Rumors and Correspondence: An Example of an African–European Hybrid Diplomacy

On May 1749, authorities from the Tuy Valley region, located in the province of Caracas, learned about a rumor that enslaved and free Africans and people of African descent were spreading about a law abolishing slavery, which they claimed the authorities were refusing to announce. The authorities arrested, tortured, and interrogated several suspects. The rumor was spread in anticipation of St. John’s Day celebrations and was planned to involve African drums, music, dance, and competition. Yet, several of those interrogated narrated how the main conspirator of the plan was collecting funds to send letters to the governors of la Guayra, Caracas, and the leaders of the Maroon town of Santa Lucía. This paper explores an instance of a hybrid African political imagination and diplomacy framed within the contour of European written texts in the middle of the Bourbon intervention in Venezuela.