236 CHAPTER 10 RACE, NATION, AND THE MEANING OF FREEDOM, 1821–1888
thereby refused to allow them to develop into ma-
ture adults. As a result, he argued that the new
republic, controlled by its enlightened “Founding
Fathers,” was obligated to prepare its rebellious
children for the responsibilities of self-government
before they could be accorded full and equal citi-
zenship rights. Committed to the contradictory
ideas of liberty, equality, property, and security,
Bolívar’s generation of wealthy propertied creoles
aimed to create a patriarchal nation that would
protect property and order against the chaotic pro-
tests of women, poor whites, and peoples of Afri-
can descent, all of whom yearned for freedom and
equality.
Arguably, the most pressing issue that faced
the young republic was slavery. Naturally, en-
slaved Africans and their descendants variously
had accommodated to and resisted slavery since its
introduction in the early colonial period. This in-
cluded slave revolts; escape to remote, autonomous
village communities called cumbesor palenques;
and other everyday acts of resistance. During the
independence wars, Bolívar and his comrades
had encouraged slave emancipation by recruiting
them to service in the liberation army. Free blacks
and pardos (mixed-race people) fl ocked to military
service. But in the aftermath of independence,
women, slaves, free blacks, and pardos all seized
upon republican laws and the rhetoric of national
liberation to petition the government for their
emancipation. In response to this general clamor
for equal citizenship rights, creole leaders aimed to
fashion laws and political institutions that would
protect private property and patriarchy.Slave rebellions marked Gran Colombia’s transition from colony to republic and shaped
the nature of nineteenth-century debates over citizenship in Colombia and Venezuela.
One rebellion, led by José Leonardo Chirinos, a free zambo, occurred in 1795 and was
immortalized by the Chilean artist Ian Pierce, whose mural at the Colegio Andrés Bello
in Caracas commemorates the event. [Mural by Ian Pierce/Courtesy of Encontrarte]