Unraveling Abolition
Legal Culture and Slave Emancipation in Colombia

A study of the legal origins of antislavery, and how Colombian slaves transformed ideas on slavery, freedom and political belonging.

Edgardo Pérez Morales (Author)

9781108831529, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 February 2022

256 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'This book rightly centers the agency of Afro-Colombians for understanding the legal history of slavery and for promoting new ideas of human freedom. Pérez Morales uncovers a rich tradition of enslaved people appropriating the law, and even inventing new legal claims, to push for emancipation, both under Spanish colonialism and in the new independent Colombian republic. A major contribution.' James E. Sanders

Unraveling Abolition tells the fascinating story of slaves, former slaves, magistrates and legal workers who fought for emancipation, without armed struggle, from 1781 to 1830. By centering the Colombian judicial forum as a crucible of antislavery, Edgardo Pérez Morales reveals how the meanings of slavery, freedom and political belonging were publicly contested. In the absence of freedom of the press or association, the politics of abolition were first formed during litigation. Through the life stories of enslaved litigants and defendants, Pérez Morales illuminates the rise of antislavery culture, and how this tradition of legal tinkering and struggle shaped claims to equal citizenship during the anti-Spanish revolutions of the early 1800s. By questioning foundational constitutions and laws, this book uncovers how legal activists were radically committed to the idea that independence from Spain would be incomplete without emancipation for all slaves.

List of figures
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Prologue: antislavery, abolition, and the judicial forum
1. Raynal in the new kingdom?
2. Landscapes of slavery, rumors of freedom
3. Popayán: prudent legislation
4. Cartagena: equality and natural law
5. Antioquia: free womb, captive slaves
6. An exegesis of liberty
Epilogue: the slaves before the law
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Legislation [LNZL], Judicial powers [LNAA1], Legal history [LAZ], Slavery & abolition of slavery [HBTS], Social & cultural history [HBTB], History of the Americas [HBJK]