7 – Carbonari
The Black Hand were far from the first clandestine political group to spring up with the intention of unifying their lands. Indeed, one of their principal inspirations was the Carbonari or “charcoal makers”, who had trodden the self-same path from unknown secret society to the nationally-relevant political organization around a hundred years before in the south of Italy.
The Carbonari could be considered something of a middle point between the Freemasons and the Black Hand. Like the Freemasons, they ostensibly were a trade society, or at least, they gave themselves the air of a trade union of charcoal burners, calling themselves as such and holding their meetings in “baracca” or huts, similar to that used by firewood collectors. Similar to the Masons, they organized into two groups, Apprentices and Masters, and indeed inductees who were already Masons could skip the apprentice period and go straight in as Masters. Also like the Freemasons, they drew the ire of the Catholic Church, which was all-powerful in southern Italy at the time.
Their similarities to the Black Hand – or more, the Black Hand’s similarities to the Carbonari – were all political. They might have given the impression of a trade guild, but the Carbonari were very much politically motivated: they grew in the aftermath of the French Revolution and were heavily influenced by its ideas, placing the liberal values and emphasis on national unity, written constitutions and codified rights at their core. Italian Nationalism would later become a major tenet of their activities too, though when they first came to prominence in the early 1800s, there was and never had been any Italy, rather a mishmash of regional entities and the ever-present Papal States around Rome.
Despite their secret status, the existence of the Carbonari was well known. When the time came to fight for their ideals, they were not backward in coming forwards to challenge the powers of the day. In 1821 they rose against Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. They managed to force him to accept a liberal constitution and a parliament before marching on towards the north, only for the Italian establishment to ask for support from the Austrians, who crushed the Carbonari. In the aftermath, the Pope banned secret societies and excommunicated anyone associated with them.
The Carbonari would not be done yet. In 1830 they rose again, this time in support of Louis Philippe of France, who had been placed in power by a popular uprising in Paris. They tried to convince the Duke of Modena, Francis IV, to join their uprising (particularly against the Pope and the Papal States) and in return offered him the position of King of Italy. Francis, however, double-crossed the Carbonari and the rebellion was snuffed out the day before it was due to begin.
Among the ranks of the Carbonari, however, were Guiseppe Garibaldi – the man who would later unite Italy – and Giuseppe Manzini, another of the fathers of the Italian nations, as well as French and American Revolutionary hero the Marquis de Lafayette and English Romantic poet Lord Byron.