Manumisión y abolición de la esclavitud en el Caribe colombiano, 1812-1852

Resumo

The manumission was one of the ways that let slaves access to freedom with or without economical support. This practice was inherited from the roman slavery system and was present in the whole American continent. For a better understanding, the manumission has been divided in two stages: Notarial and republican. The first one emerges from the slavery itsef and was used by slaves, owners and witnesses to agree on freedom by signing a freedom or manumission letter that includes all the specific details of the agreement. The second one was born as the result of independence; from the participation of all slaves involved in this process and Bolivar's promises of freedom. It was developed in the manumission meetings, republican organizations that administered and gave freedom despite the fact of not achieving the main objective of their creation. In the Colombian Caribbean, the two ways that manumission was in charge of, were the slaves as main characters of the freedom process. 1812 Cartagena's constitution was the first one to consider republican manumission. 11 was the starting point of the end of slavery that was granted in January 1st 1852. In this way, the congress and 1821 Cucuta's constitution played an essential role in the abolition process by approving The Birth Law that gradually contributed to the freedom process instead of obtaining it immediately as Bolivar thought. Newborns would get their freedom if they were born after this date but only after have worked during 18 years for their mothers' owners to pay for their expenses. During these 40 years, the abolition turned into one of the most relevant problems for independence and post-independence that not only faced the abolitionists and their detractors but also the new political parties Liberal and conservatives. The ideological and political contradictions about abolition finished when the government guaranteed payment for the slaves that were about to be free. All these facts were clearly influenced by the French revolution, The United states independency, The Movimiento Juntero, The Cortes of Cadiz and The abolitionist English offensive. Furthermore, it is important to mention that the final decision of approving absolute abolition, was supported by the increasing power of the new liberal political party that wanted to change some old regulations directly related to Spain. In order to achieve this goal, the liberals developed some important reformations known as the Half century revolution which brought the slavery abolition approved in May 21st 1851. In pararell of this legal abolition, there was another one leaded by slaves that contributed to freedom and in long term to obtained the total destruction of slavery. Some examples of it were the juridical pressure, the legal complaints against the owner, self purchase of freedom, among others. It is necessary to exalt the most important of all: The Cimarronaje: understood as the complete abolition of slavery. It is important to clarify that within the new law of abolition, problems did not finish for old slaves, mainly because their owners did not want to lose all the benefits slavery gave them. For this reason they did not agree on freeing under 18 slaves, they denied political rights to their slaves and finally categorized them into non free people.