Take the Land, Not the People · Episode 4 of 8 · 46 min
The Lone Star of Cuba: Narciso López
The war ended but the appetite did not. A Venezuelan-born general and his Southern backers launched private American invasions to seize Cuba as a slave state, and the flag he raised still flies over Havana. The episode explains filibustering and the Neutrality Act of 1794, then follows Narciso Lopez's three expeditions, his courtship of Southern slaveholders, and the executions that ended it.
Who's who
- Narciso LopezVenezuelan-born general who led three filibustering expeditions to Cuba
- Miguel Teurbe TolonCuban poet and exile credited with helping design the Lone Star flag
- John A. QuitmanMississippi governor and Lopez's chief Southern sponsor
- William Logan CrittendenWest Point graduate who commanded a detachment on the final expedition
- Zachary Taylor+3 more episodesPresident who ordered a blockade of the 1849 expedition
Where it happens
- Round Island, MississippiStaging point of the 1849 expedition
- Cardenas, CubaPort briefly seized in 1850
- Bahia Honda, CubaLanding site of the 1851 expedition
- Key West, Florida+1 more episodeWhere the 1850 force retreated
Timeline
- 1848Lopez flees Cuba for the United States and begins recruiting.
- Summer-September 1849Round Island expedition is blockaded and disperses.
- May 19, 1850Filibusters land at Cardenas and Lopez raises the Lone Star flag.
- August 1851Lopez sails from New Orleans for the Bahia Honda expedition.
Still debated
Historians disagree on whether Lopez was a sincere liberator captured by his backers, a cynical opportunist, or a man who never resolved the contradiction between independence and a slave empire. The authorship of the flag is also contested between Lopez and Teurbe Tolon.
