I've been doing some reading about the history of slavery in the United States and the debate that it generated, and one thing that gets mentioned a lot but is never gone into in depth is the desire of many white Americans from the slave states, and some from the free states as well, to acquire Cuba from Spain in the early to mid 1850s. In the mid-19th century, Cuba was Spain's richest remaining colonial possession and its economy was booming due to the growth of slave sugar plantations, which paralleled the boom in slave cotton plantations in the deep southern states of the US at the same time. There were several reasons why many in the US wanted Cuba:
- acquiring it would add at least 1, and possibly 2, slave states to the US, at a time when proslavery southerners were desperate to gain increased representation in both houses of Congress to balance the North's rapidly growing population
- the economic benefits of acquiring what was then the world's largest sugar producer, and the opportunity for some southern slaveholders to move to Cuba with slaves and start new plantations, plus the opportunity for northerners to invest more money in the Cuban sugar industry
- fears that the Spanish government in Cuba would abolish slavery, which it was feared would inspire slave resistance and uprisings in the USA and further isolate the slave states by removing one of the few other places in the Western Hemisphere where slavery was still legal
- general "Manifest Destiny" sentiment in all parts of the country, which was at a high peak at the time
In 1852, the Democrat Franklin Pierce won the presidency on a platform that included the acquisition of Cuba as one of the administration's goals. Unfortunately for those in the US who wanted Cuba, there were a couple of things working against this goal:
- Spain really didn't want to lose the island, which was the most profitable remaining part of its much-shrunken empire. It especially didn't want to lose it to the United States, which had already been the base for several attempts by small armed parties to overthrow Spanish rule in Cuba - the so-called filibusters. The Spanish rejected several offers from the US to purchase Cuba, leaving war as the only alternative for the US.
- Those northerners in the US who were more worried about slavery than manifest destiny really didn't want to see more slave territory added to the US, and really didn't want to fight another war that would help expand US slavery
In the end, Cuba fell by the wayside in US politics, at least partly because a completely different battle opened up between pro- and anti-slavery expansion forces over the issue of whether slavery should be allowed in territories of Kansas and Nebraska. When these territories, which had been reserved as non-slave territory since the Missouri Compromise in 1820, were opened up to the possibility of slavery in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska act, the outrage in the Northern states was so great that the Whig party ended up disintegrating while the Democrats lost most of their seats in the House of Representatives in Northern states. As anti-slavery expansion sentiment rose in the northern states, it became politically difficult to impossible to acquire Cuba even if Spain had been willing.
My questions are - was there any way plausible way that the US could have ended up with Cuba in the 1850s? Would there have been anything that would have made Spain more willing to sell? Would there have been anything that could have generated broader support for a war in the US? Who would have been likely to win such a war? If the US was winning, would Britian or France have intervened to prevent Cuba from falling in US hands? Could the acquisition of Cuba either peacefully or by war have replaced the Kansas-Nebraska Act as the final straw that broke northern willingness to agree to slavery's expansion? Would there still have been a US Civil War with Cuba as part of the US, and what would have happened to the island in such a war? What would have been the long-term effects on both Cuba and the US as a whole?
- acquiring it would add at least 1, and possibly 2, slave states to the US, at a time when proslavery southerners were desperate to gain increased representation in both houses of Congress to balance the North's rapidly growing population
- the economic benefits of acquiring what was then the world's largest sugar producer, and the opportunity for some southern slaveholders to move to Cuba with slaves and start new plantations, plus the opportunity for northerners to invest more money in the Cuban sugar industry
- fears that the Spanish government in Cuba would abolish slavery, which it was feared would inspire slave resistance and uprisings in the USA and further isolate the slave states by removing one of the few other places in the Western Hemisphere where slavery was still legal
- general "Manifest Destiny" sentiment in all parts of the country, which was at a high peak at the time
In 1852, the Democrat Franklin Pierce won the presidency on a platform that included the acquisition of Cuba as one of the administration's goals. Unfortunately for those in the US who wanted Cuba, there were a couple of things working against this goal:
- Spain really didn't want to lose the island, which was the most profitable remaining part of its much-shrunken empire. It especially didn't want to lose it to the United States, which had already been the base for several attempts by small armed parties to overthrow Spanish rule in Cuba - the so-called filibusters. The Spanish rejected several offers from the US to purchase Cuba, leaving war as the only alternative for the US.
- Those northerners in the US who were more worried about slavery than manifest destiny really didn't want to see more slave territory added to the US, and really didn't want to fight another war that would help expand US slavery
In the end, Cuba fell by the wayside in US politics, at least partly because a completely different battle opened up between pro- and anti-slavery expansion forces over the issue of whether slavery should be allowed in territories of Kansas and Nebraska. When these territories, which had been reserved as non-slave territory since the Missouri Compromise in 1820, were opened up to the possibility of slavery in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska act, the outrage in the Northern states was so great that the Whig party ended up disintegrating while the Democrats lost most of their seats in the House of Representatives in Northern states. As anti-slavery expansion sentiment rose in the northern states, it became politically difficult to impossible to acquire Cuba even if Spain had been willing.
My questions are - was there any way plausible way that the US could have ended up with Cuba in the 1850s? Would there have been anything that would have made Spain more willing to sell? Would there have been anything that could have generated broader support for a war in the US? Who would have been likely to win such a war? If the US was winning, would Britian or France have intervened to prevent Cuba from falling in US hands? Could the acquisition of Cuba either peacefully or by war have replaced the Kansas-Nebraska Act as the final straw that broke northern willingness to agree to slavery's expansion? Would there still have been a US Civil War with Cuba as part of the US, and what would have happened to the island in such a war? What would have been the long-term effects on both Cuba and the US as a whole?