Black Hand

The Black Hand was a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain and best known as the perpetrators of murders, arson, and crop fires in the early 1880s. The events associated with the Black Hand took place in 1882 and 1883 amidst class struggle in the Andalusian countryside, the spread of anarcho-communism distinct from collectivist anarchism, and differences between legalists and illegalists in the Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española. Background Between the drought and poor harvests of 1881 and 1882, social tensions and hunger in Andalusia led to theft, robberies, and arson. There were raids on farms and riots in protest of lack of work. Insurgents demanded that the town council give them jobs in public works. Among the most serious urban riots, on November 3, 1882, in Jerez de la Frontera, about 60 people were arrested as the Civil Guard and army intervened. Owners were fearful of the rioters, who otherwise did not act in personal aggression or face farmhouse guards and the Civil Guard. The liberal press in Madrid denounced the dire circumstances of Andalusian day laborers in late 1882. An editorial in the newspaper El Imparcial described the looting of bakeries and butchers out of hunger, and having to choose between alms, theft, and death. Leopoldo Alas reported on hunger in Andalusia in a series of articles for El Día.