Year of the Lash
Year of the Lash (in Spanish, Año del Cuero) is a term used in Cuba in reference to June 29, 1844, when a firing squad in Havana executed accused leaders of the Conspiración de La Escalera, an alleged slave revolt and movement to abolish slavery in Cuba.[1] The term "Year of the Lash" refers generally to the harsh response toward the would-be revolt by the Cuban colonial authorities, whereby thousands of Afro-Cubans (both slave and free) were executed, imprisoned, or banished from the island.[2] La Escalera ('the ladder') alludes to the fact that slave suspects were bound to ladders and whipped with the lash when they were interrogated.[3]
Historians have debated over the years whether the Conspiracy of La Escalera was real or whether it was largely an invention of the Spanish authorities to justify a crackdown on abolitionists and the Afro-Cuban population, though at this point there seems to be a consensus that some kind of revolt was planned. The British consul to Cuba,
See also
- Timeline of Cuban history
- History of Cuba
- Spanish colonization of the Americas
- David Turnbull (British abolitionist)
- Carlota (rebel leader)
References
- ISBN 9780820340685.
- ^ "La Escalera, Conspiracy of | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
- Paquette, Robert L., Sugar is Made With Blood: The Conspiracy of La Escalera and the Conflict between Empires over Slavery in Cuba, Wesleyan University Press, 1988, page 4.
- ^ Paquette, 3, 156.
Further reading
- Paquette's Sugar is Made With Blood is a standard account. See his introduction, "La Escalera and the Historians," for an overview of the historiographical debate.