The Philippine-American War

As you know, Philippine rebels had been waging guerrilla warfare against Spanish colonialism long before the United States of America became involved. Their exiled leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, met with the American consul in Singapore as the U.S. Army headed towards the Philippines. Admiral Dewey invited Aguinaldo back to the Philippines in hopes he could provide intelligence regarding the defenses of Manila Bay. At the same time, Aguinaldo believed the USA would help the Philippines gain independence from Spain. However, the USA betrayed that trust.

When Spain began losing against the Filipino people, they opted to surrender to American forces and staged a mock battle to appear as if America beat Spain and won the Philippines. This suited Spain; it would rather award victory to the USA, than to the Philippines, who were former "captives" of their rule.

Immediately after these events, Filipino leader Aguinaldo declared war against America, beginning the Philippine-American War. American forces and leaders lobbied the American public for support, justifying that America's claim over the Philippines would bring forth democracy. The media fueled support for control of the Philippines, through propaganda in the form of sensational stories and illustrations with racist captions. Many of these illustrations can be seen in the book entitled The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons, by Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel, and the late Helen Toribio.
Anti-imperialists like author Mark Twain questioned this approach because it denied Filipinos basic rights such as self-government. However, pro-imperialists won out in the end.

The effects of imperialism were seen in the education and immigration policies implemented by the United States. These policies appeared to benefit the Philippines, but actually served America’s purposes. Filipino identity, values, and traditions were lost and agricultural labor was exploited for America’s gain. Many of these policies have effects that last until today.

Among the American soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War were Black soldiers who were part of segregated Black infantry regiments. After fighting in the Indian wars in the 19th century, they were given the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” by Native Americans. Companies from the segregated Black infantry regiments reported to the Presidio of San Francisco on their way to the Philippines in early 1899.

All four Black regiments—the 24th and 25th Infantry regiments and the 9th and 10th Cavalry—and Black national guardsmen were sent into the war against the Philippine nationalists.

Within the Black community in the USA there was considerable opposition to intervention in the Philippines. Many Black newspaper articles and leaders supported the idea of Filipino independence and felt that it was wrong for the USA to subjugate non-whites in the development of what was perceived to be the beginnings of a colonial empire. Among them were Ida Wells-Barnett, Bishop Henry M. Turner characterized the venture in the Philippines as "an unholy war of conquest."
At the same time, many Blacks felt a good military showing by Black troops in the Philippines would reflect favorably and enhance their cause in the United States.
The service of the cavalry in the Philippines was described as daily and nightly patrols by small detachments commanded by junior officers or sergeants. Troops often encountered bands armed with captured Spanish and American guns and bolos.

As the war progressed, many Black soldiers increasingly felt they were being used in an unjust racial war. The Filipino insurgents subjected Black soldiers to psychological warfare, using propaganda encouraging them to desert. Posters and leaflets addressed to "The Colored American Soldier" described the lynching and discrimination against Blacks in the USA and discouraged them from being the instrument of their White masters' ambitions to oppress another "people of color." Blacks who deserted to the Filipino nationalist cause would be welcomed and given positions of responsibility.

A large reason for the growing sense of injustice were the wartime atrocities that took place. One infamous atrocity took place in Samar, where General Jacob Hurd Smith ordered his soldiers to kill every one over ten.

During the war in the Philippines, fifteen U.S. soldiers, six of them Black, would defect to Aguinaldo. One of the Black deserters, Private David Fagen became notorious as a "Insurecto Captain," and was apparently so successful fighting American soldiers that a price of $600 was placed on his head. The bounty was collected by a Filipino defector who brought in Fagen's decomposed head.

A Black newspaper, the Indianapolis Freeman, editorialized in December, 1901, "Fagen was a traitor and died a traitor's death, but he was a man no doubt prompted by honest motives to help a weakened side, and one he felt allied by bonds that bind.
The sentiments of most Black soldiers in the Philippines would be summed up by Commissary Sergeant Middleton W. Saddler of the 25th Infantry, who wrote, "We are now arrayed to meet a common foe, men of our own hue and color. Whether it is right to reduce these people to submission is not a question for soldiers to decide. Our oaths of allegiance know neither race, color, nor nation."

Resistance finally collapsed with the capture of independence leader Aguinaldo and the eventual wearing down of the indigenous fighters by the better armed American soldiers.

Following the war, Buffalo Soldier regiments continued to serve at a series of army posts in the United States, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Those soldiers that remained in the Philippines would marry Filipinos. One of these stories is told in Twenty-five Chickens and a Pig for a Bride: Growing up in a Filipino Immigrant Family, by Evangeline Canonizado Buell. Her grandfather, Ernest Stokes was a Buffalo Soldier.

All of these interactions plunged the Philippines and the United States of America into a deeper web of interconnectedness.