Liberators or Licentious Pirates? The Portrayal of Filibusters in the 1850s

The word fillibuster has had a somewhat unconventional history. Originally applied to individuals who led unauthorized expeditions against foreign nations, it later gained acceptance as a word denoting a delaying tactic that could be used within Congress to prevent the passage of legislation. Perhaps because of this dramatic change in definition, most historians have overlooked how controversial the word fillibuster itself was, when it first emerged in the early 1850s. Indeed, as this poster seeks to show, a vibrant debate broke out in the antebellum period over the meaning of this very term. Were those who engaged in what were originally called “expeditions”—such as Narciso López and William Walker—patriots and liberators, or were they fillibusters; that is men who set out to enrich themselves by plundering others? Using popular novels, magazines, and images that were produced in the 1850s, this poster examines the ways in which these "fillibusters" were portrayed in the popular press. It argues that over the course of the 1850s a set of negative stereotypes became attached to these men, which ultimately led them to be called fillibusters and not patriots or liberators as they had wished.     

     This poster, therefore, examines the origins of the word fillibuster and shows how it was a pejorative label that became attached to those who served with Narciso López, in his expeditions from 1849-1851. Although López certainly had his supporters, he was often portrayed in the press as a shiftless Cuban exile, and his men were pilloried for seeking “gold and glory.” When his men rebutted these charges—and asked to be seen as liberators and selfless defenders of Cuban rights—they realized they were fighting an uphill battle. In the 1850s, a cultural battle broke out between these two groups. Relying heavily upon images that appeared in popular magazines such as Harper’s, and novels about expeditions that began to frequently appear in the late 1850s, this poster seeks to capture how this debate played out. It demonstrates how the caricature of the “fillibuster”—as a hard-drinking, shiftless, and roaming individual—first appeared in the early 1850s and how this stereotype was then transferred to William Walker and his men in the latter half of the decade. By the end of the 1850s, the opponents of these excursions had succeeded in not only labelling these expeditions as “fillibuster expeditions” but also in crafting a caricature of the fillibuster as a shiftless, out-of-work drifter who put his own well-being above the national interest.