Cited by 4Colonialism, slavery, and tradeHistorical Studies in Latin AmericaHistory and Politics in Latin America

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 46 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Desesclavización, manumisión jurídica y defensa del territorio en el norte de Esmeraldas (siglos XVIII-XIX)

Open access
Rueda Novoa, Rocío·2016·Procesos. Revista ecuatoriana de historia

Abstract

This article analyzes the efforts of the republican state to incorpórate slaves to the new social order, as free citizens. The mechanism for this was the legal emancipation, which failed in its attempt to incorporate the free slaves because they were still existing social and racial prejudices and inherited economic interests of the colonial system remained intact. The enslaved, following their traditional practice of resistance in contexts of domination, combined multiple strategies in pursuit of freedom and territory, developing autonomous spaces of social and ethnic construction. In the case of Esmeraldas this process was brokered by enslaved in the mining camps located north of the province, in the Santiago river basin. Keywords: Slavery, manumission, Audience of Quito, Esmeraldas, 18th. century, 19th. century, Ecuador, freedom, Latin American History, black population.

Overview

AI snapshot

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TL;DR

This article examines how enslaved and freed Black populations in northern Esmeraldas, especially the Santiago River mining districts, pursued freedom and defended territory during the 18th–19th centuries. It argues that legal manumission failed as a republican incorporation project because of elite economic interests and racial prejudice, while enslaved people’s own strategies—legal claims, self-purchase, rebellion, and collective land acquisition—drove de facto desesclavización.

Key findings

  • In Esmeraldas, manumission under the 1852 law was scarce: 6 enslaved people freed in 1853, 17 in 1854, and 13 in 1855; earlier records list only 120 enslaved people in 1825/1826 and 351 manumitidos in 1848, a figure the author says does not match registered enslaved numbers and must be treated as approximate.
  • The 1852 Manumission Law set 6 March 1854 as the deadline; in Esmeraldas, enslaved people from Playa de Oro, Guimbi, and Cachavi declared themselves free without indemnification in 1854 because owners had not registered/taxed them as required by articles 25–27. Owners later sought compensation: payment to Mariano Gómez de la Torre was authorized but not made until 1860, and Mercedes Jijón de Flores received payment for Playa de Oro slaves in 1867.
  • Enslaved people in the northern Esmeraldas reales de minas resisted through conspiracy/rebellion and legal action: an 1826 conspiracy in Playa de Oro/Cachavi planned to seize the barracks and kill whites, with participants saying “era bobera servir porque el Libertador ya nos había dado la libertad”; in 1847 owners reported Cachavi blacks in “completa insurrección”; in 1855 they protested a French company’s land seizure, and in 1886 they rebelled against forced labor by the Flores family.
  • In 1869 Reynaldo Flores sold the Playa de Oro mine, hacienda house, church, and land to the libertos for 7,460 pesos; nine Arroyo men paid four ounces of gold each in cash, with the balance due by February 1871, representing 214 inhabitants according to an 1845 inventory. The community assumed the debt and defended the territory as collective property.

Methods

  • Historical archival study of 18th–19th-century northern Esmeraldas, focused on the Santiago River basin and the reales de minas of Guembi, Cachavi, and Playa de Oro.
  • Uses primary sources from Ecuadorian archives (ABFL, ANE, AHMCP, BEAEP) including laws/decrees, official correspondence, judicial and notarial records, and travelers’ accounts (Teodoro Wolf, 1877; Enrique Onffroy de Thoron, 1850), alongside secondary literature.
  • Qualitative analysis of manumission, resistance, and territoriality; no statistical model or systematic quantitative dataset is presented.

Limitations

  • The paper states that the 1848 figure of 351 manumitidos does not match the number of registered enslaved people, so the information must be taken as approximate.
  • The text notes that low manumission numbers in Esmeraldas were tied to the region’s limited intensive slave labor, poverty, and difficulty collecting fiscal/private contributions; these conditions also limit what the records can show about manumission overall.
  • No formal limitations section appears; evident from the text, the study relies on fragmentary and elite/state-produced records and on racist traveler accounts such as Wolf’s, which may underrepresent enslaved people’s own perspectives.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.29078/rp.v0i43.590

Cites

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Statistics

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Verification

Claims the paper makes

45 Sources not found · 36 Own interpretation · 20 No basis given · 8 Not checked yet · 2 Own result

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 68
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 4
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 13
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Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

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Citations

Cites

The publisher hasn’t deposited this paper’s reference list.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Tovar, Hermes. "De una chispa se formó una hoguera". Nuevas Lecturas de Historia 17 (1992): 1-98.
  2. ______. "Integración de la población negra en las sociedades andinas 1830-1880". En Historia de América Andina. Creación de las repúblicas y formación de la nación, editado por Juan Maiguashca. Vol. 5, 141-172. Quito: Libresa / Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Sede Ecuador, 2003.

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Metadata

Authors
Rueda Novoa, R.
Venue
Procesos. Revista ecuatoriana de historia
Published
2016-11-15
Volume
0
Issue
43
Pages
9
ISSN
  • 1390-0099 (ISSN-L)
  • 2588-0780
OpenAlex
W2578074856
Cited by
4
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2022: 1
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
es
Open access
Locations
  • Procesos Revista ecuatoriana de historia (publishedVersion)
  • Americanae (AECID Library) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • UASB-DIGITAL Categories (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Historical Studies in Latin America
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History and Politics in Latin America
Keywords
slavery, manumission, emancipation, freedmen, territorial defense, colonial legacy, racial prejudice, social resistance, mining companies, Esmeraldas, republican state, citizenship, 18th-19th centuries

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