Escalera Conspiracy

Name given to the Slave conspiracy of 1843-1844, a climax to successive waves of slave revolts throughout Cuba in the early 1840s. Despite Spain’s 1821 commitment to end the African slave trade, large scale illegal importation of slaves continued, till by 1841 Blacks made up over half the population. With Cuban and British abolitionists on the island, led by UK consul David Turnbull, actively encouraging the slaves to seek their freedom, Cuban fear of a Haitian-style slave revolt increased in proportion. The 1841 selection of Lieutenant General O’Donnell y Jorrín as governor was made with these fears in mind, and it has been suggested that his actions were purely anticipatory, “the brutal unleashing of state power to preclude any possible momentum from building toward a future rebellion.”

The official version is that, on learning of a slave rising planned for Christmas Day, 1843, at a sugar plantation in Matanzas, a resolute governor immediately ordered the execution of all those involved, and followed this with a massive “witch hunt” throughout Cuba of all Blacks, slave or free, suspected of involvement in this or any plan for a revolt. All those arrested were chained to the notorious ladder (escalera) whence the conspiracy takes its name, and whipped into a confession and naming of associates. Many talented and respected free coloreds and Blacks died, including Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Andrés Dodge, and Santiago Pimienta. All the whites accused of involvement among then José de la Luz y Caballero, were eventually released.