The Search for New Slave States and the Filibuster

The Search for New Slave States and the Filibuster The movement to expand the United States' borders was led by Southern expansionists. They enthusiastically backed the annexation of Texas, the elimination of Native Americans, the Mexican-American War, and the Lovisiana Purchase. The goal of pro- slavery expansionists was to expand the American empire of slavery by annexing Cuba and other areas, therefore drawing inspiration from the annexation of Texas. The push for expansion among White southerners grew stronger in the 1850s. Men known as filibusters, who oversaw covert military operations meant to wrest land from foreign nations or incite revolution there, were one of the ways that southern imperialists pushed for the establishment of an American empire centered around slavery. The United States' official foreign policy did not include these unapproved military expeditions, instead, American people organized into private armies and used force to seize additional territory without authorization from the government. It was unlawful to go on such expeditions due to a federal legislation passed in 1818, which was a sign of the government's attempt to establish U.S. foreign policy as well as the existence of expansionist endeavors through these illicit activities. Still, Americans persisted in filibustering for the duration of the 1800s. Two hundred Americans entered Spanish Texas in 1819 with the intention of founding a republic based on the United States, but Spanish soldiers drove them away. Many saw these military drives-which involved the use of force, action, and the declaration of White supremacy-as the embodiment of American masculine strength. As an officer in the Tennessee militia, where he had earlier in the century led the charge to finish the Red Stick War and compel the Creek Nation to yield millions of acres in Alabama and Georgia, President Jackson personified this military might. His notoriety aided him in securing the presidency in 1828 and 1832. The 1850s saw a rise in the number of filibustering schemes as the push for expansion persisted. In an attempt to establish new slave nations, enslavers turned their gaze southward to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. As discussions over the island dominated national discourse in the 1850s, Spanish Cuba became the goal of many American slaveholders. Many who pushed for Cuba's annexation thought that doing so would keep it from following Haitis path, in which Black slaves overthrew their masters and established another Black republic-a vision that many Americans found terrifying. The British, who were interested in the sugar island, were another concern that the Americans thought might take the initiative and seize Cuba from them. African Americans living on the island of Cuba would thereafter be free because slavery was abolished in Britain's colonies in 1833. The United States supported Venezuelan Narciso López in his effort to overthrow Spanish rule over the island. His final attempt to capture the island came in the summer of 1851 when he led an armed party from New Orleans. He had attempted to conquer the island five times previously. As his little group went out to take Cuba from the Spanish, thousands of people turned out to support him. Unfortunately for Lopez and his allies, the attempted takeover of Cuba failed to spark the anticipated unplanned revolt of the Cuban populace. López and the American filibusters were apprehended and put to death by Spanish authorities in Cuba. President Franklin Pierce, who said upon his inauguration in 1853 that he intended to pursue expansion, carried out further attempts to seize Cuba. American officials convened at Ostend, Belgium, in 1854 to devise a plan for acquiring Cuba. They prepared a covert document known as the Ostend Manifesto, which claimed that the United States had the right to seize Cuba as a matter of national security if Spain had refused to cede the island to the United States (it is believed that Buchanan wrote the document, who was elected president two years later). This memo's contents were meant to be kept confidential, but information was disclosed to the public and the House of Representatives had to request a copy. Many in the North were incensed at what seemed to be a southern plot to spread slavery, hatched by what they called the "Slave Power," a name they used to characterize the disproportionate power that wealthy slaveholders had. Anger was also expressed by European powers. Nonetheless, proponents of Southern annexation cheered the attempt to seize Cuba. In 1854, the Louisiana legislature petitioned the federal government for prompt action, while former Mississippi governor John Quitman gathered funds from slave owners to finance the island's takeover: Slaveholders' expansionist goals extended beyond Cuba; some of them concentrated on Mexico and Central America. William Walker, a Tennessee native, captured Nicaragua in 1855 with the help of an army made up of no more than sixty mercenaries. Walker had previously successfully invaded Mexico, renaming the territory he had taken as the Republic of Sonora. Walker had to flee back to the United States when Mexican officials drove him out of Sonora in a comparatively short amount of time. Much more attention was paid to his invasion of Nicaragua, which propelled him to national prominence as the brave face of White supremacist.