Raffaello Carboni
Contents
Background
The multi-lingual Raffaello Carboni was born in 1817 at Urbino, Italy. He participated in the Garibaldian revolutionary wars in Italy during the 1840s, and supported the Risorgimento.[1]
After being arrested in 1854 a reporter described Carboni as: an Italian, of middle age, of spare but vigorous form. His hair and beard are thin, and of a red color. He has black eyes, and an earnest, enthusiastic manner. He was secretary to Mazzini when Rome was captured, and bears the traces of several wounds.
Carboni died in 1875.
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
Carboni reached the Ballarat goldfields in 1852. He had moderate success at Golden Point and Magpie Gully, then spent some time as a shepherd where he experienced living with Aborigines. He returned to Ballarat mid-1853 and became embroiled in the digger' grievances over the gold license tax, and the manner in which the authorities were policing the collection of the licence fee. Because of his language skills he was chosen by Peter Lalor to act as a go-between with the non-English speaking European miners.
Carboni was one of twelve miners charged with high treason as a result of the Eureka Stockade. Not long after his capture evidence was given against him. Trooper Henry Goodenough said Raphaello made a speech. Gentlemen soldiers, those that cannot provide themselves with firearms, let them provide themselves with a piece of steel, if it is only six inches long, attached to a pole, and that will pierce the tyrant's heart." He marched his men to Eureka, and drilled them there on that and the following day. In answer to Raphaello, witness said that prisoner's company were more than one-half foreigners, apparently Germans and French. [2]
Private James Goar of the 40th regiment, charged the stockade. Carboni and two others charged him with pikes as he entered the stockade. He jumped out of the stockade and ran back, pursued by Carboni till he met the troopers. Carboni then retreated till he reached the Eureka Stockade. [3]
Raffaello Carboni, in his usual florid style, describes the attack on the Stockade: "Remember this Sabbath Day (3rd December) to Keep it Holy. - I awoke. Sunday morning. It was full dawn, not daylight. A discharge of musketry - then a round from the bugle - the command "forward" - and another discharge of musketry was sharply kept on by the red-coats (some 300 strong) advancing on the gully west of the Stockade, for a couple of minutes. The shots whizzed by my tent. I jumped out of the stretcher and rushed to my chimney facing the Stockade. The forces within could not muster above 150 diggers." He goes on to relate, "Dead and wounded had been fetched up in carts, waiting on the road, ............ I hastened, and what a horrible sight! Old acquaintances crippled with shots, the gore protruding from the bayonet wounds, their clothes and flesh burning all the while. Poor Thonen had his mouth literally choked with bullets; my neighbor and mate Teddy More (sic), stretched on the ground, both his thighs shot, asked me for a drop of water. Peter Lalor, who had been concealed under a heap of slabs, was in the agony of death, a stream of blood from under the slabs heavily forcing its way down hill."
Post 1854 Experiences
While awaiting trial in Melbourne for High Treason Carboni wrote a pantomine called Gilburnia. [4]
On 03 December 1855 Raffaello Carboni's book The Eureka Stockade was released. Printed by J.P. Atkinson and Co., the book was 126 pages in length and had green printed wrappers. The book is an eyewitness account of the Eureka rebellion.
- Remember the Sabbath Day (December 3 1854) to keep it holy. Raffaello Carboni
Carboni was appointed to the Ballarat Miners Court in July 1855. He returned to Italy in January 1856 where he worked as a translator and published several minor literary and musical works.
See also
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/carboni-raffaello-3163/text4733
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
References
- ↑ The Argus, 11 December 1854.
- ↑ The Argus, 11 December 1854.
- ↑ The Argus, 11 December 1854.
- ↑ Toscano, Joseph, Reclaiming the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion, Anarchist Media Institute, Parkville. It promoted the idea that the original inhabitants were as much, if not more so, the victims of the British colonial authorities than the miners were.
External links
