Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the Conference of Latin American History in San Diego and at the X Jornadas de la Historia y Religión in Caracas. Thanks are due to John Womack Jr., John D. French, Jonathan Uslaner, and Ingrid Bleynat for their insightful comments; Allan J. Keuthe and Peter M. Bcattie for their generous advice on military history; Adriana Calvo for her many maps; Tomás Straka for his gracious invitation to the Jornadas; and the anonymous reviewer of The Americas.

1. In Spanish, the term leva is denned as the recruitment of soldiers. By the early nineteenth century, most contemporaries came to understand the term as an abbreviation for “leva de vagos,” a particular type of recruitment in which vagrants were coercively enlisted into the army; the leva de vagos was abolished in Spain in 1817. In English, the term “impressment” is the best translation for this type of leva. Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 4th ed. (Madrid: Viuda de D. Joaquín Ibarra, impresora de la Real Academia, 1803), p. 513.

2. de vagos, Levas for example, were common occurrences in contemporary New Spain, having evolved into an excuse to “extort money from the laboring classes.” Archer, Christon I. “To Serve the King: Military Recruitment in Late Colonial Mexico,” Hispanic American Historical Review 55:2 (May 1975), p. 231.Google Scholar

3. The Junta Central (also known as Junta Central Suprema y Gubernativa del Reino) was a Spanish resistance government established on September 25, 1808, and recognized by the entire Spanish empire. See de Velasco, Ángel Martínez La formación de la Junta Central (Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1972);Google Scholar Gallego, Miguel Artola La Espada de Fernando VII (Madrid: Espasa, 1999), pp. 296–313.Google Scholar

4. de Caracas, Acta del cabildo April 19, 1810, in Documentos para la historia de la vida pública del Libertador de Colombia, Perú y Bolivia, Vol. 2, eds. Blanco, José Félix and Azpurúa, Ramón (Caracas: Imprenta de La Opinión Nacional, 1875), p. 392.Google Scholar Impressment also figured prominently in the history of U.S. inde-pendence, with Jesse Lemisch noting that both Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence identified coercive recruitment by the Royal Navy as an example of British tyranny. Lemisch, Jesse “Jack Tar in the Streets: Merchant Seamen in the Politics of Revolutionary America,” William and Mary Quarterly 25:3 (July 1968), p. 394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Manifiesto que hace al mundo la Confederación de Venezuela en la America Meridional, de las razones en que ha fundando su absoluta independencia de la España, y de cualquiera otra dominación extranjera (Caracas: Imprenta de J. Baillio, 1811), p. 7. See also El Mercurio Venezolano (Caracas), February 1811, pp. 8–9.

6. There is no comprehensive account of the Leva de Vagos of 1809. Contemporary historians left only a few details, with José Manuel Restrepo (1827) remarking that the Junta of Caracas returned the men apprehended as vagrants to their agricultural occupations and Francisco Javier Yanes (1840) describing the event as “a general leva [affecting] the whole province.” Restrepo, José Manuel Historia de la revolución de la República de Colombia, Vol. 1 (Besanzon: Imprenta de José Jacquin,1858), p. 540;Google Scholar Yancs, Francisco Javier Compendio de la historia de Venezuela: desde sit descubrimiento y conquista hasta que se declaró estado independiente (Caracas: Imprenta de A. Damiron, 1840), p. 74.Google Scholar Some of the most notable works copying or paraphrasing the Confederacy of Venezuela on the Leva de Vagos are Rafael Maria Baralt and Díaz, Ramón Resumen de la historia de Venezuela: desde el año de 1797 hasta cl de 1830, Vol. 2 (Curaçao: Imprenta de A. Bcthencourt e Hijos, 1887), p. 41;Google Scholar Gonzalez, Juan Vicente “Historia del poder civil en Colombia y Venezuela: por medio de las biografías de Martín Tovar y José María Vargas” in Obras literarias de Juan Vicente Gonzalez (Caracas: Imprenta de La Opinión Nacional, 1887), p. 300;Google Scholar Ponte, Andrés F. La Revolución de Caracas y sus proceres (Caracas: Imprenta Nacional, 1918), p. 62;Google Scholar and Pérez, Caracciolo Parra Historia de la Primera República de Venezuela (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1992), p. 191.Google Scholar The paucity of contemporary accounts led even Caracciolo Parra Pérez, who paraphrased references to the Leva de Vagos in 1939, to doubt the Confederacy of Venezuela’s characterization by arguing that these men were in fact urban misfits and that freeing them was merely a “symbolic act” against Emparan. Pérez, Parra Historia de la Primera República, p. 206.Google Scholar References to this leva disappear after 1960, even in the groundbreaking works of Angel Grisanti, Manuel Lucena Salmoral, and Clément Thibaud. Grisanti, , Emparan y el golpe de estado de 1810 (Caracas: Tip. Lux, 1960);Google Scholar Salmoral, Lucena Características del comercio exterior de la provincia de Caracas durante el sexenio revolucionario (1807–1812) (Madrid: Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana/Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario/Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, 1990);Google Scholar and Thibaud, Clément Repúblicas en armas: los ejércitos bolivar-ianos en la Guerra de Independencia de Colombia y Venezuela (Bogota: Planeta/IFEA, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Jaime Rodríguez O. and François-Xavier Guerra have emphasized the importance of the years 1808, 1809, and early 1810 to understanding Spanish American independence within the wider Spanish world. In this essay, I build upon their insights to examine political, social, and military developments that affected the Spanish province of Caracas. Jaime, Rodriguez O. Tiie Independence of Spanish America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998);Google Scholar Guerra, François-Xavier Modernidad e independencia: ensayos sobre las revoluciones hispánicas, 3rd ed. (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econòmica, 2000).Google Scholar

8. The emerging nation-states witnessed an unprecedented militarization of society in the last third of the eighteenth century, with Alan Forrest, for example, highlighting the annual French conscriptions as a powerful force in shaping revolutionary and imperial France. From 1808 onward, the French military expansion would force the massive and often chaotic militarization of Spanish and Spanish American societies. Both Juan Ortiz Escantilla for Mexico and Thibaud for Venezuela and Colombia have chronicled the rapid militarization of local American societies under both royal and insurgent leadership. In this context, the Leva de Vagos of 1809 exemplifies an early attempt at expanding the Spanish American army to confront the French threat. Forrest, Alan Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society During the Revolution and Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989);Google Scholar Esdaile, Charles J. Tlie Spanish Army in the Peninsular War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988);Google Scholar Thibaud, Repúblicas en armas; and Juan Ortiz Escantilla, Guerra y gobierno: los pueblos y la independencia de México (Seville: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía/Universidad de Sevilla/Instituto Mora/Colegio de México, 1997).Google Scholar

9. Caracas’s urban masses became decisive players in local politics following the crisis unleashed by the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, with the Leva de Vagos of 1809 providing grounds for a collective grievance against Emparan. On the impact of impressment for the free lower classes, see Beattie, Peter M. The Tribute of Blood: Army, Honor, Race and Nation in Brazil, 1864–1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001).Google Scholar Richard A. Warren has also argued for the importance of Mexico City’s urban masses during the independence period; see Vagrants and Citizens: Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic (Wilm-ington: Scholarly Resources, 2001).

10. Lombardi, John V. People and Places in Colonial Venezuela (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976), p. 59.Google Scholar On the province of Caracas in the late Bourbon period, see Lombardi, , People and Places, P. McKinley, Michael Pre-Revolutionary Caracas: Politics, Economy, and Society, 1777–1811 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985);Google Scholar and Lucena Salmoral, Características del comercio exterior.

11. On the province’s agricultural production, see McKinley, Pre-Revolutionary Caracas, pp. 46–62.Google Scholar Almost half of the 64,462 slaves living in the province of Caracas were not engaged in agriculture. Salmoral, Lucena Características del comercio exterior, p. 56.Google Scholar

12. McKinley, , Pre-revolutionary Caracas, p. 2.Google Scholar

13. On the so-called “conjura de los mantuanos,” see Conjuración de 1808 en Caracas para formar una junta suprema gubernativa: documentos completos, Vols. 1 and 2 (Caracas: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, 1968); and Montiel, Inés Quintero La conjura de los Mantuanos: último acto de fidelidad a la monarquía española (Caracas, 1808) (Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, 2002).Google Scholar

14. Many enemies within the Spanish resistance, including the Council of Castile and other regional Spanish juntas, besieged the Junta Central. In these internecine feuds, the Junta Central depended on American political recognition and economic resources to bolster its peninsular leadership. On the Caracas elite's contributions to the war effort, see Salmoral, Lucena “El ‘donativo patriótico’ hecho por Venezuela a España para ayudar a sufragar los gastos de la guerra de independencia peninsular,” Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia 241 (January-March 1978): pp. 109–127;Google Scholar and Almarza, Ángel Rafael “Fidelidad y adhesión a la monarquía. Los donativos patrióticos de la Capitanía General de Venezuela 1808–1810” (presentation, VII Congreso de Investigación y Creación Intelectual de la UNIMET, Caracas, May 24–28, 2010), http:// ares.unimet.edu.ve/academic/VlI-congreso/libro-vii/ponencias/almarza-angel.pdf (accessed October 6, 2011).Google Scholar

15. Gonzalez-Silen, Olga (forthcoming) The Unraveling of the Spanish Empire in the Province of Caracas, 1808–1810 (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2012).Google Scholar

16. As early as 1878, Venezuelan historians identified “the Emparan paradox,” in which Emparan was depicted by historians and contemporaries both as the responsive ruler of Cumana in the 1790s and early 1800s and as the despot of Caracas in 1809 and 1810. On Vicente Emparan y Orbe’s career in the captaincy-general of Venezuela, see Rojas, Arístides Los hombres de la Revolución, 1810–1826. Cuadros históricos: el canónigo José Cortés Madariaga, el general Emparan (Caracas: Imprenta de La Opinión Nacional, 1878);Google Scholar Márquez, Héctor Parra El Mariscal Vicente Emparan, último gobernador y capitán general de Venezuela y su dudosa conducta política (Caracas: Avila Gráfica, 1952);Google Scholar Grisanti, Emparan y el golpe de estado; and Leal, Idelfonso “Don Vicente de Emparan: un personaje polémico del 19 de Abril de 1810,” Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia 250 (April-June 1980), pp. 343–346.Google Scholar

17. Captain general Vicente Emparan to the Junta Central, Seville, March 9, 1809, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter AHN), Estado 60.

18. For example, the military commanders discussed protective measures after receiving reports that a French squadron was seen near Barbados in December 1809. Measures proposed by the Junta de Guerra, draft, Caracas, December 24, 1809, Archivo General de la Nación, Caracas (hereafter AGN), Gobernación y Capitanía General (hereafter Gobernación), tome 215, item 51.

19. In the province of Caracas, the regular troops were organized into the Caracas battalion, the artillery brigade, and the queen’s regiment, which was a rotating peninsular battalion, for a combined force of around 950 men. In December 1809, about 450 infantrymen were ready to take up arms with short notice in the city of Caracas. Captain Luis de Ponte to Emparan, Caracas, December 25, 1809; Liutenant colonel Matías de Letamendi, Caracas, December 26, 1809, AGN, Organización Militar de la Colonia, 1800–1810 (hereafter Militar). On the Caracas army, see Estado militar de España (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1808), pp. 76, 164–67; Miller, Gary “Status and Loyalty in Colonial Spanish America: A Social History of Regular Army Officers in Venezuela, 1750–1810” (Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1985), pp. 9–59;Google Scholar and Suárcz, Santiago Gerardo Las fuerzas armadas venezolanas en la colonia (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1979).Google Scholar

20. The Crown began introducing “milicias disciplinadas” in Spanish America in the late 1760s as a means to shift the burden of imperial defense to Spanish Americans. In 1773, this military reorganization resulted in the province of Caracas gaining five militia battalions and ten unaffiliated companies for a total of 4,934 militiamen based in the city of Caracas, the city of Valencia, and the Valleys of Aragua. By 1806, the Caracas militia counted between 5,000 and 6,000 militiamen. Despite these numbers, the effective force of the Caracas militia is difficult to gauge because reports of troops were often unreliable, the levels of military training varied widely, and many companies disappeared over time. Keuthe, Allan J. “Las milicias disciplinadas en America,” in Soldados del rey: el ejército borbónico en América colonial en vísperas de la independencia, eds. Kuethe, and Fernández, Juan Marchena (Castellón de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I, 2005), pp. 101–126;Google Scholar Pérez, Lucio Mijares “La organización de las milicias venezolanas en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII,” in Memoria del Tercer Congreso Venezolano de Historia, Vol. 2 (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1979), pp. 279–280;Google Scholar and de Limonta, José Libro de la razón general de la Real Hacienda del Departamento de Caracas (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1962), p. 286.Google Scholar

21. The Bourbon military reorganization, Gary Miller argues, was “a qualified success” in expanding the local administration and in protecting the captaincy-general of Venezuela in the late eighteenth century. Miller, , “Status and Loyalty,” p. 47.Google Scholar

22. On the burdens of militia deployment to Caracas, see Eugenio Loyza, Ramón Hidalgo, and Guillermo Ramos to captain general Juan de Casas, Caracas, May 9, 1809, AGN, Gobernación, tome 205, item 14. There is some evidence that militia companies of the Valleys of Aragua and Valencia were involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Emparan in early April 1810. Ponte, La revolución de Caracas, pp. 69–74.Google Scholar

23. While Emparan claimed the Leva de Vagos of 1809 was a measure to deal with attrition, the Caracas military force in 1809 was similar in size to that of prior decades. Therefore, I argue that this leva is better understood as an expansionist measure. Emparan to the minister of justice Benito Ramón de Hermida, Caracas, March 6, 1810, Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, Audiencia de Caracas (hereafter AGI, Caracas), leg. 108; Miller, “Status and Loyalty,” p. 32.Google Scholar

24. The Junta Central had appointed both a new sub-inspector of artillery and a commander of the militia, as proposed by Emparan. In early 1810, there were also efforts to purchase uniforms and weapons. Emparan to the Junta Central, Seville, March 9, 1809, AHN, Estado 60; Intendant Vicente Basadrc to Emparan, Caracas, December 5, 1809, AGN, Intendencia de Ejército y Real Hacienda (hereafter Intendencia), tome 304, item 141.

25. In contrast with most Spanish American armies, the Caracas battalion was composed of a majority of European soldiers (58.9 percent in 1803 and 64 percent in 1807). Fernández, Juan Marchena Oficiales y soldados en el ejército de America (Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1983), pp. 274–278, 296–306;Google Scholar Miller, , “Status and Loyalty,” p. 34;Google Scholar and “Review of the Caracas Battalion,” Caracas, March 1807, AGN, Militar.

26. Although there are no studies of contemporary recruitment practices, Emparan claimed that former captains general relied on banderas de reclutas (recruitment missions led by officials), with disappointing results. Emparan to minister of war Antonio Cornel, letter draft, Caracas, December 21, 1809, AGN, Gobernación, tome 215, item 20.

27. Peter M. Beattie warns about historians’ usual conflation of the terms “impressment,” as in a leva de vagos, and “conscription”—two very different types of military recruitment. He defines “conscription” as “an enrollment of mostly law-abiding male youths from which recruits would be selected for service on the basis of a lottery.” Beattie, The Tribute of Blood, p. xxi. On peninsular recruitment in the late eighteenth century, see Candela Marco, María Vicenta De labradores a soldados: un estudio social de las quintas del siglo XVIII en Castellón de la Plana (Castellón de la Plana: Universitat Jaunie I/Servicio de Publicaciones de la Diputación de Castellón, 2006), pp. 43–50.Google Scholar

28. Emparan also drew from his prior experience in dimana, where a local cabildo had praised him for pacifying the llanos (lowlands) by suppressing the local gangs of cattle rustlers. The San Juan Bautista de Aragua cabildo to the crown, June 27, 1796, AGI, Caracas, leg. 122.

29. See Pérez Estévez, Rosa María El problema de los vagos en la España del siglo XVIII (Madrid: Confederación Española de Cajas de Ahorros, 1976), pp. 293–336;Google Scholar and Arrom, Silvia Marina Containing the Poor: Tlic Mexico City Poor House, 1774–1871 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000).Google Scholar

30. Langue, Frédérique “Desterrar el vicio y serenar las conciencias: mendicidad y pobreza en la Caracas del siglo XVIII,” Revista de Indias 54:201 (May-August 1994), pp. 355–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. For a nuanced analysis of the broad Spanish notion of “vagrants,” see Estévez, Pérez El problema de los vagos, pp. 55–81.Google Scholar In this essay, I label as vagrants all the men apprehended during the Leva de Vagos of 1809, while acknowledging that most men were denied the legal recourse of challenging the charges of vagrancy.

32. Emparan to the Caracas tenientes, Caracas, September 1,1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

33. This recruitment order contrasts with the passionate one issued by the Junta Central in November 1808, which ordered a mass conscription, with few exemptions, from military service in order to defend religion, honor, and freedom. "Real orden para el reemplazo del ejército," November 18, 1808, in Moros, Javier Tambo and Martinez Tirao, Alfredo J. Antonio Cornel y Ferraz. Ilustrado, militar y político (Zaragoza: n.p., 2010), pp. 222–227.Google Scholar

34. José Antonio Felipes Borges to Emparan, Valencia, October 13, 1809, Archivo de la Academia Nacional de la Historia (hereafter AANH), Caracas, Sección Civiles (hereafter Civ.) 17–6783–14.

35. “Real ordenanza para las levas anuales en todos los pueblos del Reyno,” May 7, 1775, in Novísima Recopilación, Book 12, Title 31, Law 7.

36. When it became apparent that the recruitment order was widely misunderstood, Emparan ordered his general counsel to draft a second order that adhered closely to the real ordenanza of May 1775. At the time, Emparan had already decided to sentence vagrants unfit for the army to forced labor in the public works. The second recruitment order included this new goal by adding first-time petty cattle rustlers to its traditional definition of vagrants, with the caveat that these criminals were to be sentenced only to the public works. Later, the crown attorney deemed this addition as a modification of the real ordenanza. “Instrucción á que se arreglarán los Justicias de esta Provincia en exccución de la circular dirigida sobre vagos, y demás,” asesor general (legal counsel) José Vicente de Anca, Caracas, October 15, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

37. Tenientes were responsible for preserving peace, presiding over civil and criminal cases, and implementing imperial policy at the local level. Quintero, Gilberto El Teniente Justicia Mayor en la administración colonial venezolana: aproximación a stt estudio histórico jurídico (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1996).Google Scholar

38. José Ignacio Yepes to Emparan, El Tocuyo, November 9, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6823–1.

39. Felipes Borges to Emparan, Valencia, October 13, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–14.

40. Emparan to the royal treasury, draft, Caracas, March 22, 1810, AGN, Gobernación, tome 219, item 101.

41. I have created a database that accounts for 373 men apprehended during the Leva de Vagos of 1809 by culling data from lists (if vagrants, personal and official communications, and letters to the Junta Central. These documents are found in AGI, Caracas, leg. 172; AANH, sections Civiles and Criminales (1809–1810); and AGN, Gobernación (1809–1810). Eric Van Young’s profile of Mexican insurgents was an inspiration to my search for non-elite actors in the criminal archives and for organizing the sources into a database. Young, Eric Van The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001).Google Scholar

42. In a sample of 99 vagrants for whom age is known, the youngest vagrant was 15 years old and the oldest was 59 years old. Most men, nearly 80 percent, were 30 years old or younger.

43. “Lista de los presos que han entrado á la Real Cárcel de Corte,” ordered by the audiencia, Caracas, October-November 1809 AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

44. On the fuero militar in Spanish America, see MacAlister, Lyle N. The fuero militar in New Spain, 1764–1800 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1957);Google Scholar and Gómez, Ana Margarita “The Evolution of Military Justice in Late Colonial Guatemala, 1762–1821,” A Contracorriente 4:2 (2007), pp. 31–53, http://www.ncsu.edu/acontracorriente/ (accessed March 30, 2010).Google Scholar Some tenientes challenged the fuero militar during the Leva de Vagos of 1809 by arresting disruptive militiamen. Francisco de la Peña to Felipes Borges, Valencia, October 12, 1809; Felipes Borges to De la Peña, Valencia, October 13, 1809; Anca to Emparan, Caracas, October 19,1809; Clemente Bristapaja to Emparan, Guigiie, September 27, 1809, AANH, Sección Criminales (hereafter Crini.) 242–244.

45. In the caste system, racial categories were constantly negotiated among historical actors, based on a combination of factors, such as phenotype, reputation, and economic considerations. Royal officials in Spanish America, Juan Marchena Fernández notes, often lowered the threshold of whiteness for the sake of military recruitment, with soldiers often described as “de infima (very low) calidad.” The Leva de Vagos of 1809 strongly evidences the negotiation of racial boundaries, with 18 cases in which sources described vagrants using two racial categories, such as white/pardo, Indian/white, Indian/pardo, and Indian/mestizo. In this essay, I describe men as white if they volunteered or were sentenced to military service—two courses of action, in theory, available only to white men. Marchena Fernández, “Sin temor de Rey ni de Dios: violencia, corrupción y crisis de autoridad en la Cartagena colonial” in Soldados del Rey, p. 42; Rafael Cabrera to Emparan, Caracas, November 14, 1809; and Domingo Guillén to Emparan, Camatagua, November 21, 1809, AANH, Crini. 208–7.

46. John V. Lombardi has found that in late colonial Caracas the most common racial categories were white, Indian, pardo, negro, and slave. The term negro, however, was increasingly subsumed by the term pardo, which was defined as “nonwhite, non-Indian, and nonslave” people. Lombardi, People and Places, p. 44.

47. The census data of the bishopric of the province of Caracas, compiled by Lombardi, permits us to assess the impact of the Leva de Vagos of 1809 at the local level. Lombardi, , People and Places, pp. 174–227.Google Scholar This database is available online at http://jvlone.com/venezuela/parish/p_parishOO.html (accessed October 6, 2011).

48. For these calculations, I rely on the censuses from Camatagua in 1808, Nirgua in 1809, Güigüc in 1809, and Los Guayos in 1805. Ibid.

49. The places of residence identified are Araure, Aroa, Baragüa, Barbacoas, Barquisimcto, Calabozo, Camatagua, Canoabo, Caracas, Carora, Chacao, El Calvario, El Guapo, El Pao, El Sombrero, El Tocuyo, Humocaro, Guacara, Güigüe, La Victoria, Los Guayos, Maracay, Mariara, Montalban, Nirgua, Ortiz, Ospino, Parapara, Petare, Puerto Cabello, Quibor, Rio Chico, Sabana de Ocumare, San Carlos, San Felipe, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Lucia, Siquisique.Tinaquillo, Tiznado, Tucupido, Valencia, and Yaritagua. Since tenientes often had jurisdiction over several cities, towns, and hamlets, the number of locations affected was likely higher. Some vagrants from Camatagua, for example, specified that they lived in Taguay, El Pegón, or San Francisco de Cara.

50. The cabildo sent a local vagrant to Emparan in February 1810. Alcalde José de las Llamozas to Emparan, Caracas, February 23, 1810, AGN, Gobernación, tome 218, item 90.

51. On the importance of geography in military recruitment, see Beattie, , Tlic Tribute of Blood, pp. 246–255.Google Scholar

52. Marchena Fernández found that around 80 percent of Spanish American soldiers hailed from the garrison towns themselves. Fernández, Marchena Oficiales y soldados, pp. 282, 302.Google Scholar

53. For Caracas, Miller estimates that in 1800 the annual salary of a soldier was 108 pesos and that the annual salary of an agricultural worker was 79 pesos. Both Marchena Fernández and Hendrik Kraay have captured the many challenges faced by soldiers in urban settings in Spanish and Portuguese America. Miller, “Status and Loyalty,” p. 100;Google Scholar Fernández, Marchena Oficiales y soldados, pp. 332–333;Google Scholar and Kraay, Hendrik Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s–1840s (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), pp. 55–81.Google Scholar

54. These men later interpreted the term “expatriation” as the “separation from our homeland (patria) and our families and the loss of our possessions.” Joseph de los Santos Márquez and Pedro Celestino Avila to Emparan, Caracas, November 4, 1809, AANH, Crim 223–6.

55. Lombardi, People and Places, p. 62.Google Scholar

56. María Tomasa Figueroa to the audiencia, Caracas, November 15, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

57. Eleven prisoners from Valencia to Emparan, Caracas, October 26, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6823–12.

58. For references to prison breaks, see AANH, Crim. 243–3; Crim. 208–6; Civ. 17–6783–14; and Civ. 17–6834–1. For Emparan’s petitions for funds, see Emparan to the Caracas consulado, letter draft, Caracas, January 31, 1810, AGN, Gobernación, tome 217, item 65; and the Caracas cabildo to Emparan, Caracas, February 5, 1810, AGN, Gobernación, tome 217, item 107.

59. The audiencia to Minister of Gracia y Justicia Hermida, Caracas, April 2, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

60. The visibility of the public works chain gangs profoundly shaped contemporary references to the Leva de Vagos of 1809, with both the Confederacy of Venezuela and Restrepo mentioning only the vagrants toiling in public works, without acknowledging the recruitment campaign. Manifiesto que hace al mundo, p.7; Restrepo, Historia de la revolución, p. 540.

61. Chronologically, the Leva de Vagos of 1809 coincided with Emparan’s reform of the teniente system, which consisted of demarcating new jurisdictions and replacing those tenientes he considered unqualified. As a result of this reform, several tenientes who had sent vagrants to the city of Caracas were removed in late 1809. While Emparan seemed to have considered this leva and the reform of the teniente system as two separate issues, the measures affected each other substantially by inviting disagreement between new and former tenientes over the fate of individual vagrants.

62. Vicente García de Cádiz to Emparan, Caracas, November 27, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–5.

63. Felipe Rovena to Emparan, Guigüc, November 27, 1809, AANH, Crim. 218–6; Clemente Bristapaja to Emparan, Guigüc, September 27, 1809, AANH, Crim. 242–4; and an order to free the apprehended man and to charge the former teniente for the recruitment cost, Emparan, Caracas, December 7, 1809, AANH, Crim. 218–6.

64. “Destino fixo por tiempo de ocho años de los vagos aptos para el servicio de las Armas,” July 21, 1780, in Novísima Recopilación, Book 12, Title 31, Law 9.

65. Estévez, Pérez El problema Ae los vagos, p. 103.Google Scholar

66. Seventeen prisoners from various places of residence to Emparan, Caracas, November 11, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6823–12.

67. Sentence of a vagrant by Emparan, Caracas, November 28, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–1.

68. See AANH, Crim. 218–4; Crim. 243–6.

69. Whereas little is known about the pardo militiamen in Caracas, their counterparts in other regions of Spanish America, especially officers, owned small- and medium-sized landholdings and, in many instances, slaves. On the colored militias in Spanish America, see Cortes, Santos Rodulfo “Las milicias de pardos de Venezuela durante el período hispánico,” in Memoria del Tercer Congreso Venezolano de Historia, Vol. 3, pp. 10–85;Google Scholar Vinson, Ben III Bearing Arms for his Majesty: The Freed-Colored Militia in Colonial Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001);Google Scholar Postigo, José Belmonte “El color de los fusiles. Las milicias de pardos en Santiago de Cuba en los albores de la revolución haitiana,” in Las armas de la nación: independencia y ciudadanía en Hispanoamérica (1750–1850), eds. Chust, Manuel and Fernández, Marchena (Madrid: Iberoaméricana, 2007), pp. 37–51;Google Scholar and Cruces, Hugo Contreras “Las milicias de pardos y morenos libres de Santiago de Chile en el siglo XVIII, 1760–1800,” Cuadernos de Historia 25 (2006), pp. 93–117.Google Scholar

70 Basadre to Emparan, Caracas, October 3, 1809, AGN, Intendencia, tome 300, item 22; Emparan to the audiencia minister Felipe Martínez de Aragón, letter draft, Caracas, October 3, 1809, AGN, Gobernación, tome 211, item 6. Contemporaries widely praised Emparan’s program of public works in Cumana, see Grisanti, , Emparan y el golpe de estado, pp. 30, 36;Google Scholar and Leal, “Don Vicente de Emparan,” pp. 344–345.Google Scholar

71. The additions brought the total of artillerymen to 172—just 38 men short of filling all positions available. “Lista de todos los vagos que por orden del Capitán General han sido destinados a servir la Brigada del Real Cuerpo de Artillería, desde el I° de septiembre hasta el 28 de febrero de 1810,” sub-inspector of artillery Agustín García, Caracas, February 28,1810, AGN, Gobernación, tome 218, item 129.

72. Acuerdo Ordinario, the audiencia, Caracas, December 14, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

73. Two examples illustrate the wide range of conflicts Emparan confronted in 1809 and 1810. In one instance, he challenged the protomedico’ authority to license physicians. In another, he supported one elite faction’s position against the tradition of auctioning off the offices of regidores in the cabildo, tacitly advocating for reforming this royal institution. Protomedico Felipe de Tamariz to the crown, Caracas, July 19, 1809; Emparan to Minister of Gracia y Justicia Hermida, Caracas, December 4, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 171 ; José Manuel Lizarraga to Emparan, Caracas, July 9, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 108; and Joaquín Mosquera y Figueroa to Emparan, Cádiz, April 30, 1810, in “Documentos de la época de la independencia copiados del Foreign Records Office, de Londres, 1800–1810,” Vol. 1, eds. Carlos Urdaneta Carrillo and Elena Lecuna de Urdaneta (unpublished typescript).

74. Kraay, “Reconsidering Recruitment in Imperial Brazil,” The Americas 55:1 (July 1998), p. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

75. José Gabriel Escalona to Emparan, Caracas, November 29, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6823–6; José de Berroeta to Emparan, San Felipe, November 26, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–4; Bernardo Videl to Domingo Guillen, San Francisco de Cara, November 23, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6799–2; and José Jacinto Mújica to Emparan, Los Guayos, November 3, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–7.

76. Quintero, El Teniente Justicia Mayor, p. 344.Google Scholar

77. Emparan to minister of justice Hermida, Caracas, October 13, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 108. On bodegas and pulperías in the city of Caracas, see Kinsbruner, Jay “The Pulperos of Caracas and San Juan during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” Latin American Research Review 13:1 (1978), pp. 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78. Domingo Guillén, the new teniente of Camatagua, for example, gave favorable testimony for several men apprehended by his predecessor Diego de Melo. AANH, Civ. 17–6785–9; Crim. 218–6; Crim. 242–4.

79. Eleven prisoners from Valencia to Emparan, Caracas, October 26, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6823–12; Joseph de los Santos Márquez and Avila to Emparan, Caracas, November 4, 1809, AANH, Crim 223–6.

80. While the initial appeals to Emparan put forth primarily economic arguments, a few relatives referred explicitly to the charges of vagrancy as a stain on the family’s honor. “Honorable status and economic security,” Beattie has argued about recruitment in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Brazil, “were usually closely correlated, especially for poor families.” The emphasis of the initial Caracas appeals on subsistence reveals more about contemporary expectations of proper exchanges between royal authorities and vassals than about the myriad of ways military recruitment challenged “patriarchy and state building.” Beattie, , The Tribute of Blood, pp. 14, 89.Google Scholar

81. Maria Bernarda Diaz to Emparan, Caracas, n.d., AANH, Civ. 17–6823–4.

82. Pérez Estévez has drawn a detailed outline of Spanish levas in the eighteenth century. This outline points to the many similarities between the Leva de Vagos of 1809 in Caracas and traditional Spanish levas, especially as they operated at the local level. The most notable difference is the more complex racial dynamic at work in Caracas; even so, this issue was largely handled with the peninsular solution of condemning men unfit for the military to forced labor in the public works. Estévez, Pérez El problema de los vagos, pp. 199–273.Google Scholar

83. See Llorens, Miguel Izard “Vagos, prófugos y cuatreros. Insurgencias antiexcedentarias en la Venezuela tardocolonial,” Boletín Americanista 41 (1991), pp. 186–191;Google Scholar and Langue, “Desterrar el vicio.”

84. In contrast, Archer argues that the military in New Spain impressed the free poor “since these men lacked support from the elites and seldom dared voice complaints to the viceroy.” Similarly, Lemisch remarked on the divide between the impressed seamen and the New York elite, wondering “why the articulate [were] not more articulate about the seamen’s anger.” Archer, “To Serve the King,” p. 248;Google Scholar Lemisch, “Jack Tar,” p. 396.Google Scholar

85. Joseph de los Santos Marquez and Avila to Emparan, Caracas, November 4, 1809, AANH, Crim 223–6.

86. Lorenzo Márquez to Emparan, Caracas, December 20, 1809, and Caracas, February 1810, AANH, Crim. 223–6. See also AANH, Civ. 17–6817–3.

87. See Arnal, Yolanda Texera “Médicos, cirujanos y curanderos en la capitanía general de Venezuela: estudio de un expediente,” Asclepio 52:1 (2000), pp. 37–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

88. The Junta Central was in the midst of complying with Emparan's petition by appointing new audiencia ministers in late 1809. The first two audiencia ministers were slated to arrive in the summer of 1810. Emparan to the Junta Central, Seville, March 9, 1809, AHN, Estado 60.

89. On the audiencia’s problems during the early 1800s, see de López, Teresa Albornoz La visita de Joaquín Mosquera y Figueroa a la Real Audiencia de Caracas (1804–1809): conflictos internos y corrupción en la administración de justicia (Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1987);Google Scholar and Conjuración de 1808.

90. “Lista de los Presos que han entrado á la Real Cárcel de Corte,” ordered by the audiencia, Caracas, October-November 1809 AGI, Caracas, leg. 172. On the summonses to the notaries, sec Acuerdo Ordinario, the audiencia, Caracas, December 14, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172. Four notaries replied to the audiencia that, even if they desired to comply with the court's order, Emparan had kept in his office the documents related to vagrants. Antonio Texera, Gabriel José de Aramburii, Pablo Castillo, and Fausto Viana to the audiencia, Caracas, December 18, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

91. Acuerdo Ordinario, the audiencia, Caracas, November 13, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

92. The colegio de abogados’ dean Felipe Fermín Paúl to the audiencia, Caracas, November 14, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172. In contrast with New Granada, where Victor M. Uribe-Uran has shown a strong correlation between the local elite and colonial lawyers, McKinley maintains that, “the typical lawyer [in Caracas] was neither rich nor the member of a prominent family.” McKinley, Pre-Revolutionary Caracas, p. 94;Google Scholar Uribe-Uran, , “Kill All the Lawyers! Lawyers and the Independence Movement in New Granada, 1809–1820,” Tlie Americas 52:2 (October 1995), pp. 175–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

93. The colegio de abogados had traditionally respresented pobres de solemnidad (the poorest of people). Márquez, Héctor Parra Historia del Colegio de Abogados de Caracas, Vol. 1 (Caracas: Imprenta Nacional, 1952), pp. 160–165, 381-392.Google Scholar

94. Decision by the colegio de abogados’ dean Paúl, Caracas, November 14, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

95. Emparan petitioned the audiencia to proceed “sin estrépito judicial,” a legal phrase that calls for obviating the full legal procedure in favor of a brief, simpler one. Emparan to the audiencia, Caracas, September 21, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

96. Francisco Espejo (1758–1814) was one of the most important lawyers in colonial Caracas, recognized by Charles IV with the title of honorary audiencia minister and by the Junta Central with his appointment as the artillery brigade's legal counsel. He was the crown attorney during the Conspiracy of Guai and España in 1797, the invasion of Francisco de Miranda in 1806, and the inquest on infidencia (treason) following the elite’s petition for establishing a junta suprema in Caracas in late 1808 and early 1809. While he did not participate in the coup of April 1810, Espejo soon became one of the Junta of Caracas’s most ardent supporters. The controversy over the Leva de Vagos of 1809 shows him as a staunch defender of Spanish law and thereby provides a critical context for understanding his later view that American independence had resulted in part from the Spanish empire’s failure to guarantee “the protection of the [people’s] rights.” Espejo, Francisco Código constitucional del Pueblo Soberano de Barcelona Colombia (1812),Google Scholar transcribed in Márquez, Héctor Parra Presidentes de Venezuela: el doctor Francisco Espejo, ensayo biográfico, 2nd ed. (Caracas: n.p., 1954), p. 200.Google Scholar

97. Espejo’s response to Emparan’s first letter of September 21, 1809, Caracas, October 2, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172. The correspondence between Emparan and the audiencia was conducted through the crown attorney, as was customary. The crown attorney examined every document directed to the audiencia and issued a report along with his opinion. If the crown attorney’s report was approved, the audiencia often adopted its ideas as the court’s own. Márquez, Parra Historia del Colegio, vol. 1, p. 112.Google Scholar

98. Anca to Emparan, Caracas, November 2, 1809, quoted in Emparan to the audiencia, Caracas, November 3, 1809, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

99. Herr, Richard The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958), pp. 341–347;Google Scholar Polt, J.H.R. Gaspar Melchor He Jovellanos (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1971 ), pp. 129–133.Google Scholar On the discursive uses of the Spanish constitutional tradition during Spanish American independence, see Chiaramonte, Jose Carlos “The ‘Ancient Constitution’ after Independence (1808–1852),” Hispanic American Historical Review 90:3 (August 2010), pp. 455–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

100. Espejo rephrased this idea, stating: “But to none of these chiefs, magistrates, and courts in America, nor to all of them together, is given the authority of acting as legislators even in the most urgent of circumstances.” Espejo’s response to Emparan’s second letter of November 3, 1809, Caracas, January 9, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

101. Ibid.

102. Acuerdo Ordinario, the audiencia, Caracas, February 15, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

103. On February 26,1810, Emparan had requested the libro de registro (the registry), which the audiencia had informed him was required to deal with vagrants in Caracas according to the royal cédula of May 1789. No such book, however, could be found in the archives on March 8, 1810—the same day Emparan wrote his passionate letter to the audiencia. Emparan to the audiencia, Caracas, February 26, 1810; Escribano de cámara (court notary) José Tomás Santana to the audiencia, Caracas, March 8, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

104. Emparan to the audiencia, Caracas, March 8, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

105. AANH, Crim. 223–5.

106. Nicolas Antonio Peres to Emparan, Caracas, November 2, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–14; Maria Agueda Márquez a Vicente Emparan, Caracas, December 7, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6783–7; and 11 prisoners from Valencia to Emparan, Caracas, October 26, 1809, AANH, Civ. 17–6823–12.

107. The audiencia to minister of justice Hermida, Caracas, April 2, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

108. Bernabé Diaz and Manuel Andrés Pereira to the audiencia, Caracas, January 22, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

109. Emparan to the audiencia, Caracas, March 8, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172. On May 3, 1810, the Junta of Caracas specifically referred to Emparan’s complaint about Espejo, stating: “the crown attorney was particularly threatened because, being the legal body in charge of promoting the observance of the law, he decried against [Emparan’s] arbitrariness and despotism.” The Junta of Caracas’ reference demonstrates that the correspondence between the audiencia and Emparan circulated among the local elite. “La Suprema Junta de Caracas se dirije á la Junta Superior de Gobierno de Cádiz exponiéndole los hechos, razones i fundamentos que tuvo la capital de Venezuela para establecer su gobierno propio el dia 19 de abril, como lo hicieron en España las provincias y pueblos de la península,” Caracas, May 3, 1810, in Documentos para la historia, vol. 2, p. 420.

110. The royal order of December 7, 1809 was concerned with the need to keep an up-to-date record of men unfit for combat due to injuries in Spain. Emparan, however, seemed to have seriously considered conscripting new militia companies in the province of Caracas, because he ordered provincial tenientes to make lists of the men in each locality in late December 1809—a critical step toward recruiting militiamen based on municipal quotas. Reglamento general para el gobierno y regimen facultativo del Cuerpo de Médico-cirujanos del Ejército (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1829), pp. 157–158; Emparan to the Caracas tenientes, Caracas, December 27, 1809, AGN, Gobernación, tome 215, item 50.

111. Copy of the Bando’s article dealing with vagrants sent to the Junta Central by the audiencia, Caracas, March 8, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172.

112. Emparan to the governors of Guayana, Margarita, Cumana, and Maracaibo and the political commander of Barinas, Caracas, January 4, 1810, AGN, Gobernación, tome 215, item 144.

113. On another dispute among royal authorities over military recruitment, see MacAlister, “The Reorganization of the Army of New Spain, 1763–1766,” Hispanic American Historical Review 33:1 (February 1953), p. 28.Google Scholar

114. Emparan to minister of war Cornel, letter draft, Caracas, December 21, 1809, AGN, Gobernación, tome 215, item 20; Emparan to minister of justice Hermida, Caracas, March 6, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 108.

115. The audiencia to minister of justice Hermida, Caracas, April 2, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 172. In 1813, a confession by a pardo milita officer of infidencia (treason) revealed the potential value of vagrants for those conspiring against Emparan. The pardo militia officer recounted in his confession how the pardo captain Pedro Arevalo, who later played a central role in the coup of April 19, 1810, was involved in an aborted coup planned for April 1, 1810; the coup was to be manned by the nonwhite (mostly pardo) men apprehended during the recruitment campaign from late 1809 onwards. The militia officer explained in his confession that the aborted coup was to be executed by the “hundred-something convicts that were housed inside the barracks of the Misericordia who they supposed [were] resentful with mister Emparan for having sentenced them to serve in the public works.” While the veracity of the confession made under duress is questionable, it nevertheless reflects a world in transition where it was possible to imagine a fierce pardo captain who could lead a force of disgruntled colored men against the established government. Confession of José Martin Barrios, Castillo de San Felipe (Puerto Cabello), January 9, 1813, AGN, Causas de Infidencia, tome 6, file 5.

116. Andrés F. Ponte refers to this decree of April 20, 1810. Ponte, , La revolución de Caracas, p. 111.Google Scholar

117. “La Suprema Junta de Caracas,” Caracas, May 3, 1810, in Documentos para la historia, vol. 2, p. 420. Comparing the Leva de Vagos of 1809 with the French annual conscription, the Junta of Caracas explicitly rejected the Spanish government’s effort to militarize local society. This rejection accounts for the Junta of Caracas’ initial failure to recruit provincial volunteers to increase the size of its army—a move Thibaud claims was met with “entrenched resistance.” Thibaud, , Repúblicas en armas, p. 60.Google Scholar

118. Antonio Fernández de León to Esteban Fernández de León, Caracas, February 12, 1810, AGI, Caracas, leg. 437-A.

119. The power of Spanish American audiencias was based “ultimately upon the ability, integrity, and respect commanded by the individuals who composed them.” As such, the leva dealt a serious blow to the Caracas audiencia. Burkholder, Mark and Chandler, D.S., From Impotence to Authority: The Spanish Crown and the American Audiencias, 1687–1808 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1977), p. 3.Google Scholar

120. Lorenzo Márquez to Emparan, Caracas, February 1810, AANH, Crim. 223–6.

121. In July 1808, an enraged urban mass forced the local Spanish government to recognize Ferdinand VII. In November 1808, popular discontent intimidated those elite men petitioning for a junta suprema for Caracas.

122. Ponte, Parra Pérez, and Parra Márquez largely blamed Emparan for his own demise. In his defense of Emparan, Grisanti also criticized the functionary’s gullibility for heeding the advice of an elite covertly seeking independence. Ponte, La revolución de Caracas; Parra Pérez, Historia de la Primera República; Parra Márquez, El Mariscal Vicente Emparan; and Grisanti, Emparan y elgolpe de estado.

123. Hawkins, Timothy José de Bustamante and Central American Independence: Colonial Administration in an Age of Imperial Crisis (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004), p. xxvi.Google Scholar On the critical roles played by the post-1808 Spanish functionaries appointed to Spanish America, see Hawkins, José de Bus-tamante; Anna, Timothy “The Last Viceroys of New Spain and Peru: An Appraisal,” Tlic American Historical Review 81:1 (February 1976): pp. 38–65;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Pérez, Demetrio Ramos “Paralelismo entre Meléndez Bruna e Hidalgo de Cisneros, dos marinos gobernantes en América, en la época emancipadora,” in Estudios de historia moderna y contemporanea: homenaje a Federico Suárez Verdeguer (Madrid: Editorial RIALP, 1991), pp. 407–416.Google Scholar