Seditious Buenos Aires. The plot of Frenchmen and slaves in the Rio de la Plata

Abstract

In 1795 the mayor of the Cabildo of Buenos Aires, Martín de Álzaga, believed that an antimonarchical and pro-French conspiracy was being prepared in the city. He had heard some rumors and anonymous complaints saying that the uprising would take place in the Holy Week and some slaves were taking part in the conspiracy. If the plot were successful, these slaves would be freed. Maybe it was the ghost of Tupac Amaru, or the French or the Haitian Revolution that gave rise to this suspicion. In 1794 the French National Convention had abolished slavery in the colonies. Because of this, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Spanish Empire was full conspiracies, complots, suspects, complaints and complainants. The colonial authorities believed that Buenos Aires and the Spanish rule were in danger and that those responsible for the menace were some Frenchmen and their slaves who lived in Buenos Aires. Álzaga thought that they used to get together and make toasts to “freedom”. Never before had a single word seemed so subversive, and it seemed even more subversive in the context of the war between Spain and the French Convention of 1793-1795.

Key words: conspiracy, Frenchmen, slaves, Spanish Empire.