Protesting Service: Free Black Response to Cuba's Reestablished Militia of Color

On 24 October 1859, Manuel Mendoza, a free pardo, petitioned for an exemption from forced enlistment in Cuba’s reestablished militia of color.¹ When military officials called him to join one of the six new militia companies formed in Havana, he sought an exemption on several grounds.² Mendoza argued that he had already served in the militia. In addition, he insisted that military duties would restrict his ability to support his wife and four children. Furthermore, he stressed that he “suffered from a disease” that rendered him physically unable to participate in the militia. He closed his letter with the assertion, “I believe [all of these reasons] exempt me from service.”³

Mendoza’s reluctance to participate in military duty paralleled the response of hundreds of pardos and morenos to Cuba’s reinstated militia of color. An examination of individual and group petitions by or on behalf of 485 free men of color from 1858 to 1861 reveal a variety of reasons for exemption claims. Some sought exclusion due to inappropriate age, employment benefits, substitution, and even mistaken identity.⁴ The majority of petitions, 276 claims (57 percent), however, pressed for exemption based on two of the reasons cited by Mendoza: poor health and family obligations. Why did libres de color resist joining Cuba’s militia of color, at this point in time, when black and mulatto soldiers had participated voluntarily for over two centuries in a tradition that, for many, had symbolized a space of honor and prestige? Despite the institution’s longevity and attributes, I contend that the militia of color no longer held such positive appeal in the 1850s because of the repressive conditions under which it was dismantled in 1844 and the use of forced enlistment in 1858.

On 15 June 1844, the colonial Cuban militia of color suffered an abrupt demise. In the wake of the 1843–44 Conspiracy of La Escalera, an alleged plot by free people of color, slaves, and British abolitionists to overthrow slavery and Spanish rule of Cuba, Cuban authorities dismantled all twenty-six of the island’s pardo and moreno companies.⁵ The ensuing repression, which included arrests, torture, executions, expulsion, coerced emigration, and occupational bans, left the island’s black population, particularly the free sector of color, in fear for their lives and livelihoods. Eliminating the militia of color enabled colonial authorities to neutralize a perceived threat, unravel a social institution, and displace thousands of black and mulatto militiamen. Disbanding the units, however, also eroded military service as a source of privilege and prestige within the free black population. I argue that the unilateral dissolution of the militia of color in the 1844 repression diminished militia service as a viable source of prestige within the free black sector, disrupting positive attributes associated formerly with it.

The negative shift manifested itself in the 1850s as hundreds of draftees of color and their families formally protested military service. In 1854, a new colonial government determined that conditions were safe and necessary to reinstate the militia of color.⁶ Supporters of the new militia maintained high expectations that free men of color would eagerly return to duty. Pardos and morenos, however, had other ideas. Men of color volunteered in far fewer numbers than anticipated. For instance, the six battalions of color in Havana were authorized to enroll at least 1,000 men. Officials reported that only 332 free men of color had enlisted voluntarily.⁷ Frustrated, authorities declared that free black men were “obligated to armed service” and in 1858 instituted a draft for all male libres de color between the ages of 18 and 30 to fill the ranks of a defense force totaling 2,000 men.⁸ In response to the forced enlistment order, hundreds of libres de color petitioned to be exempted from the new militia units, protesting its infringement upon their civil rights, livelihood, family stability, and physical well-being.

Examining the responses of free people of color to the new militia of color sheds light on the lingering influence of the 1844 repression of the Conspiracy of La Escalera...