The Graves County Boys: A Tale of Kentucky Basketball, Perseverance, and the Unlikely Championship of the Cuba Cubs

9. Little Cuba, Hub of the Universe

9 little Cuba, hub of the universe These were thy charms—But all these charms are fled, sweet smiling village—Thy sports are fled, and all thy Charms withdrawn. . . . and rural mirth and manners are no more. —oliver Goldsmith The closing of the Pilot oak high school not only brought howie and doodle together with Jack story and the other boys, it made the little place with the strange name Cuba the hub of their universe. The connection between the spanish-held Caribbean island Cuba and this small, remote settlement in the Jackson Purchase is rooted in the region’s nineteenth-century exportation of tobacco products. in the mid-1880s, before the tobacco floors and warehouses were established in Mayfield, farmers had to haul their wagonloads of tobacco to the river closest to them. The three mighty rivers surrounding the Purchase on three sides made that fairly easy to do. 62 The Graves County Boys in southern Graves County, farmers hauled their wagons to nearby hickman to load their tobacco onto packet boats to be taken down the Mississippi river to new orleans, where an agent would sell it for them. Conscious of their isolation, the farmers looked forward to seeing the men who operated the packets, for they brought news from all the great river towns—Memphis, natchez, vicksburg , new orleans—and from as far away as the British isles and spanish Cuba. The farmers of Graves County could not help but be interested in the island, for it had consistently bought their dark-fired tobacco to make its finest cigars, snuff, and chewing products. When the island became the center of a major international controversy , the farmers’ interest was intensified. The action started in February 1854 when spanish authorities in havana seized the Black Warrior, an american merchant steamer on its way from Mobile to new york. They arrested its captain and crew on charges that the captain had not informed Cuban customs officials of the thousand bales of alabama cotton he had on board. although the captain explained that he did not think he had to report the cotton because the cotton was not meant for havana, the spanish authorities slapped a $6,000 fine on the steamer and held the captain and the crew in detention. upon receiving this news, many american politicians, especially the pro-slavery faction, were outraged. a firestorm broke out, with threats of launching war against spain. southern planters, who had long wanted to annex Cuba to the united states so they could expand slavery territory, increase their wealth, and add to their representation in Congress, cast their support in favor of violence. some moderates also supported war with spain, thinking that it would relieve most of the internal tension between the north and the south and unify the nation by directing its aggression to spain. abolitionists and northerners vehemently objected. Thoroughly agitated and little Cuba, hub of the universe 63 insulted, yet not wanting the united states to invade Cuba, spain released the captain and his crew and withdrew its charge. it not only repaid the $6,000 fine but gave over $50,000 in compensation to the crew. The fact remained that u.s. expansionists wanted to own the island. President Franklin Pierce asked his secretary of state to organize a committee of three american diplomats, all of whom happened to be pro-slavery democrats, to figure out a way to obtain Cuba. in october 1854, the committee met in ostend, a summer resort in Belgium, and quietly produced a letter that came to be known as the ostend Manifesto of 1854. in their negotiations with spain, the diplomats expressed concern about a possible dangerous slave uprising in Cuba, similar to one that had occurred in haiti. They argued that such a rebellion would create serious problems in the states. although that reason may indeed have been one of their concerns, their major objective was to expand slavery to the new territory. at the end of their meeting , they submitted their ostend Manifesto to spain. This arrogant document proposed to purchase Cuba, informing spain that if it acted with “stubborn pride and a false sense of honor” in refusing this most generous offer—which the united states was making to help spain by buying the island—then the united states had, “by every law human and divine,” the right to take the island by force of arms. The...