José María España is executed in Caracas

After new outbreaks of violence on 12 May, colonial authorities intensified repression. The Coro revolt was defeated, but its demands for freedom, abolition of slavery, and the removal of burdensome...

The Real Audiencia of Caracas sentenced Chirino after the suppression of the 1795 revolt. The case criminalized an anti-slavery rebellion that had challenged colonial rule, racial hierarchy, and...

Spanish colonial authorities uncovered a republican conspiracy organized by Manuel Gual and José María España. Its participants included pardos, free people of African descent, and some enslaved...

After Spain returned clandestinely to Venezuela and was captured, a special colonial tribunal sentenced him to death. The sentence prescribed a public execution and the display of his severed head and...

Colonial officials uncovered a plot involving Francisco Javier Pirela, a pardo militia sublieutenant, and French privateers from Saint-Domingue. Historical accounts describe a planned uprising for...

The intended date for the Maracaibo rising arrived, but the plot was thwarted before the plan could be carried out. The account describes Pirela confessing hours before the expected start, followed by...

Francisco de Miranda landed with an expedition at La Vela de Coro, seized Fort San Pedro, and raised a tricolor flag challenging Spanish colonial rule. The expedition withdrew within days after...

At Puerto Cabello, officials documented the capture by the corsair La Constancia of a canoe and curiara carrying 13 fugitive Black enslaved people from Essequibo. The archive frames the event as...

Caracas’s cabildo removed Spanish officials and formed a new governing body, beginning the revolutionary process that led to independence. Pardo representation appeared in the municipal act, but the...

The Supreme Junta of Caracas prohibited the international introduction and trade of enslaved people. The measure did not emancipate people already enslaved, end domestic sale, or dismantle...