Race War on San Juan Hill

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Race War on San Juan Hill

• The Legacy of African American Troops and
  Roosevelts Rough Riders

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That Splendid Little Postcolonial War

• Popular culture at the turn of century serves
  dominant interests.
• Popular culture is key in constructing national
  memory.
• Slavery and Conquest of the West reappear as
  tropes shaping American imperial and colonial
  policy.

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Row of Cuban Troops
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Final Union
The War was seen as a way to unite the North and
South. The white child in the middle is Cuba.
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Theodore Teddy Roosevelt
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Black Nationalism

• This country is as much ours as it is whites,
  whether they will admit it now or not, they will
  see and believe it by and by David Walker, 1829
• What class of Americans stands above the colored
  inhabitants of the soil? Henry H.
  Garnet, 1843

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9th 10th Cavalry in Cuba (1898)
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9th 10th Cavalry in Cuba (1898)
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Sergeant Frank W. Pullen

• The transport had either been a common freighter
  or a cattle ship. Whatever had been its
  employment before being converted into a
  transport, I am sure of one thing, it was neither
  fit for man nor beast when soldiers were
  transported in it to Cuba ... The lower decks had
  been filled with bunks. Alas! the very thought of
  those things of torture makes me shudder even
  now. They were arranged in rows, lengthwise the
  ship, of course, with aisles only two feet wide
  between each row. The dimensions of a man's bunk
  was 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet high, and
  they were arranged in tiers of four, with a four
  inch board on either side to keep one from
  rolling out ... The 25th infantry was assigned to
  the bottom deck, where there was no light, except
  the small port holes when the gang plank was
  closed. So dark was it that candles were burned
  all day. There was no air except what came down
  the canvass air shafts when they were turned to
  the breeze. The heat of that place was almost
  unendurable. Still our Brigade Commander issued
  orders that no one would be allowed to sleep on
  the main deck. That order was the only one to my
  knowledge during the campaign that was not obeyed
  by the colored soldiers.

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Colored Troops Disembarking
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Rough Riders on board the U.S.S. Yucatan
Rough Riders arrive ready for battle.
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Farewell to the Rough Riders
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Col. Roosevelt at San Juan
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20 mins Before the Charge
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The Charge of the Nigger Ninth on San Juan Hill
by George E. Powell

• As brawn as black a fearless foe
• Grave, grim and grand, they onward go,
• To conquer or to die!
• The rule of right the march of might
• A dusky host from darker night,
• Responsive to the morning light,
• To work the martial will!
• And oer the trench and trembling earth,
• The morn that gives the battle birth
• Is on the San Juan Hill!
• Hark! Sounds again the bugle call!
• Let ring the rifles over all,
• To shriek above the battle-pall
• The war-gods jubilee!
• Theirs, were bondmen, low, and long
• Theirs, once weak against the strong
• Theirs, to strike and stay the wrong,
• That strangers might be free!

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A Valiant Negro Soldier
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On the Hill
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Rough Riders Charge up San Juan Hill
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Rough Riders Charge up San Juan Hill
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9th 10th Cavalry in Cuba (1898)
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9th 10th Cavalry in Cuba (1898)
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9th 10th Cavalry in Cuba (1898)
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Remingtons Charge on San Juan Hill
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All Spaniards Look Alike to Me
Song written by Paul Berlack, sang to the tune
of All Coons Look Alike to Me.
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Uncle Sams New Acquisitions - The World
Uncle Sam sits with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii
on his lap. Spain holds a baby blanket that says
the Philippines. All the children are black.
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Civilization Begins at Home