A Spanish Chasseur of the Island of Cuba

This image, titled, “A Spanish Chasseur of the Island of Cuba” comes from the year 1803. It was created by Robert Charles Dallas, an Englishman who lived from the mid 18^th century to the early 19^th century. Though this picture comes from London, it is still a useful tool to give us insight on the colonial period of Latin American History. To understand the significance of this image and how it relates to the Cuban, and Caribbean, past, a small history lesson is needed.

Around the dawn of the 19^th century, there frequent conflict occurring on the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Jamaica, as the century-old Spanish-British rivalry was alive and well despite being thousands of miles from their homelands. The Spanish had colonized Cuba in 1655, but the English attacked Havana in 1762 due to its potential as an economic hub and eventually controlled the island. Along with the Spanish, the English also had to fight against Maroons, runaway slaves living in the mountains and countryside, in Jamaica. Cuba was given back to the Spanish after the Seven Years War back in Europe and the Maroons signed a peace treaty with the English. The struggle between these two world powers shows the colonial importance of Cuba and the Caribbean in general.

When the English obtained Jamaica, the previous Spanish slaves were freed or ran away, so after all of this conflict, the English decided they needed the Spanish’s help. The Maroon population in Cuba was high, so the Cubans were experienced with handling runaway slaves, thus the British hired Spanish-Cuban handlers, or chasseurs, to capture the Maroons. With his sword and two bloodhounds, this Cuban chasseur comes across a Maroon encampment in the mountains. Though the picture itself depicts a settlement in Jamaica, the British explicitly hiring Cuban chasseurs tells us a lot about the state of slavery, race, and the Maroons themselves in Cuba.

Works Cited:

Boșcu, Paul. “Colonization of Cuba.” History Lapse. https://en.historylapse.org/colonization-of-cuba (accessed February 11, 2020)

Dallas, Robert Charles. “A Spanish Chasseur of the Island of Cuba.”

By Shane Wallace