heavy sea, and its capitan was forced to

551

Deive, Las emigraciones dominicanas, 95. In Latin America, the term criado usually referred to a person raised by the family, a poor relative, or someone from the hacienda who depended on the family. The term did not normally applied to the slaves. However, since Toussaint prohibited the exit of field slaves, and allowed only the exit of domestic slaves, Dominicans masters seemed to have included his/her domestics slaves under the category criados, in order not to call the attention of the authorities. The table shows how the number of criados significantly increased as the prohibition of taking slaves took place. See table 1.

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change course. The ship reached the land in the middle of the night and entire families had to walk along the beach in the dark, suffering hunger and fatigue, until they found help. 552 Maracaibo was the destination chosen by Garca for the Cantabria Regiment, the commanders of Santo Domingo, some ministers of the Real Hacienda, Magistrates of the royal court, secretaries, important militiamen of Santo Domingo, and for himself and his family. According to Deive, Garca believed that the maritime route from Santo Domingo to Maracaibo was more secure than the others, and he wanted to bring to safety all the papers, money, and books that belonged to the Crown.553 Garca landed with his family, six domestic slaves, and the Secretary Nicols Toledo in Maracaibo on February 22. Immediately after his arrival, he got in contact with the governor of Maracaibo and shared with him his impressions of Toussaint Louvertures invasion. In a letter addressed to the Captain General, Garca contended that the black leader had taken the island violently, breaking all the terms of the Treaty of Basle. He obliged to leave, and took everything that belonged to the king, establishing an authoritarian rule, and setting a terrible example for the people of color and for the slaves.554

552

Comunicacin del Gobernador Mijares al Capitn General de Venezuela, 14/02/1801, AGI, Estado, 60, no. 13, 211. Deive, Las emigraciones dominicanas, 93-6. Comunicacin del Gobernador Mijares al Capitn General de Venezuela, 24/2/1801 and 3/2/1801, AGI, Estado, 60, no. 13, 218. 219, 220. Comunicacin de Joaqun Garca al Capitn General de Venezuela sobre situacin de Santo Domingo, la toma de la plaza por las tropas de Toussaint, 24/02/1801, AGI, Estado 60, no. 3.

553

554

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On March 11, 1801, eighteen Dominicans who had settled in the city of Maracaibo signed a letter sent to the Governor of Caracas in which they offered a narrative of the events of Toussaints invasion to Santo Domingo. They reported:
The consternation that from that awful moment invaded our hearts was such that there was no longer order nor agreement in Santo Domingo. Everyone tried immediately to abandon the unhappy fatherland with all their goods and possessions: each person borded a ship wherever and however he could. Therefore our exit resembled more a precipitous escape than a planned emigration, and those who have managed it are fortunate, because the unfortunate who were not able to leave now find the port closed and are suffering the humiliations and shame that are the consequence of the Goverment of a despotic black, full of ambition and desire.555

These testimonies of the refugees from Santo Domingo strongly condemned the actions of Toussaint and his black troops. In general, these accounts depicted the actions of the blacks and mulattos in Haiti as chaotic and destructive, without responding to any political plan or ideological purpose. For the Dominican refugees, it was not possible to imagine blacks and mulattos fighting for the political ideals of liberty and equality, or for republicanism. None of these accounts mentioned the political plan or goals of Toussaint, because for white Dominicans these blacks and

555

La consternacin que desde aquel fatal momento se apoder de nuestros corazones; fue tal que no hubo mas orden no concierto en Sto. Domingo; todos trataron inmediatamente de abandonar una patria infeliz y con ella todos sus bienes, y posesiones: cada cual se embarc donde pudo, y como pudo, suerte que nuestra salida mas ha parecido una fuga precipitada que una emigracin arreglada, y [] dichosos los que lo hemos verificado! Pues los desgraciados que no han podido efectuarla, ya tienen cerrado el Puerto, y estn sufriendo las vejaciones y aprobios que son consecuentes al Gobierno de un negro dspota, lleno de ambicin y de codicia. Comunicado de los emigrados de Santo Domingo residentes en Maracaibo, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, Tomo XCVI, 102-103. In February 8 1801, Toussaint forbid any inhabitant of Spanish Santo Domingo to leave the island, with the exception of the Governor, Ministers and the Regiment of Cantbria. With this decision, Toussaint clearly violated the terms of both the Treaty of Basle and the Capitulations. The Dominicans became citizend of the Republic. See Fernando Carrera Moreno, Las complejas relaciones de Espaa con La Espaola, 473.

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mulattos were just ambitious people whose only purpose was to kill whites, destroy their possessions, and take absolute control of the city. Although records show that 320 slaves (domestics and from plantations) arrived with their masters in Maracaibo, I have not found any testimony from the slaves that allows me to assess their opinions about Toussaint, the Revolution of Haiti, or the invasion of Santo Domingo. In Santo Domingo, according to Deive, free people of color favored Toussaint and celebrated his invasion, while the slaves that remained on the island, acclaimed him when he abolished slavery in August 1801. I would think that black Dominican refugees would have felt the same as their counterparts in Santo Domingo, and would probably have spread favorable rumors about the black rebellion and about freedom and equality in Haiti, as slaves and free blacks of Coro who celebrated the news of the invasion. During the months of January through April, other ships carrying refugees reached different ports in Venezuela, such as Barcelona in the Province of Cuman where Governor Emparan received approximately thirty-one refugees, and Paraguan de Coro, where small groups of refugees also arrived. On January 27, 1801, Andrs Boggiero, Commander and Magistrate of Coro, received the news that a ship proceeding from Santo Domingo had run aground in the Port of La Vela de Coro. On board the ship were approximately one hundred twenty people who had fled from the revolution of blacks in Santo Domingo, and who had walked from the beach to the city of Coro for more than twenty-four hours under the sun and arrived extremely tired. Boggiero was not sure whether to welcome these families that could bring

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rumors and information to the mainland, but he soon received the official order to do so, while keeping an eye on any French individuals entering into the province.556 These refugees also brought their own stories about Toussaints invasion, which they shared with Boggiero. Their descriptions followed the same pattern as those told by the rest of the Dominicans refugees: Toussaint was a traitor; he did not respect the terms of the Treaty of Basle or of the capitulations; he took everything he could from the royal treasury; and declared freedom for all the slaves on the island.557 For them Toussaint represented chaos and disorder. To show blacks lack of order and respect, they commented:
It seems that the disorder is so extreme that these blacks do not even respect women, and insult white officials. Apparently two white militiamen passed by a guard of Toussaint, who whipped the hats off their heads with a 558 bayonet, because the whites had not saluted him.

In March, Boggiero sent four accounts written by these refugees who had temporally settled in Coro to the Captain General of Venezuela. The accounts described the events of the invasion: the number of Toussaints troops, the capitulation of Garca, and general reports regarding the presence and actions of the black troops in the city. All four accounts argued that Toussaint had breached the Treaty of Basle and
556

Comunicacin de Andrs Boggiero al Capitn General de Venezuela, 24/01/1801, AGI, Estado 60, no. 3, 176. The truth is that Toussaint did not abolish slavery in the Spanish Part of Santo Domingo until August 1801. He did prohibit the sale of slaves as well as their exit from the island. Slaves had to stay and remain under the custody of the Republic, as a way of preventing their dispersion and the loss of agriculture. See Fernando Carrera Montero, Las complejas relaciones de Espaa y La Espaola, 472. Comunicacin de Andrs Boggiero al Capitn General de Venezuela, 18/03/1801, AGI, Estado 60, no. 3, 181.

557

558

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his troops had established anarchy and chaos in the capital of Santo Domingo. Don Bartolom Segura, for example, asserted that Toussaint had come into the capital with 2,200 hungry and naked blacks who violated the capitulations, and installed barbarism, disorder, despotism, sensuality, and others vices. Don Domingo Daz Pez asserted: the situation of our island is monstrous. The city, which before was a center of harmony and good order, has been reduced today to the most astonishing anarchy.559 Don Andrs Angulo affirmed: Toussaint is determined to take absolute control over the Island and all its possessions, destroying and eliminating all the rights and properties of the people. [] Everyday, these blacks will increase their boldness and abuses, provoking lamentable misfortunes. At the end, Angulo concluded:
The purposes of Toussaint are that they [the blacks] should become masters of the entire island, as its absolute masters in order to destroy it and anhiliate it, and even spread its fire to the neighboring possessions. This, I think, may be expected in view of his ambition and his daring nature.560

Another witness, Don Fancisco Mosquera y Cabrera stated: The purposes of the blacks are doubtless to extend their evilness all over the island, destroying everything like they did in the French part . Then they would be willing to expand it to other islands. 561

559

Informacin que remiten los emigrados de Sto. Domingo habitantes en Coro, 1801, AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, Tomo XCVI, 66-67. Las miras de Tousain es de creerse que podran senorearse en toda la Ysla como dueno absoluto de esta, destruirla y aniquilarla y aun extender el fuego por defuera de sus posesiones vecinas. Esto digo puede esperarse de su ambicion y genio, Ibid. Ibid.

560

561

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In general, the discourses and representations of these victims of the Revolution underlined the violent nature of blacks, their incapacity for living under any political order, their haughtiness, propensity to vengeance, and their desire to extend their revolution and rule to neighboring regions. Along these lines, the narratives of victimization that French agents and the Dominican refugees produced, radicalized the view of blacks as incompetent rulers, not necessarily because of their ignorance, but because they were seen as naturally prone to violence and authoritarian rule. French agents clearly separated French republicanism from black republicanism, depicting the latter as a system corrupted by the vices of blacks. But the more conservative perspective of Spanish Dominicans saw republicanism as the seed from which chaos and disorder grew, promoting ambition and insolence among the people of color. This new wave of rumors and information brought by Dominicans refugees created more concerns among colonial authorities and the local elites. They not only worried about the possibility that local slaves and free colored might imitate these actions and movements, but also feared the possibility of suffering the same fate as their counterparts in Santo Domingo who suffered the effects of the territorial expansion of the Haitian Revolution. The Captain General and Governor of Venezuela, Guevara Vasconcelos, wrote a letter to the Spanish minister of state in which he argued that it was extremely important for European nations to unite to

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confront and oppose the menace that Toussaint represented to all the American possessions.562 Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo were used as terrible examples of what happened when a territory became dominated by blacks. In a revealing paragraph the Captain General contended that they must keep a close eye on the actions of Toussaint, in order to avoid a terrible fate:
Falling into the hands of a barbarian horde of blacks who until recently were slaves, and that brutally abusing the laws they cant even understand that the French Republic has established, manifest without restraint a furious desire to expel all white men from the island, or to make those who do not leave suffer in revenge for the suffering that blacks think they were subjected to before.563

In this paragraph, Guevara Vasconcelos shows a revealing interpretation of the Haitian events. He believed that the blacks actions responded to a desire for vengeance, and to the need of blacks to produce suffering in those (white masters) who had made them suffer before. Reflecting on this argument, surely Guevara Vasconcelos could well have concluded that the best ways of decreasing the risk of rebellions in the region of Venezuela would be by reducing the blacks discontent and desires for revenge. Of course, Guevara believed that the blacks in Spanish America were not as insolent and rebellious as those in the Antilles, because in Venezuela they

562

Carta del Capitn General de Venezuela, Guevara Vasconcelos, a Urquijo, Primer Secretario de Estado. 28/01/1801 AGI, Estado 61, n.3, reservada no. 48. Carta del Capitn General de Venezuela, Guevara Vasconcelos, a Urquijo, Primer Secretario de Estado. 28/01/1801 AGI, Estado 61, n.3, reservada no. 48.

563

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generally look upon their masters with love and gratefulness.564 But since the ideas and feelings of the blacks of Guarico were contagious, it was still necessary to maintain control of the situation and the vigilance over any suspicious movement on the part of blacks. The violent image of Haiti, the menace of the emergence of new black insurrections like the one in Coro, the accumulated fear that the rumors spread by Dominican refugees produced, the denunciations and complaints from the people of color, and the need to maintain social order encouraged the Captain General to impose certain restraints on the masters treatment towards the blacks. On March 19, 1801, for example, the Captain General issued an order to the hacendados and mayordomos blancos of Haciendas located in the Valley of Rio Chico, Paraquire and Tapipa (Province of Caracas) requesting they to maintain their haciendas in good condition, order, and subordination, helping to establish a gentle and rational method for maintaining harmony and happiness among their slaves, but without loss of respect and subordination.565 With this order, the Captain General recognized the importance of controlling the masters irrational punishments. Colonial elites and authorities recognized the danger of having discontented slaves, and the fear they felt about Haiti not only led them to justify repression in case of an evident insurrection as happened in Coro. They also sought to establish more rational and gentle methods, satisfying
564 565

Idem.

A todos los Dueos de Haciendas de los Valles de Rio Chico, Paraquire y Tapipa en AGN, Gobernacin y Capitana General, Tomo XCVI, 25.

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slaves in some of their demands, particularly when these were easy to accommodate, and controlling any excessive violence in order not to waken feelings of revenge among the colored population. The events of Haiti definitely changed the way Venezuelan slaves and masters perceived themselves and each other. Black slaves and free coloreds embraced not only the events and the heroes of Haiti, but the principles that were sustaining the Revolution. For them, the Haitian revolution was a victory for their race and for the people of their same condition. The stories of Toussaint and his black troops fueled their hopes of freedom and equality. However, Haiti was also evoked for other purposes. The fear that the colored population sensed among the colonial authorities, allowed them to be heard. Haiti brought more visibility to slaves and the colored population, who did not lose any chance to make clear their demands and win better conditions regarding commercial taxes, treatment from their masters, and acquisition of merchandise. For the elites the situation was completely the reverse, the Haitian Revolution heightened their suspicions and undermined their confidence in their slaves. They became more aware of the need to keep blacks contented while controlling any movement that potentially could give power to blacks. In this sense, the web of rumors that circulated among the elites and the slaves not only fed their respective fears and hopes, but also provided them with an awareness of the perceptions of the other.

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Epilogue The Political Use of The Haitian Revolution in Colonial Venezuela

In March 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez expressed, in his weekly radial program Al Presidente (Hello President), his concern about the difficult political circumstances in Haiti. President Chvez had always shown a sympathetic and supportive attitude towards the people of Haiti, but this time he went a little further. He commented that he felt the need to know more about Haiti, and that for this reason he decided to read an interesting book: The Black Jacobins by C.R.L James. I have learned he said that there, in Haiti, blacks organized themselves and formed military troops to get their freedom, and later to defeat Napoleon and obtain their independence.566 Then, he added that he highly recommended all Venezuelans to read this book because this was a story barely mentioned in Venezuelas schools. A week later, the book was sold out in Caracas bookstores. Chvez was right that the Haitian Revolution is a historic event scarcely mentioned in Venezuelan history textbooks, and generally speaking an event that seems completely erased from Venezuelan collective memory. In this sense, I believe Venezuela should be included on the map of the Western historiographies that have silenced Haiti and its revolution through different formulas of erasure and banalization. Moreover, having read and revised the voluminous quantity of
566

Hugo Chvez, Alo Presidente, no. 248. March, 5, 2006.

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documents from the eighteenth-century Venezuela that did mentioned SaintDomingue and its blacks rebels, I agree with Michel Trouillots observation that the acts of silencing did end up hiding the political significance of the event for its contemporaries and for the generation immediately following.567 Here, I have provided examples of how colonial authorities sought to keep in secret all information coming from or about the black rebellions in Saint-Domingue. However what they most tried to hide was not only the knowledge and information about SaintDomingue, but their own fears that another Haiti could emerge in Venezuela and that Venezuelan blacks could become key political actors. In this way, the silence of the contemporaries towards Haiti was tied to white fear, a fear that was a valuable political commodity with plenty of potential consumers.568 However, I have also shown that reference to Saint-Domingue and its rebellions was inevitable and unavoidable. Venezuela not only received many written communications, reports and pamphlets that openly commented on the political circumstances of Saint-Domingue and the french colonies, and on the different social and political actors involved in them. These written materials were also read and discussed by different social groups, regardless of their level of education. These written materials developed alongside the emergence of new spaces for socialization, where discussions and debates concerning racial identities, political values, and power
567 568

Michel Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 97.

Joo Jos Reis and Flvio dos Santo Gomes, Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution in Brazil, 1791-1850, in David Geggus and Norman Fiering, The World of the Haitian Revolution, 289.

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relations took place. Colonial Venezuela was also invaded by the numerous individuals who, directly or indirectly, had been affected by the Haitian Revolution. Royalists Frenchmen, black revolutionaries, slaves, and French, and Spanish refugees shared their version of revolutionary events with the local population, and these versions nourished white fear and, at the same time, fueled the hopes of slaves and free blacks. The chapter about the conspiracy of La Guaira shows how the spaces for political discussion emerged, who participated in them and how they functioned as platforms for planning a conspiracy. The plot was clearly inspired by republican values; but in ambivalent fashion, it also sought to put limits on the political participation of blacks, and the role of slaves in the configuration of the new Republic. Throughout this work, I have offered numerous examples of how in colonial Venezuela, the Haitian Revolution became a frequent and powerful reference used by different social groups for different purposes. In some cases, the colonial authorities and white elites deployed Haiti as a rhetorical tool to justify more control and even overt repression of the black population. This is particularly clear in the case of the rebellion of Coro, in which the authorities viewed the rebellion as a duplicate of those in Saint-Domingue. I have shown how official narratives transformed the events of Coro into a revolutionary event, with the production of discourses that frequently alluded to the Law of the French and to the Republic as the main claims of the rebels. Based on these representations, the authorities of Coro took justice into their own hands, and not only condemned many blacks to death, torture, or exile, without

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applying the appropriate legal procedures, but they also found an excuse for killing the leader of the Luango communities who had been pressuring local elites. But Haiti was also used by the population of color to manipulate white fears and to threaten elites. The presence of Saint-Domingue prisoners and slaves in La Guaira for more than a year seemed to have clear repercussions on the people of color of La Guaira who used the example of Saint-Domingue in everyday conversations and as a tool to threaten the elites, make demands, and solicit better treatment or living conditions. This same situation was repeated with the slaves of Curiepe and the maroons in the Valleys of Caucagua, who identified white fear and the authorities concerns with potential black uprisings, and used the shared reference of the rebels of Guarico to denounce bad treatment on part of the part of their masters, poor living conditions, and even the bad quality of tobacco. The significance and singularity of theses cases reside not only in the fact that blacks spoke up, but that there were spaces in which they were actually heard by the colonial authorities. Colonial authorities like de La Torre, the Captain General, Guevara Vasconcelos, the new commander of Coro Andrs Boggiero, although promoting the silence about Haiti and its blacks rebels, seemed well-disposed to listen to blacks in order to keep them satisfied with the clear intention of preventing black insurrections. All these cases have allowed me to show that Haiti was more than a feared possibility, or a discourse to justify repression, or an excuse to plan a conspiracy. It was more than a discourse used by people of color to threaten whites and make

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demands. Haiti, above all, functioned as a common framework that allowed elites and subalterns to communicate and negotiate their relationship. On the one hand, it provided blacks with visibility in front of the elite and the colonial authorities and on the other, it offered blacks a vocabulary and examples with which they could speak politically, they could have a voice. Haiti was a common and meaningful framework that has allowed me to examine both the power and the fragility of the colonial state, and the ways subaltern subjects, specifically free blacks and slaves, confronted the state through open forms of rebellion and subtle resistance. Through of the common representations of Haiti and its revolutionaries, the colonial state in Venezuela both oppressed and empowered the population of color in specific realms, while coloreds, for their side, continued pressuring and finding spaces for struggle. We have to bear in mind, that autonomy does not mean isolation. Although there are plenty of examples that have allowed us to evidence the presence of autonomous domains where subalterns imagined and organized, in their own ways and codes, their own rebellions, here I have shown that Haiti emerged as a common code of communication among diverse social groups that provided spaces for negotiation. Elites, fearing the repetition of Haiti in the local context, found strategies to control subalterns, and these strategies included the accommodation of certain complaints in part of subalterns. The polysemic, ambiguous, overlapping, and sometimes concealed, representations of Haiti functioned as a common framework, a language of deliberation that connected rulers and subalterns.

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This relationship nevertheless, was not a static one but part of a field of forces within which struggle and negotiation between rulers and subalterns took place unceasingly in times of profound political destabilization. This process continued during Independence when the ruling white creole elite resisted both the aspirations of equality from pardos and the desires for freedom of the slaves. Social inequality and slavery survived despite the burst of liberal and abolitionist initiatives that emerged during the Independence war. The new nationalist codes and frameworks that replaced the language of the Haitian Revolution allowed subalterns and rulers to continue their struggle, but ended up silencing the black revolution politically and historically.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Archival Sources

Archivo de Indias (Sevilla) AGI Section Estado (51-78) Section Caracas Section Contratacin

Archivo General de la Nacin (Caracas) AGN Reales Cdulas Reales Ordenes Reales Provisiones Gobernacin y Capitana General Real Intendencia y Ejrcito Archivo de Aragua Diversos

Archivo Arquideocesano de Caracas (Caracas) AAC Section Santo Oficio

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