Race and Settlement Following Independence.
The War of Independence for Carolina had not been the beginning of the upset for the racial-social order in Colonial Carolina. It had been just the latest event in a long chain of events that had been moving forward since the first colonization of Carolina. Indeed, scholars would look at the racial-social balance in Carolina as moving ‘progressively’ forward when in many cases this has not always been the case, a better analogy would be a zig-zagging path of greater equality for the people of Carolina.
The first step in this was the nature of Spanish colonization was in ways two faced. The Spanish colonists looked as their enforcement of Spanish culture on the local Indio tribes as being paternal and protective. However, in many cases this paternal attitude was a screen to mask actions which included eradication of native culture, Latinization, and enforced servitude of the people. At the same time due to the settler situation in Carolina, a higher male to female ratio, many of the Spanish colonists took wives from among the Indios and as a result a burgeoning Mestizo population developed. This Mestizo population was treated on an equal level as the Criollo and Espanoles which allowed them to inherit land and become leaders of the developing colonial society.
The second great steps for Carolina’s social-racial system began much latter, when Espanoles landowners began to import large numbers of slaves as a part of the 17th and 18th century cash crop booms. Many of the Negros, Zambos (African and Indian parentage), and Mulattos were affected again with horrible treatment and what was considered a ‘paternal’ treatment by Espanoles, Criollos, and Mestizos within Carolina society. The only exception to this was among the border Indio tribes where many were treated as equals. It could be said that as Carolino settlers moved inland the relationship with Indio tribes that had been ‘Latinized’ became friendlier, with the introduction of the Africans this processed seemed to have very gradually been started for them. Throughout Carolina you had a difference of opinions, ranging from believing the Negros could be equals to believing that this would never be true. Perhaps fortunately the belief of “Latinization” did not hold to blood (but culture) was held among the majority of Carolino scholars and leaders.
For the considered “Black” populations of Carolina their struggle for common rights was long and fierce, with widespread individual attempts to make their own place in Carolino society on their own terms. Be it using the law to win their freedom or out right rebellion. The Communero revolts of the 18th Century showed to the Criollo and Mestizo populations of Carolina that the Negros, Zambos, and Mulattos were determined to bleed and die for their equal rights, and for the machismo culture of Carolina this sparked a great amount of respect especially among those in Carolina that held a vague or middle ground opinion toward their status in Carolina. This would begin a shift that would still take a century more to fully fill but it was beginning.
What was occurring prior to the War of Independence was a wide-spread “Americano” viewpoint. The people of Carolina increasingly were looking to other Carolinos or “Americanos” to solve their problems and help in their lives. There was a back lash against the Espanoles population in Carolina as by the 19th century the majority of Espanoles within Carolina were wealthy land-owners who coming from Spain or other Spanish colonies disregarded Carolina’s unique and changing racial-social system. As it would be, this resulted in a massive revolt against the power of the Espanoles within Carolina culminating in their total removal from power. Though to say it was all against the Espanoles would be glossing over true history, as members of the other racial-social castes within Carolina did side with the Pro-Americano or Anti-Americano sides, respectively those fighting to break away from Spain and those who fought to stay with Spain. The reasons were many, either out of loyalty to Spain, their economic position was tied to the Espanoles, their rivals had sided with the Communeros or other personal reasons.
The end result was the total breaking of power by the Espanoles and what could be considered their total ejection from Carolina’s society, though this again would be glossing. Those Espanoles who rejected the new regime left Carolina and mostly migrated to Cuba or Puerto Rico. However, there were two notable groups that stayed in Carolina. The first were the Espanoles upper class who had sided with the Communeros, being landowners or bureaucrats or merchants, they abandoned their self-identification with Spain and adopted Criollo status or even refused either status and declared themselves just “Carolinos”. The second group was made of not only middle to lower class Spaniards but also other Europeans as in their drive to restrain Carolina they had hired mercenaries from other countries and used soldiers on loan from Bavaria. This group defected to Carolina and formed the core of a new settler push through the Ohio Valley but also a sizeable portion of the Carolino Legions.
With the Espanoles removed, the other racial-social castes not only moved in to fill the gap, as it was described by a Carolino poet at the time, “So did all men seek to hold the chains of state but did each one find their hands side by side”. All wanted their own control in the new order of the Republic of Carolina, especially the Negros and Mulattos would not back down to any threat that forced them to become second class citizens or worse. It should also be noted that at this time the racial diversity within Carolina in much of Carolina Orientales was more divided than that of Joseana. Centuries of alternating patterns of settlement had created a mixture of Criollo, Mestizo, Indio, Negro, and Mulatto communities. Joseana having been created from a very slash-and-burn style of plantation settlement was much more homogeneous with a large Negro base and smaller minorities of Indio, Mulattos, and Mestizo settlers. The population of Joseana could have at the time threatened to secede from Carolina and form their own state had the parties at the Convention of Roble not been accommodating.
Though, leading up to the Constitution of Roble was not an easy task as fallout was still widespread throughout the country following the war and every community was trying to see where they fit in the social order. Tensions especially flared when splitting up large estates or pushing new settlements in the Misisipi river valley, instances of rioting and violence flared up and threatened to break the country. Perhaps though it was the secession of California and Alta America that ironically saw the different racial-social groups in Carolina to work together. The news itself was shocking, but that the Vaqueros republics leaned toward tyranny sent a chill through the leaders of the communities in Carolina and Joseana. An outside threat that forced all sides to recognize that they wanted to keep their freedoms and working together was preferable than working against one another. As dramatic as it sounds shortly afterward the constitution was approved with a “Guarantee of Rights” which included measures that all Carolinos despite their race or creed would be considered equals under the law. With these and other guarantees of regional governments and their powers the status of Negros and Mulattos in Carolina was by law considered equal. This was the first steps for a united Latin Americano viewpoint.
Though, equality under law had been gained it would still take time for cultural inequality to dissipate between the groups. Most of which would be fought on the grounds of West of the Misisipi. Following the Misipi War the entire river valley region saw a new period of settlement coming from eastern portions of Carolina. From the Ohio river valley and from Joseana settlers moved, pushing out or absorbing Indios tribes that got in their way. Federal commissioners worked to incorporate the Indio settlements into the framework of the new Provincias that sprang up those that refused eventually met the same fate of many tribes that refused the first wave of Spanish colonists in Carolina.
Settlers from the Ohio River Valley moved north along the Great Lakes meeting interference only from a few Indio tribes and leftover Virginian settlers. With the Misisipi War came a great influx of Virginians, mostly English or Scot-Irish in origin, as Carolina absorbed their settlements. Here was a good-sized minority of non-Latin Americano and their introduction into Carolino society was for the most part forced and bloody. The Carolino Legion was deployed to the Northeast to put down revolts by formerly Virginian settlers who refused the authority of Roble and later Columbia. The Legion also safeguarded Latino Americano settlers and “Los Ingles” who wanted to work with the Carolino government.
Many of the Virginians who wished to work with Carolina were from the Virginian state of “Maryland” and were Catholic themselves, many Marylanders had sought the frontier to practice their faith openly when it became persecuted by the British crown. The racial-social push and pull in Carolina had always involved religion, for the most part the Spanish colonists saw faith to the Church as a sign of culture and equality and so a war against the Native and African gods had commenced on a low scale whenever ‘Latinization’ was involved. Faith in the Catholic Church was strong throughout Carolina but many leaders who had seen the Church’s influence in the other Spanish American wars of independence were wary. Hence a clause for freedom of religion had been included into the Constitution as among the Guarantees. Still, a very Anti-Protestant theme was strong as they were demonized as being everything from lazy to corrupt to greedy.
Further south, many Carolinos from Joseana moved west and south into the Trinidad river region which abutted that of the Vaqueros Republic of Alta America. The tensions here were largely political and would affect greater Carolina further down the road.
Where the two settler movements of Criollo, Mestizo, Indio, Negro, and Mulatto met was in a stretch of the Misisipi from the capitol region of Columbia (centered on Memphis) to a portion of the Misisipi north of the mouth to the Misuri (Missouri) river. Here racial-social clashes became the most violent but also the shortest lived. Here the populations of Carolina met and were thrown into one another. Here blood and tears were shed by all sides. Here the racial-social boundaries between all blurred and would eventually dissolved. Here the government of Carolina would follow a united ethnic policy much like their southern neighbor Mexico to blur and blend the different ethnic groups of Carolina and so the west would be claimed not by individual ethnic groups but by Carolinos.
