Andrea Aguyar, nicknamed Andrea il Moro, (?, Montevideo, Uruguay - 30 June 1849, Rome, Roman Republic (now Italy)) was a former Black slave from Uruguay who became a follower of Garibaldi in both South America and Italy, and who died in defence of the revolutionary Roman Republic of 1849.
Aguyar was born in Montevideo to black slave parents, and was a slave until his young adulthood. The abolition of slavery in Uruguay was directly linked to the outbreak of the Uruguayan Civil War in 1838. Both sides - the Liberal "Colorados" and the Conservative "Blancos" proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in 1842, in order to mobilize the former slaves to reinforce their respective military forces.
During the siege of Montevideo, the newly-freed slaves, who formed a contingent 5,000 strong, and the community of foreign exiles and expatriates, were mostly responsible for the defence of the city. [1] Among the latter Giuseppe Garibaldi - then a young Italian exile starting to make a name for himself as a daring revolutionary and guerrilla leader - headed the "Italian Legion". It was at that time that Aguyar's association with Garibaldi began.
In his memoirs, Garibaldi greatly praised these freed slaves: "True sons of freedom. Their lances, longer than normal length, their dark black [nerissimi] faces, their robust limbs used to permanent and demanding work, their perfect discipline". [2] Most of these freed slaves did not, however, follow Garibaldi when he returned to Europe in 1848 - which Andrea Aguyar did.
Aguyar travelled with Garibaldi on the latter's 1848 return to Italy, and was likely at his side during Garibaldi's earlier phases of participation in the First Italian War of Independence at Piedmont and Lombardy, and Garibaldi's victories at Luino and Morazzone. However, Aguyar came into the public gaze mainly during the months of the Roman Republic's tenacious resistance - which turned out to be the last months of Aguyar's own life.
To a considerable degree, the beleaguered Roman Republic's struggle was waged in the international press as much as on the actual battlefield. Numerous journalists were present in Rome and reporting back to their countries, a large part of them openly sympathetic to the Italian Nationalist cause. In their reports Aguyar often figured, being given special attention as a single "exotic" Black man among Europeans.
"The Illustrated London News", which especially sent a reporter and an illustrator to cover the struggle in Rome, published on July 21, 1849, a drawing of Aguyar riding a horse behind Garibaldi, with the caption "Garibaldi and his negro servant". The attached report referred to Aguyar as "A fine fellow, his dress a red loose coat and a showy silk handkerchief tied loosely over his shoulders". The drawing (see above) also showed him wearing a hat with an ostrich feather, similar to the hat worn by Garibaldi himself in the same drawing [3]
In the memoirs of international volunteers who joined Garibaldi, Aguyar is mentioned as a fellow-fighter of exceptional abilities. "A moor [moro] of vast proportions who had followed [Garibaldi] from America, in a black cloak with a lance garnished with a red pennant" was the description of the Swiss volunteer Von Hofstetter.
The Dutch painter Jan Koelman, also a volunteer with Garibaldi, wrote of "A Hercules of ebony colour, a freed slave who followed Garibaldi from Brazil (sic) and who astonished everyone in battle by throwing a lasso over enemy soldiers and pulling them off their horses" [4] - a gaucho trick completely unfamiliar to European soldiers. More prosaically, he also used the lasso in order to collect riderless horses running around after a battle.
Aguyar also appeared in hostile caricatures published by a conservative Roman paper, which depicted Garibaldi as "a treacherous long haired brigand, followed by a large black man" [5]
Though illiterate, Aguyar was considered highly skilful and competent, especially an accomplished horseman. He was reputed to have saved Garibaldi's life several times, at risk to his own. In one specific episode, during battle with soldiers of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies at Velletri, Aguyar saved Garibaldi when the commander was thrown of his horse and was in concrete danger of being captured.
Off the battlefield, Aguyar is mentioned as offering his saddle as a pillow for Garibaldi to sleep on during breaks in marching, and improvising an awning to protect him from the sun.
Aguyar also took care of Guerrillo, Garibaldi's three-legged dog who was saved and adopted after being hit by a stray bullet in the Battle of San Antonio in February 1846, and whom Garibaldi eventually took with him from Uruguay to Italy. Guerrillo was mentioned as "always running either under Garibaldi's horse or under Aguyar's (the dog's ultimate fate is unknown).
When the above-mentioned report and drawing appeared in The Illustrated London News, on July 21, 1849, the Roman Republic had already fallen and Aguyar - mentioned in the article as "now dead" - had fallen in its desperate last struggle.
With the French forces breaking into Rome on 30 June 1849, Andrea Aguyar - appointed a Lieutenant by Garibaldi in recognition of his abilities - was mortally wounded when hit by a shell near the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Reportedly, while bleeding he managed to cry out: "Long Live the Republics of America and Rome!". He was carried into the Church of Santa Maria della Scala in the same neighbourhood, used at the time as a hospital, where he died.
His name is often linked with that of Luciano Manara, also killed on the same day.
The Italian commemorative web page "Andrea Aguyar, il Moro di Garibaldi" deplores the fact that there is no bust of Andrea Aguyar to be found among those of the fallen Garibaldian heroes placed on the Janiculum hill. However, the name "Andrea il Moro" was given to a flight of stairs (scalea) in the region between the Trastevere and Monteverde parts of Rome, not far from where he was killed.
The unification of Italy, also known as the Risorgimento, was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in 1861 in the consolidation of various states of the Italian Peninsula and its outlying isles into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the Revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1871 after the capture of Rome and its designation as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
The 1848 Revolutions in the Italian states, part of the wider Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, were organized revolts in the states of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, led by intellectuals and agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate reactionary Austrian control. During this time, Italy was not a unified country, and was divided into many states, which, in Northern Italy, were ruled directly or indirectly by the Austrian Empire. A desire to be independent from foreign rule, and the conservative leadership of the Austrians, led Italian revolutionaries to stage revolution in order to drive out the Austrians. The revolution was led by the state of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Some uprisings in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, particularly in Milan, forced the Austrian General Radetzky to retreat to the Quadrilateral fortresses.
The Redshirts, also called the Red coats, are volunteers who followed the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi during his campaigns. The name derived from the colour of their shirts or loose-fitting blouses that the volunteers, usually called Garibaldini, wore in lieu of a uniform.
The Roman Republic was a short-lived state declared on 9 February 1849, when the government of the Papal States was temporarily replaced by a republican government due to Pope Pius IX's departure to Gaeta. The republic was led by Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Aurelio Saffi. Together they formed a triumvirate, a reflection of a form of government during the first century BC crisis of the Roman Republic.
The Ragamuffin War or Ragamuffin Revolution was a Republican uprising that began in southern Brazil, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul in 1835. The rebels were led by generals Bento Gonçalves da Silva and Antônio de Sousa Neto with the support of the Italian fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi. The war ended with an agreement between the two sides known as Green Poncho Treaty in 1845.
The Expedition of the Thousand was an event of the unification of Italy that took place in 1860. A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi sailed from Quarto dei Mille near Genoa and landed in Marsala, Sicily, in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the Spanish House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. The name of the expedition derives from the initial number of participants, which was around 1,000 people.
Francesco Ferruccio was an Italian captain from Florence who fought in the Italian Wars.
Anita Garibaldi was a Brazilian republican revolutionary. She was the wife and comrade-in-arms of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. Their partnership epitomized the spirit of the 19th century's Age of Romanticism and revolutionary liberalism.
Giacomo Medici, Marchese del Vascello was an Italian nobleman, patriot and soldier.
The Uruguayan Civil War, also known in Spanish as the Guerra Grande, was a series of armed conflicts between the leaders of Uruguayan independence. While officially the war lasted from 1839 until 1851, it was a part of armed conflicts that started in 1832 and continued until the final military defeat of the Blancos faction in 1904.
Porta San Pancrazio is one of the southern gates of the Aurelian walls in Rome, Italy.
In the Age of Revolution, the Lazzaroni of Naples were the poorest of the lower class in the city and Kingdom of Naples. Described as "street people under a chief", they were often depicted as "beggars"—which some actually were, while others subsisted partly by service as messengers, porters, etc. No precise census of them was ever conducted, but contemporaries estimated their total number at around 50,000, and they had a significant role in the social and political life of the city. They were prone to act collectively as crowds and mobs and follow the lead of demagogues, often proving formidable in periods of civil unrest and revolution.
Giuditta Tavani Arquati was an Italian republican patriot, a notable figure in the Italian Risorgimento and a martyr for the cause of a United Italy.
Francesco Arquati was an Italian republican patriot, a notable figure in the Italian Risorgimento and a so-called martyr for the cause of a United Italy.
Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi was an Italian general, patriot, revolutionary and republican. He contributed to Italian unification and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy. He is considered to be one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland", along with Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and Giuseppe Mazzini. Garibaldi is also known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe.
Jan (Johan) Philip Koelman was a Dutch painter, sculptor, writer and teacher, involved during part of his life in revolutionary activity.
The Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni is a Renaissance sculpture in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy, created by Andrea del Verrocchio in 1480–1488. Portraying the condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni, it has a height of 395 cm excluding the pedestal. It is the second major equestrian statue of the Italian Renaissance, after Donatello's equestrian statue of Gattamelata (1453).
Giovanni Livraghi was an Italian patriot, who took part in various enterprises of Giuseppe Garibaldi, being part of the Italian legion which he founded in Montevideo in 1843 and participating, as a result, in the defense of the Roman Republic.
Achille Cantoni was an Italian war volunteer who fought in the Second and Third Italian Wars of Independence. He is credited with saving the life of Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general and central figure of the Risorgimento, during a battle in the town of Velletri in 1849. He died at the Battle of Mentana on November 3, 1867. After his death, Giuseppe Garibaldi wrote a novel entitled Cantoni il volontario in his honor.
The Southern Army was the force of around 50,000 Italian and foreign volunteers which formed as a result of the Expedition of the Thousand. The name was coined by Giuseppe Garibaldi.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
