Lopez Expedition

Did You Know?

• López raised the Cuban flag for the first time during his 1850 expedition at Cárdenas.
• Five Americans left behind after the 1850 expedition were executed by Spanish forces.
• Crittenden and 50 other Americans were lined up and shot in Havana's Old Square.

Background

During the era of Manifest Destiny, the United States expanded rapidly, notably with the Mexican Cession of 1848. That same year, President Polk offered to purchase Cuba for $100 million, but Spain rejected the offer. Cuba was especially coveted by Southern supporters of slavery, who believed its large slave population would strengthen slave states if admitted to the Union, potentially adding thirteen or fifteen representatives to Congress. Similar ambitions existed toward northern Mexican states like Tamaulipas, but Cuba's existing plantation economy made it more attractive. The campaign to end Spanish rule in Cuba drew support from Southern political figures later prominent as Confederates, including Jefferson Davis, as well as northern Democrat Stephen Douglas. Democrats made annexation a political issue, with Southern Whigs also loudly supporting it, comparing Cuba's cause to that of the Texas Republic. However, the new Whig administration renounced any plan to buy Cuba, leading those who wished to acquire the island to turn to force. Mississippi Governor John Quitman formed an alliance with Venezuelan-born adventurer Narciso López, who had contacts with potential insurgents in Cuba, though many of those insurgents favored full independence rather than annexation. An initial expedition in 1849 assembled near Pascagoula was prevented from sailing by American authorities. Shifting his base to New Orleans, where filibustering enjoyed greater support, López launched a second expedition in 1850. Attempts to persuade Jefferson Davis, John Quitman, or Robert E. Lee to take command were rejected, and López led it himself. Reaching Cárdenas, he landed, burned the governor's mansion, and raised the Cuban flag for the first time. An expected uprising by Cuban revolutionaries did not occur, and the filibusters fled back to Florida pursued by the Spanish Navy. Five Americans left behind were executed. López, Quitman, and others were prosecuted for violating the Neutrality Act, but a jury in New Orleans, where they were wildly popular, acquitted one conspirator, and the remaining indictments were dropped.

Expedition

López immediately began efforts to launch another attempt, gathering financing and fresh recruits. This time Quitman kept his distance from the plot. Many of the recruits were veterans of the Mexican War, while a number of Hungarian exiles also enlisted. López gave command of a regiment of American volunteers to William Logan Crittenden, a nephew of the Attorney General John J. Crittenden. López never clarified whether the ultimate goal of the expedition was to be Cuban independence or annexation by America, drawing supporters of both outcomes into his movement. Inspired by news of uprisings breaking out in Cuba, López hurried the preparations of his fresh invasion. The expedition departed from New Orleans on 3 August 1851. By the time the expedition landed at Pinar del Río Province in western Cuba, the Spanish Army had already defeated the uprisings which had been more limited than American newspapers reported. Their leader Joaquín de Agüero was taken and executed. Well-prepared for López this time, Spanish troops under Captain General José Gutiérrez de la Concha defeated the filibusters in several engagements. They killed around 200 of them and took the rest prisoner. López compounded his problems by dividing his small force, with Crittenden operating separately before their defeat. The prisoners were taken to Havana, where López was tried for treason and garroted in front of thousands of spectators. Crittenden and 50 other Americans were lined up and shot in the city's Old Square. Most of the remaining prisoners were sentenced to hard labor in the quicksilver mines of Ceuta, a Spanish city in north Africa. They were released a year later.

Aftermath

In reaction mobs rioted in New Orleans, destroying the Spanish consulate and ransacking Spanish-owned shops. Despite the inflamed public mood in the south, the administration of Millard Fillmore was embarrassed by the failure to prevent the expedition from sailing in the first place and confined itself to securing the release of remaining American prisoners still in Spanish hands. American attempts to acquire Cuba continued, set out in the Ostend Manifesto of 1854. Quitman also prepared a fresh filibustering expedition, this time with the tacit support of new President Franklin Pierce. Although this was called off under diplomatic pressure, and opposition by Northern free soilers, attempts to purchase Cuba continued until the Civil War broke out. In the wake of López's attack on Cuba, a string of filibusters launched attempts in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond, most notably William Walker. In 1854 southern socialite Lucy Pickens wrote a novel The Free Flag of Cuba which provided a romanticized account of the expedition.