An Insurrection Against Whites!

• In Event: Expressions of citizenship

Description for Program

In September 1831, a year after Venezuela separated from the Gran Colombia and eight years after this young republic had fully achieved its independence from the Spanish empire, a group of free men of African descent, many of them former members of a pardo militia, living in the northeastern city of Cumaná, were accused of planning an insurrection against “Whites.” What unfulfilled promises did these men want to solve by taking on arms? Or was it the authorities’ narrative and excuse to crash this insurgency, given that most of the population in the region was of African descent?” This essay traces the political imaginary of these free men and the authorities, fifteen years after Haiti’s president Alexandre Pétion harbored and supported Venezuela’s and Latin America's independence heroes and refugees.

Keywords: Venezuela, Haití, Pardo militia, Insurrection, African descent.

Author

• Evelyne Laurent-Perrault