Slavery abolitionism

The abolitionism of slavery is a doctrine that defends the annulment of laws, precepts or customs related or relative to slavery. It is directly related to the ideals of liberalism (18th-19th centuries), although abolitionists had already emerged in previous centuries, such as the religious Pedro Claver, Francisco José de Jaca and Epifanio de Moirans.

There is evidence that allows us to recognize the resistance strategies of enslaved black women that allowed them to demand their freedom during the colonial period, which were aimed at confronting the discourse of colonial power through the use of judicial claims, at a time in which it was assumed that they did not know, could not or did not have to do it.

Even today, in the middle of the XXI century, unquestionable slavery still exists in certain areas of countries like Brazil. In 2003, for example, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had a list published with the names of landowners convicted in the last two decades for slave ownership. The number of slaves freed by the government in those years amounted to 10,731.

Abolitionism by country (in alphabetical order)

Brazil

Starting in the 1870s, Brazilian society and the Army began to support the slave system less and less. In this way, we can speak of a bankruptcy of the slave paradigm, largely driven by the daily resistance of the enslaved. In 1871, the Free Womb Law was enacted, from which every child born to an enslaved mother would be automatically considered free. In addition to this, this law allowed the accumulation of money by them (the pecúlio was the money that the enslaved person could keep for himself, with a view to the sale of manumission). In this decade, the abolitionist movement intensified, in which intellectuals and politicians, such as José del Patrocinio and Joaquim Nabuco, participated.

In 1885, the Law of Sexagenarians was promulgated, from which every enslaved person over 65 years of age would be considered free. On May 13, 1888, slavery was officially abolished by the Golden Law, making Brazil the last country to abolish slavery. These laws must be seen as the result of a combined pressure of the resistance of the enslaved and the growing acceptance of the abolitionist movement in society.

Chile

During the Colony, Mapuche Slavery was abolished in Chile by royal decree of 1683. The abolition of slavery was proposed in the failed conspiracy of the three Antonios. The first National Congress, elected in 1811 and installed on July 4 of that year, at the initiative of the deputy Manuel de Salas together with Jorge Luis Sánchez, issued the Law of October 15, 1811 that established the "freedom of wombs", which It consisted of declaring free the children of slaves who were born from then on. Likewise, their wombs were declared "equally free" in order to avoid fraudulent actions, such as the sale of mothers abroad. In addition, the Law added that all slaves who remained more than six months in the territory or who were passing through were free. Chile was the first territory in Latin America to legislate on this matter.

In 1818, and as a result of the participation of battalions of black slaves among the victorious patriot forces belonging to the Liberation Army of generals José de San Martín and Bernardo O'Higgins, they granted total freedom to those soldiers.

In 1823, José Miguel Infante presented a project to Congress to completely abolish slavery. At that time, Chile had a little more than a hundred slaves. The new law, approved on July 24 of that year, stated that all those born from 1811 onwards, and their descendants, were free; and all those who set foot on the territory of the Republic.

Finally, the Constitution of that year, issued under the mandate of the Supreme Director Ramón Freire, abolished slavery definitively, in December 1823. It said in its article 8: «In Chile there are no slaves: the Whoever steps on its territory for a calendar day will be free. Anyone who has this trade cannot live here for more than a month, nor can they ever become naturalized," becoming the first country in Latin America to do so officially and definitively.

The current 1980 Constitution, in its article 19, also pays tribute to Infante in its wording:

• «Article 19: The Constitution assures all persons:
  • [...] 2° Equality before the Law (...) In Chile there are no slaves and the one who asks for their territory is free».

Colombia

In the territory of current Colombia, the freedom of wombs was initially enacted in the Free State of Antioquia, through a project presented to Juan del Corral by the deputies Antonio Arboleda y Arrachea, José Miguel de la Calle, José Félix de Restrepo, Pedro Arrubla and José Antonio Benítez in 1814, and approved in that same year with the name freedom of births. The text was in force throughout the territory of Gran Colombia until the arrival of Spanish troops during the Reconquista, but it would not be until August 30, 1821 that the Constitution of 1821 would establish the freedom of those born to slave parents when they reached the age of 18, for which a tax on the inheritances that would be applied to provide them with means of subsistence.

It was President José Hilario López who managed to implement absolute freedom for slaves. The Congress of Colombia issued the law of May 21, 1851, by means of which the slaves would be free as of January 1, 1852 and the masters would be compensated with bonds.

Even so, in many places the masters refused to let the slaves go peacefully, which triggered the civil war of 1851, in which the insurrection broke out in Cauca and Pasto led by the conservative leaders Manuel Ibáñez and Julio Arboleda with the support of the conservative Ecuadorian government. In Antioquia, the rebellion broke out at the hands of conservatives led by Eusebio Borrero. The war would end four months later with the liberal victory and the definitive liberation of the slaves.

Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark and Norway became the first European country to abolish the slave trade in 1803.

Spain

Throughout its history it had few abolitionist intellectuals, such as the Dominican Bartolomé de las Casas (after his initial position in favor of bringing black slaves to America to free the Indians from a similar fate), the jurist Bartolomé Frías de Albornoz (both 16th century) and the liberal exiled in England José María Blanco White (beginning of the 19th century).

Medieval legislation regulated slavery, and was adapted to the New World, where the Indian Laws prevented the enslavement of indigenous people, but not the trafficking of African slaves. Perhaps the first example in the history of laws is found in the reservations expressed with respect to servitude in the VII items of Alfonso Because Queen Isabella of Castile determined by a Royal Provision, dated in Seville, on June 20, 1500, that the Indians who were in Andalusia, sent by Columbus, were set free and returned to their "natures" in American continent.

Centuries later, after the debates on slavery that took place in the Cortes of Cádiz (with interventions, among others, by the Tlaxcala deputy José Miguel Guridi Alcocer and Agustín de Argüelles), the Constitution of 1812 did not opt for slavery. abolitionism, although in any case all its reforms were repealed by Ferdinand VII in 1814.

The pressure from the powers of the European Restoration (the issue was discussed at the Congress of Vienna) led Ferdinand VII to abolish the slave trade (Treaty between His Majesty the King of Spain and the Indies, and His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the abolition of the black traffic, concluded and signed in Madrid on September 23, 1817, which provided for the effective end of the traffic on May 30, 1817. 1820, giving five more months for ships that had begun their journey prior to that date), which maintained reproductive slavery, and in fact did not prevent an active "illegal" traffic (slavers such as the Marquis of Comillas or the marriage between María Cristina de Borbón-Dos Sicilias and the Duke of Riánsares).

The liberals in power during the Regency of María Cristina de Borbón chose to maintain slavery in the colonies (by then only Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the rest having become independent) and abolish it in the Peninsula, adjacent islands and territories Africans "just by stepping on it" (article 2, law of March 8, 1837). In 1842 slavery was regulated with a Regulation.

On April 2, 1865, the Spanish Abolitionist Society was created at the initiative of the Puerto Rican landowner Julio Vizcarrondo, who moved to the peninsula after having freed his slaves. On December 10 of the same year he founded his newspaper El Abolicionista. He had the support of politicians who forged the Revolution of 1868 (“the Glorious”) that dethroned Isabel II.

As a consequence of this, in 1870, when Sigismundo Moret was overseas minister, the law that will bear his name was promulgated that established the “freedom of wombs” that granted freedom to the future children of slaves and that irritated the slavers. In 1872 the government of Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla drafted a bill to abolish slavery in Puerto Rico.

Fierce opposition was unleashed against this project. To coordinate the opposition action, Hispano Ultramarinos Circles of former residents of the Antilles were created in several cities such as Madrid, Santander, Cádiz, or Barcelona, and the constitution of the “National League” was also promoted in several cities. anti-abolitionist. They instigated plots by the nobility against King Amadeo of Savoy, conspiracies, press campaigns and street demonstrations, such as the one on December 11, 1872 in Madrid, which was replicated by the one organized in this city by the Spanish Abolitionist Society on January 10, 1873. Such tension is explained, since it was seen in the liberation of the 30,000 Puerto Rican slaves, a feared preamble to the liberation of the almost 400,000 Cuban slaves.

Precisely, the opposition to this abolitionist bill was one of the most visible elements of the criticism of King Amadeus I in the conservative press, reproaching him for not confronting (in a dubiously constitutional manner) the Parliament, dominated by an alliance, in this matter, of progressive monarchists (like the head of government Ruiz Zorrilla himself) and of republicans (like Castelar or Pi y Margall). According to the Diario de Barcelona, on February 7, 1873, a military coup would have taken place if the king had endorsed the abolition. Instead, Amadeo ratified the government's order to dissolve the artillery arm. Then, on February 11, he abdicated.

The law abolishing slavery in Puerto Rico was finally approved on March 22, 1873, one month after the king's abdication and the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic having been voted. This encouraged the Cuban historian José Antonio Saco to write and publish a monumental History of slavery from the most remote times to the present day (Paris, 1875-1877, 4 volumes). Cuba had to wait several years longer than Puerto Rico, since abolition did not come until the law of February 17, 1880, already in the reign of Alfonso XII, which replaced slavery with an intermediate institution towards the condition of freedman, called Patronato (and "sponsored" the until then slaves). The Board of Trustees was definitively abolished by the royal decree of October 7, 1886, which released the remaining 25,000-30,000 patrons. The autobiographies of two slaves still remain as human testimonies of what slavery entailed in Cuba, that of Juan Francisco Manzano, whose second part has disappeared, and that of Esteban Montejo, transcribed by the anthropologist Miguel Barnet.

United States

The abolitionist movement was formed in 1830 in the northern states of the United States, where it was given much publicity. In 1831 the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded.

The movement had its roots in the 18th century, where it was born with the aim of prohibiting the slave trade. Slave ownership was allowed until the end of the Civil War, particularly in the southern states. The constitution dealt with slavery in certain points, although this word was not used in any of them.

All states north of Maryland abolished slavery between 1789 and 1830, gradually and at different times. However, its status remained unchanged in the South, and customs and public thought evolved in defense of slavery in response to the increasing strengthening of northern antislavery attitudes. The antislavery viewpoint held by many northerners after 1830 slowly and imperceptibly led to the abolitionist movement. Most northern states did not accept the extreme positions of the abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln, despite being against slavery, did not accept abolitionism either.

Abolitionism as a principle was more than a mere desire to expand restrictions on slavery. Most northerners accepted the existence of slavery; they did not aim to change this, but rather to favor a policy of compensated and gradual liberation. Abolitionists, on the other hand, wanted to end slavery once and for all and forever, and the movement was characterized by the application of violence to precipitate the end, as the activities of John Brown show. The abolitionist movement spread particularly thanks to the effective propaganda of William Lloyd Garrison in his newspaper The Liberator (The Liberator).

In the American Civil War, abolitionism played a certain role. Although Quakers (Benjamin Lay, John Woolman) became partially known for their participation in this movement, it was by no means limited to Quakers. This point was one of many that led to the founding of the Free Methodists, a group that split in the 1860s from the Methodist Church.

Many American abolitionists played an active role against slavery in the "Underground Railroad", a clandestine activity that tried to help fugitive slaves despite the great penalties that this could entail under the federal law that came into force in 1850.

Through the Emancipation Proclamation—promulgated by President Abraham Lincoln, which declared the freedom of all slaves in rebel areas in 1863—and finally the 13th Amendment to the Constitution—which came into force first effect at the end of the Civil War in 1865—American abolitionists won the freeing of slaves in states where slavery continued and the improvement of conditions for black Americans generally. The abolitionist movement paved the way for the American civil rights movement.

France

After the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, slavery was abolished on February 4, 1794 in the National Convention. However, Napoleon reestablished slavery on May 20, 1802. Final abolition came on April 27, 1848.

Mexico

Mexico was one of the first nations to abolish slavery throughout its territory with the Decree against slavery, gabelas and sealed paper. This document was issued by the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla with the support of Ignacio López Rayón, when the former held the position of Generalissimo of America of the Insurgent Army, on December 6, 1810, from the Palace of the Royal Court in the Plaza of Arms of Guadalajara, during the Mexican War of Independence. Among other things, the decree stated to the letter:

That all slave owners shall give them liberty, within ten days, to the death penalty, which shall be applied to them by violation of this article.

Let the contribution of tributes to the castes that paid it cease and any exaction that the Indians are required. (Miguel Hidalgo, General of America. By mandate of His Highness, Lic. Ignacio Rayón, Secretary)

This decree began an anti-slavery tradition that has continued over time. The Constitution of 1917, which currently governs the Mexican nation, in its first article, relating to individual guarantees, strictly prohibits slavery in Mexico, and whoever sets foot on national territory, being a slave, by that simple fact recovers his freedom, which is guaranteed by the State. Mexico definitively abolished slavery in 1829, this included the territory of Texas, which regained slavery with its independence in 1836.

Peru

On November 16, 1780, Túpac Amaru II, as part of his revolution, issued the "Bando de Libertad" in Tungasuca (Cusco) proclaiming the abolition of slavery for the first time on the continent, giving freedom to the blacks that the indigenous hosts under his command found and inviting them to join him. This process was truncated by the Spanish during the Viceroyalty of Peru.

With the independence of Peru, José de San Martín declared free all children of slaves born from July 28, 1821 onwards. Later, in November of the same year, guardianship over the children of slaves was decreed. Subsequently, maintenance was expanded, also considering guardianship over freed slaves until they were fifty years old. This guardianship was paid for by agricultural landowners who took into account that maintaining for a slave it was very expensive; From then on, many landowners converted their slaves into "free laborers" but forced to work on the estates under the figure of "renting plots of land", this led to the emergence of the so-called "slave farms."

Starting in 1821, the number of black slaves decreased, evidencing a crisis of the slave system in Peru that would last until 1854, the year of the abolition of slavery in Peru. This disintegration of the slave system went through various periods in which various manifestations of resistance by black slaves were evident, with four modes of resistance standing out:

• legal conflict
• the purchase of liberty
• the ridge
• the banditry

The liberation of the slaves was proclaimed by Ramón Castilla in the city of Huancayo on December 5, 1854 during a period of conflicts for power with the then president Echenique. In 1854, there were 25,505 slaves in Peru; To achieve their freedom, the Peruvian government had to pay their owners a bonus of three hundred pesos for each slave, which represented an expense of almost eight million pesos that were paid for with guano exports. It is documented that many bosses declared they had more slaves in order to receive more money.

In January 1855, Castilla entered Lima and was elected provisional president, calling a constituent congress from which the constitution of 1856 emerged, which reflected, in addition to the proclamations of the abolition of slavery, the abolition of indigenous tribute., among others; beginning a new stage in Afro-Peruvian history.

Portugal

The reformist prime minister Marquis of Pombal abolished slavery in Portugal and the Indian colonies on February 12, 1761. Slavery continued to be permitted in the Portuguese colonies in America. Together with Great Britain, at the beginning of the 19th century it banned the slave trade and in 1854 by decree all slaves in the country were freed. government of the colonies. Two years later, all church slaves in the colonies were also freed. On February 25, 1869, slavery was finally completely abolished in the Portuguese Empire.

United Kingdom

Thanks to the influence of men such as the repentant slave trader John Newton with the publication of his pamphlet Thoughts on the Slave Trade in 1788 and the jurist William Wilberforce, who was a leader of the parliamentary campaign to suppress the African slave trade, The Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slavery was founded in 1789 by Thomas Clarkson as an expression of an abolitionist pressure group, the so-called by their enemies Clapham Sect. In presentations he informed the public of the slave trade and its practices and sought the support of parliament.

In 1807 the slave trade was prohibited in the territory of England through the Slave Trade Act.

On August 23, 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was approved, by which from August 1, 1834 all slaves in the British colonies were free. During a transition period of four years they would remain, in exchange for a salary, still linked to their master. Caribbean plantation owners were compensated £20 million.