The Language of Liberation: Slave Voices in the Wars of Independence

Abstract

In 1815, as warfare raged throughout Spanish South America and an increasing number of the inhabitants, regardless of race or class, began accepting the idea of independence, a Venezuelan black named Juan Izaguirre was telling slaves on the Valle de Onato estate that they were as free as anyone else. At the best of times, language and ideas such as these were considered inflammable and subversive. In the midst of the events of the early nineteenth century, they aroused even more concern, particularly in Venezuela where slaves had taken up arms some years earlier and were engaged in a struggle that threatened to develop into a race war, so that Izaguirre’s prompt arrest must have produced widespread relief.1 Yet, while actionable and disturbing, the words that he used should not have been unfamiliar to anyone, for Izaguirre was simply repeating what was then very much in vogue. His were the same words that the liberators were pronouncing throughout the continent. Where he differed, and what made his utterances more disquieting, was in their social thrust. They indicated that by 1815 the appeals for national independence and political freedom had taken a new direction and become closely intertwined with calls for personal liberty. They also revealed that the concept of freedom, in its various political and social guises, had become a subject of debate and discussion amongst all classes and races.The origins of the language of the independence era can easily be traced. With the outbreak of the wars, the leaders of the Spanish American struggles turned to familiar themes and images to justify the reasons for their actions. Utilizing the concepts of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment as well as the American and French revolutions, they made frequent references to terms such as natural rights, popular sovereignty, separation of powers, and liberty.2 As the struggles intensified, shifting from reform within the Spanish imperial structure to complete independence, the concepts of freedom and loyalty to the homeland or patria assumed increasing importance. So, too, did one particular analogy that began to appear with greater frequency in the discourse. Those fighting for freedom used the word “slavery” to describe their situation, accusing Spain of having “enslaved” the colonies. The accusations occasionally detailed, but more often simply implied, through the use of the term that Spanish Americans had experienced all the suffering that slavery denoted. Critics cast Spain as an abusive and exploitative master that had dominated the Americans and prevented them from fulfilling their potential. The latter’s fight thereby acquired a moral halo, as it sought to secure for the inhabitants of Spanish America not only freedom but also justice, equality, human rights, and everything else that their “enslavement” had prevented.The liberators’ call for freedom with its associated slavery metaphor found favor at all levels of society, but it struck an especially resonant chord within that sector of the Spanish American population who in fact and by law were enslaved. Because of their status and situation the area’s slaves were naturally drawn to any language that referred to freedom. That attraction involved them in a two-pronged struggle as the wars for independence spread. They first accepted the word’s application to the political field and responded by committing their lives to national liberation. In the discourse of the time, they offered their “service to the cause of liberty.”3 Slaves and masters fighting for independence thus shared a common experience and a common language, although that sharing often masked an uneasy relationship, for many of the former had fled their owners to join the patriot forces. The relationship became further strained when the slaves took the language one step further and applied the concepts to their own circumstances to justify personal emancipation. In other words, they accepted the language of political liberation and then widened its terms of reference to the social field. It was hardly a development that the slave owners viewed with equanimity. However, the exigencies of the independence wars created a situation that forced them to make concessions. Needing soldiers for their armies and trying to prevent slaves from supporting the royalist cause, revolutionary leaders in all parts of the continent granted slaves the freedom that they wanted. Further stimulating the slaves’ redirection of the language to their personal circumstances was the fact that many of those same leaders voiced their objections to slavery and the slave trade, expressed their support for abolition, and issued antislavery legislation. It was an environment of unprecedented liberalism that raised obvious hopes among the slaves. But the offers of personal freedom were predicated upon one very important condition: slaves were expected not only to support the cause of liberty, they had to fight for it. The transference of the language of liberty to personal circumstances was made contingent upon slaves volunteering for military service. Many were to as their much of what they was in the of a military warfare was the of the should not be at all they their for fighting in the terms that the liberators were but they used the same language to call for their own freedom. it was not who made these took of the circumstances to make their as they struck a at the that was them in did not in slavery at time, in the wars in Spanish America were wars of national independence, not wars of slavery throughout Spanish South America had been as and at it found in a of the use of language with it a of and as many have be particularly of the language of slaves. In the words of slave not That the fact that while the slaves’ and application of the language of the can be found in various of and military and be the of those the of the the words in the In some it was the of the slave or a of the master words an who that his slave had an to military he his slave who had expressed a to or was he trying to a who was the was to for slave the words of the slaves who also had to from in they were their freedom or some other in their and from military in they were or from service. In it was in their best to make a In the circumstances they words that they have a on the who was their in their of and the words of the the by the from much the the into the words of the to what have the or the the same it that of slave language the slaves’ words as and while the language of and other that was and as of the that of a black of the independence wars, an from who at the of in to the who many years the the as he a Spanish and then his and as a was the trying to to his of his in the slaves’ language only a have of their to the independence in an on slaves in the the that the independence produced unprecedented by slaves. that they with a at other as they a the of the relationship with Spain and the of their own as slaves in to a The words were not but they assumed new and in the of the independence a greater as they sought to secure their own in a more the discourse of the and slaves in the de and slaves to their freedom the language of the times, but were by the owners who to slavery and expressed their objections and their of their as as the slaves. the outbreak of the independence war, the its to the a to freedom to the but only on that they for military service. also made reference to the use of language of at the of independence in of imperial the of the same words but for of the with and the concept of freedom, but the the concept in an to with the the that in the use of language as independence but to slavery were to revolutionary ideas for of their social in Spanish America and a situation with to the language of but the outbreak of warfare an for slaves to secure their freedom in a the slave population of the slaves’ to the wars were the by the of the important were the that the slave As a the slave population in the the of the independence struggles slaves in the of de in in and in the of in did they more of the but they to be in to their They not have been as to the development of Spanish South America as they were to the and the they were of importance. they a as and they the associated with the on and on and in in on and on the and on in and They were not more in the sector of these as and a of and for although the slave was early in the nineteenth in to and the of the wars, of were a sector of the and slaves were also a even in The were who what it was to be They had been to where had the of the various and and where to slave have only the In it but a new slave that offered some for the slave years when it issued a that many of these by and owners in the prevented its and some as slaves that they had been an to their much greater to the were the events that began in in the French of The outbreak of the slave that to the of slavery and French on the a that slave throughout the slave in in and not have the of the but they further of the on the Spanish and to the slave was the in a of that ideas among and a language for Spanish slaves. slaves their in to Enlightenment American and French revolutionary and the been the subject of some only a of slaves were it that many of them had the they to have had some for owners that revolutionary ideas were and that slaves were to However, should be of accepting those at as owners had their reasons for one the from their for slave was a very of the of these ideas through the slave population and some of their environment of and revolutionary language, one of the was to the slave population of slaves and slave had the of the first black slaves in the with the that various had been the to particular was to of their had been in the at slaves from arms or even The frequent of the that it had and that very much was the of slaves from the armies and Slaves have found in arms at and on but the were and they were In from early in the free and were of and military Because of their black their have been viewed with some more and more of them were in and in the the military on the other were as the and to sector of the even the and to make what in was the in and when the of de In the of the in were to slaves and them into the to be a for the to the As a and in with accepted a number of them were their With the outbreak of the independence wars an even more situation The of fighting created an unprecedented for social and Venezuela in the to the de in the turned to them their freedom in for military service. with the that the political struggle acquired a social that of the revolutionary leaders had that military created the for the slaves’ were so many slaves to military in of its obvious The was that it offered that slaves secure only with the their personal freedom. was the for In the words of a from it was it as in to a in and had fled their It was it was slaves did not have it and to it. in the of the independence complete and was of the of the of as well as the of the new leaders to to freedom were the years owners had of but the were often upon and the were slaves. slaves to secure their freedom through but the number was as to the In only a one of slaves in their freedom in a situation where the were any offers of freedom or even references to the regardless of were to slave as fighting other in the and on their and an loyalty to the a in the slaves’ offers by of It had been the that had their into and it had been the that had offered freedom to those slaves in who had to the of the by the of that to in the of the slave It have to as but it free as and of the of the slave and even an to these and to the and of many particularly those in Venezuela who for the slave they the of some for black that the and early of the liberators’ cause in much of the continent the slaves were to free and slaves the royalist in them was a free from who was at the of in His a free named in for that had for the in to the of had his at the of the Slaves were by the same as well as by the to their personal freedom. In the royalist in turned to slaves in to its military and began freedom in for military In slaves took of the political to a race many the royalist and to the first and they expressed their of and a of the words be the of royalist and the fact that slaves were the to make upon the that at some of what they an who had been a slave in his freedom in in on the that he had the at and other masters of had freedom to their slaves for the his freedom was Juan a Venezuelan who that he had in the royalist the and to the cause of the Venezuelan the royalist the of the but of the With in he had with much and he his the took up arms and the that had and too, began to the black justify the separation they of the for freedom, and even independence, some of struck a resonant chord among slaves. of the was to the relationship Spain and America from one that the and to one of and to that was the of Spanish with It was an obvious analogy in of the that had been drawn the concepts of freedom and that the one was the of the the independence leaders were freedom, what had must have been a of and became a common metaphor in the language of the In a in was not a call for It was a of those in Spanish In the military leaders of the struggles to as the of the to Spain as independence became the used the analogy in the situation in his homeland of the In he of of their and in a to the of de in he to be the of he the inhabitants of have from the in they found and the of the Venezuelan to the inhabitants of in that to was more while the de from his of that he was not who was trying to a new The of on the of the to in made reference to who they can with the of the the of in engaged in his in his to complete the that been to to he of the from language was among all of a from who the patriot cause in the and the his from to the of Spain and to be in and in of in his for was to free to a used the language, of the of the as they their slaves to that So, too, did the and the had The of responded to the from with the be to into the of and to with the ideas of liberty and of of the in a royalist as the of who was his to But it was the liberators who the term it so that were to in on the of the wars in 1815, that those in a the that they have in the years that they call slavery and of the they were the were also appeals for the slaves’ in to them from the in they were as a The was made first through that the of the and the new and was to an of slave of the new the slave and from a to be the free of took in in in in and and in in and of The of that the slave made reference to of and to the of the that the of the of de have and with and such as a law that to free slaves a the political liberation that was and the of while new for slaves to secure their language that the area’s liberation with the of slavery was by many of the independence the It in to that a for freedom to and of and prevented complete abolition, the and that the liberators were of the slaves’ situation and were to for slave support were by to them into the patriot In the first to the slave population by freedom in for years of military service. His and to many slaves. It was not that turned to slaves as he to that he not the royalist in Venezuela their support at their The number of frequent he to to them the and he became one of the of more in the of slaves were the in the de in the the in as the new leaders sought to their the of the from and as well as royalist forces. The of the fighting and many created a for Yet, the of a was and more the royalist of slaves in turned to the same sector of the population as he his first the of an that had the offered freedom to slaves who his The with slaves their owners and the patriot in the it was offered to those on the of the as to that slaves had the of not only the but also slave personal freedom a very they the that was were to to prevent an from owners and to the In the issued its first to a of from a of those to it as a of and them the of free It that a number of slaves be taken from who be while the have to for the years further to the of those slaves from the of were with from slaves took of the to their owners and join the with its black and to their freedom on the of their military service. they made up a of that the to free in were from the slave when his into years Spain and to the slave population to in the the liberators offered in its a new for American was the the They sought to popular loyalty from the and in his an for to fight and too, expressed their of but the concept had greater for the as they and support for their The frequent references to the patria were a of an to a new to the Spanish The struck a chord among those at the of the social even the concept of patria of to a in the of and of that he had of the and cause of for years in the and at the of in too, the term and it as they the patriot a with the other soldiers and that they to the slave of a in the expressed the to a in the of to the of in its with a that he had taken from the and that he was of a military In he in the black Many that their for was their of the to de of his slave to in the of the a was not to the slave of a expressed his to for the cause of his as he offered to the patriot of not have been the for in to his to join the had indicated to his that he to his to to with its of personal freedom the one of his It was a but in of the of all of these had to and their of be but the of the same not support for the cause, at an of the and a that these words was a of favor amongst the slaves the language of the by so that their struggle was the same a had been by his to the forces. they were by the independence he had of and in the patriot his was he trying to a with the new as he sought to secure his freedom from his who had slave who on was The slave of a he had been in at the of the and had been into a royalist of with the of freedom. However, with the of the had been and he had been to his the new that he be to in the he found it more to the patria the masters who had his of the and of the liberators’ cause indicated that the slaves had that the in that was not in the early years of the They also in it an to their personal freedom and even a to at an especially that was a a for the new was not only a of it be a to freedom. de and his fled their Spanish in in in their to and to the to the of while in the military They made their for freedom by their former as a to the cause of the as subject by and to the of the de in as of the who had the patriot by of it in to royalist in that be The situation to That same a his a of having of the of the was but were at the that the accusations from the fact that had been was but his was not to further and sought to and fighting for the liberators’ cause thus became a to personal freedom and the became intertwined in the discourse of the Slaves made the In the of in and the of some slaves by their slaves with on the they made a for their freedom and in their and lives to the of the an slave was more in the same that of the patria to and to be one of its soldiers as much to the of as to free from the slavery in found to to the of the of The same at personal freedom in the words of a slave from the In to of freedom in he his and with his sought the the of then the of the the of and and with the of the of liberty, and for all that and that and did not those who slaves to the of he by not have been to the that a in on the field of In those were the of the that had on them the French of liberty, a of particular to slaves. he have been more the word to the freedom of his homeland as well as his personal freedom that was offered in for his military freedom for military one obvious sector of the slave slave were not from the They not of the those who for or were into the but they the language and to use it to their an slave freedom, a personal

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