Early Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the Spanish Atlantic World, 1765–1817

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics of slavery and anti-slavery in the Spanish Empire prior to the Independence of the Spanish American mainland. Rather than focusing on the Spanish Caribbean and the ‘late’ period of slavery in the second half of the nineteenth century, it explores slavery and abolition in the colonial period from an imperial perspective, using early abolitionist texts, records from the Spanish Cortes of 1810–1812, and various royal decrees pertaining to slavery. Although Spain did not abolish the slave trade until 1817, and only did so with intense outside pressure, the prevailing notion that there was no native anti-slavery movement in the Spanish Empire overlooks a more complex reality. Early anti-slavery movements were relatively quiet in the late Spanish Empire, yet outlining their contours helps to illuminate the pragmatic nature of Spanish imperial rule in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This article also shows how the development of pro-slavery and anti-slavery ideologies highlights the transatlantic nature of intellectual and political projects in this period.