...officers of Cuba's pardo and moreno units continued to assert their legal rights through memorials sent to the Cortes in Spain. The distant monarch, and now the distant Cortes, had always been more willing to support the medieval privileges of free people of color than had local Spanish officials. But the black militia officers must have thought they had to take the offensive and challenge the erosion of thier hard-won privileges and status or lose them forever. Captain Barba, who by this time had been an acknowledged leader of Cuba's free black community for more than 50 years, led the legal campaign to preserve and advance the rights and privileges of the free black militia, but many other officers also filed complaints. Barba related a series of insults that free black officers had suffered from Spanish Subintendant Inspector Antonio Seydel, such as being required to march in the same ranks as ordinary soldiers or to take off their hats in the presence of white officers. He cited violations of specific articles of the 1769 Reglamento that reorganized the black militias. Captain Miguel Porro, who would later fight the Georgia Patriots in Florida, also cited that Reglamento when he refused to doff his hat to a white officer. Cuban officials arrested Porro, and he spent eleven days in jail for his principles before being released. (Landers: Atlantic Creoles)