Sevilla-Garcia 1

Regulating Emancipation: An Analysis of Manumission Legislation from 1814 until 1851 in

Colombia

Hernando Sevilla-Garcia

Jerry Dávila, Ph.D.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

2016 Michael Scher Award For Outstanding Undergraduate Paper

 Sevilla-Garcia 2

In debunking the myth of racial democracy in Colombia, Peter Wade argues that there is

a “complex interweaving of patterns of both discrimination and tolerance, of both blackness and

indianness and mestizaje, or race mixture. This interweaving takes place within a project,

managed mainly by elites, of nationhood and national identity which hold up an image of

Colombia as essentially a mestizo or mixed nation”1. Although various historical processes

would go on to contribute to the racial hierarchies that characterize Colombian society, it was

during the project towards the abolition of slavery where the marginalization of Afro-

Colombians was most pronounced. Moreover, since “[t]he word race, as used in Colombia, has

thus been linked both to the nation as a whole and to human and spatial component within the

nation”2 it is this tension between national inclusion and individual freedom which was clearly at

stake throughout the attempts at emancipation. Whereas historians like Wade have ascribed the

precarious condition of Afro-Colombians to regional development and the contestation of

blackness within the paradigm of racial democracy, this research seeks to place the origins of

their struggle in the context of manumission legislation. Furthermore, it intends to shine light on

the active role that the founders of the republic played in the continuation of slavery for nearly

50 years.

From the period starting in 1814 until 1851, a series of complex legislative rulings and

decrees were approved in a failed attempt to completely eradicate this institution. As

revolutionary leaders like Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander sought to liberate the

1
Wade, Peter. Blackness and Race Mixture: The Dynamics of Racial Identity in Colombia.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 1.
2
Appelbaum, Nancy P. Muddied Waters: Race, Region, and Local History in Colombia, 1846-
1948. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 11.

 Sevilla-Garcia 3

region known as Nueva Granada (consisting of present-day countries such as Colombia,

Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela) from the Spanish crown, the abolitionist cause increasingly

became tied to the establishment of a new republic. The relationship between emancipation and

the nation-building process was further highlighted by the dramatic increase in military

recruitment of colored peoples, in particular the enslaved population. With promises of freedom

for time served in the battles of independence, Afro-Colombians were presented with a way to

escape lifelong bondage. However, those who did achieve their liberation were now confronted

with assimilating into a society categorized into rigid racial castes. It would soon become evident

that the republican values of freedom, equality, and justice would not be extended to former

slaves and the institution of slavery would remain largely unabated. The ultimate failure of the

swift, comprehensive emancipation of slaves in Colombia was in large part due to the preferred

gradual processes of manumission designed to maintain a racial hierarchy rather than to provide

universal citizenship. Furthermore, the concentration of Afro-Colombians in regions like Chocó,

Cartagena de Indias, and La Guajira (rendering Whites as the minority), the decentralized nature

of the early republican political structure, the ineffectiveness of manumission juntas, the fear of

disrupting the socioeconomic interests directly tied to slavery, and the role of religion in

preventing a racial imbalance would all contribute to the continuation of slavery as an integral

component of Colombian society.

The Institutionalization of Slavery in Colombia: An Overview

Heavily involved in the transatlantic trade as part of a mercantilist agenda, the Spanish

Crown considered the port cities of Santo Domingo, Veracruz, La Habana, and Cartagena de

Indias as fundamental for the domination of colonial possessions in the Caribbean and the

Americas. Despite African slaves having a presence in Colombia dating as far back as the early
 Sevilla-Garcia 4

1500s, it was during the 17th century that the importation and commercialization of slaves

became the most profitable of mercancías for Spanish traders3. Cartagena would quickly become

a major port city for the slave trade as the French, Dutch, and English also maintained economic

interests there. The proliferation of slavery, coupled with discovered gold deposits, would even

drive other colonial powers to attempt to dislodge the city from Spanish rule: Sir Frances Drake

in 1586 and Jean Bernard Desjeans in 16974. In an account of Cartagena’s racial composition by

a young Italian priest during the 17th century, he recalls that there were “some 300 residents for a

total of 2,000 Spaniards, who had at their service between 3,000 and 4,000 blacks”5. Enslaved on

the coasts of Angola and Guinea and transported through a brutal journey to cities like

Cartagena, these individuals rapidly made up a majority of the population in coastal regions.

Slaves were primarily used in the mining and agricultural sectors, while also being employed as

domestic servants in haciendas throughout the country.

Through inhumane treatment, the exploitation of slaves was based on increasing

productivity and financial gains in an economy increasingly dependent on this type of labor. In

order to defend this practice, as other colonial powers did at the time, slave owners “were at

peace with their conscience in regards to the legitimacy of slavery with the idea that the salvation

of the soul was promoted within Christianity”6. By legitimizing the institution of slavery via

religious ideologies, the Roman Catholic church would go on to play a monumental role in the

development and expansion of the trade. Elsewhere, in the departamento of Chocó the growth of

slavery was directly tied to the profitable mining industry. As major gold deposits were

3
Restrepo, Luz Adriana. Comunidades Afrocolombianas: Legado Y Presencia. (Bogotá,
Colombia: Museo Del Oro Banco De La República, 2003), 2.
4
Ibid
5
Navarrete, María. Historia Social Del Negro En La Colonia: Cartagena, Siglo XVII. (Santiago
De Cali, Colombia: Universidad Del Valle, 1995), 25.
6
Ibid, 44
 Sevilla-Garcia 5

discovered in the San Juan and especially the Atrato river basins, this gold rush coincided with

the need for forced labor. Since Indians failed to satisfy this growing demand due to disease and

the arduous nature of mining, the importation of slaves increased. Proving to be a much more

stable and effective source of labor, Blacks replaced the native population in bondage and “[b]y

the second decade of the eighteenth century most of the miners in the Chocó during the last

decades of the seventeenth century were bozales (blacks directly from Africa), and most came

from Cartagena by way of the Atrato River”7. Not only was the institution of slavery gradually

interconnecting remote parts of the country due to economical factors, geographical networks

stemming from Cartagena to places like Chocó, the Cauca valley, and La Guajira became

apparent. In 1778 the number of slaves in Chocó surpassed 5,000 and despite the mining industry

suffering heavy losses at the turn of the century due to the overexploitation of mineral reserves,

the racial hierarchy delineated by slavery had become entrenched throughout Colombian society.

As revolutionary fervor engulfed the region, powerful Creole elites like Simón Bolívar deemed it

a necessity to enlist not only freed Afro-Colombians but also providing liberty to the enslaved

population pending contributions to the war of liberation. However, by equating liberty with the

prerequisite of military service slaves were left vulnerable to various legal obstacles to obtain

emancipation. For example, the freedom of those who served in the Bolivarian army “should not

be enforced until the next congress had passed suitable enabling legislation; that abolition by law

was not equivalent to freedom in fact”8. As the Spanish Crown was defeated, the newly founded

republic was now left with the difficult task of nation-building. At the center of the process

7
Sharp, William Frederick. Slavery on the Spanish Frontier: The Colombian Chocó, 1680-1810.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 111.
8
Bierck, Harold A. "The Struggle for Abolition in Gran Colombia." The Hispanic American
Historical Review 33, no. 3 (1953): 368.

 Sevilla-Garcia 6

towards the formation of a state was the question of abolition: was the institution to be

immediately abolished and if so, how would citizenship be defined for the thousands of “new

members” of society.

Emancipation vs. Manumission: Legislation and Decrees from 1814-1851

As early as 1814 and before gaining independence from Spain, Colombian intellectual

circles sought to address the future of slavery. According to Juan de Corral, then dictator of the

province of Antioquia, this institution was an immoral practice that would significantly deter

support for the independence movement. Corral viewed the bondage of Afro-Colombians as

incongruent with the explicit goals of dethroning an oppressive Spanish regime. In the official

decree submitted to the Antioquia House of Representatives, the Ley Sobre La Manumision De

La Posteridad De Los Esclavos Africanos blamed Spain for the imposition of slavery on

Colombia. The “men of who the barbaric government of Spain has tried with last abjection and

doomed to be perpetually enslaved”9 deserved freedom if they were to fight against those who

enchained them in the first place. This initial legislation would set the platform for the lack of

comprehensive eradication of slavery during this era as it was deployed as more of a law of free

wombs rather than immediate abolition. By setting a weak legislative precedent on such a

contentious issue, emancipation would begin to suffer from not only legal hurdles but even more

problematic the indifference of the general population. Since it “declared that all new-born slaves

were to be freed when they reached the age of sixteen [and] adult Negroes were to be liberated

with funds raised by taxes on slave owners”10, this law maintained the structural components of

slavery while merely addressing the issue of slavery for future generations of slaves. Taking a

9
Gaceta Ministerial de Antioquia, No. 2, 2 de Octubre de 1814. Archivo General de la Nación.
10
Bierck, Harold A. "The Struggle for Abolition in Gran Colombia." The Hispanic American
Historical Review 33, no. 3 (1953): 366
 Sevilla-Garcia 7

closer look at the language used in the drafting of the law, the establishment of “a junta of

friends of humanity … that will grant the corresponding finances, to collect the sums that come

from certain funds destined for the manumission of slaves”11 and the protection of the economic

possessions of slaveholders were given more importance than clauses concerning actual

enforcement of manumission.

Simón Bolívar highlighted the major theme from the decree of 1814 during his

impassioned plea at the Congress of Angostura in 1819, stating “I implore the confirmation of

the absolute freedom of the slaves as my life and the life of the Republic implore me to do so”12.

Despite Bolivar’s insistence that an independence movement would not fully succeed with the

existence of slavery, there is little evidence to show he was concerned with the status of Afro-

Colombians but rather focused on maintaining a steady flow of military recruits. Operating under

the notion that if a Negro wanted emancipation they would certainly risk dying for the liberation

of la patria, Bolívar assumed that the incentive of freedom was too great to pass up when

considering enlistment. Just a few years before the Congress of Angostura and the creation of

Gran Colombia, Bolívar declared from Venezuela that “the new citizen who refuses to take up

arms to fulfill the sacred duty to defend their freedom, will be subject to servitude, not just him,

but also their children under fourteen, his wife and his elderly parents”13. This decree in 1816

explicitly demonstrates that Bolívar had no intention in a radical emancipation of those in

bondage. Instead, El Libertador sought to portray freedom as something to be gained only after

demonstrating loyalty to the republic and willingly taking part in the struggle for independence.

This is further exhibited in correspondence between Bolivar and General Francisco de Paula

11
Gaceta Ministerial de Antioquia, No. 2, 2 de Octubre de 1814. Archivo General de la Nación.
12
Canal, Carlos, and Eduardo Posada. La Libertad De Los Esclavos En Colombia; O, Leyes De
Manumisión. II. (Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional, 1938), XXVI
13
Cronica de Caracas No. 17. Marzo-Abril de 1954. Caracas, Venezuela
 Sevilla-Garcia 8

Santander, as Bolívar reassured Santander “that the recruiting of blacks should not be confused

with general emancipation”14.

It would not be until the Congress of Cucuta in 1821 that a formal decree would be

drafted to determine the fate of slaves in Gran Colombia. The proposed goals of this law, called

the Ley Sobre Libertad de Partos, Manumisión y Tráfico de Esclavos, were to end the slave

trade, the gradual abolition of slavery, and the creation of manumission funds. The fact that

more than half of the fifteen articles in the aforementioned legislation concerned the economic

rights and compensation of slaveholders, however, the law depicts the prioritization of Creole

interests instead of enslaved Afro-Colombians. Affirming that by “gradually extinguish[ing]

slavery; doing so without compromising the public peace or to undermine the rights which the

owners truly have, to achieve within a short number of years the freedom of all the inhabitants of

Colombia”15, the Ley Sobre Libertad de Partos, Manumisión y Tráfico de Esclavos demonstrated

that the immediate abolition of slavery would disrupt the social and economic structures of the

fragile republic. Furthermore, it was far more important to provide the framework for a slow,

measured manumission process so as to allow the effective application of a law that would

fundamentally affect the racial composition of Colombia. In other words, so as to not upset the

White/Creole majority and conserve their hegemonic hold on power this legislation all but

maintained the status quo. Here, “the racialized assumptions regarding progress and the nation

are not merely confined to some ideal discursive sphere…political economy and cultural

14
Bierck, Harold A. "The Struggle for Abolition in Gran Colombia." The Hispanic American
Historical Review 33, no. 3 (1953): 369
15
Palacio de Gobierno de Colombia, el Rosario de Cúcuta, 21 de Julio de 1821. Archivo General
de la Nación.
 Sevilla-Garcia 9

discourse [became] inseparable”16 and this decree portrayed the desire of elites to uphold a

privileged citizenship at the expense of non-White/Creole individuals.

Following the ratification of the law in 1821, various obstacles in terms of the

implementation of manumission legislation prevented its immediate success. Whether it was

taxation disputes, ineffective manumission juntas or the lack of enforcement of the Ley Sobre

Libertad de Partos, Manumisión y Tráfico de Esclavos it soon became clear to Bolivar and

abolitionists in the national legislature that ambiguity of provisions within the law was a major

impediment. The period ranging from 1822 until 1842 is characterized by a series of less

intricate, explanatory decrees aiming to diminish the difference in interpretations of the law.

Santander, for example, would go on to place a specific monetary amount on the taxable

properties of slaveholders seeking to prevent abuses by local committeemen. Furthermore, this

decree in 1822 set forth “rules for the manumission juntas about how to conduct them, to attend

the request of the slaves, and giving other provision of such an order”17. In a frugal attempt to

centralize this partial manumission process, Santander’s pronouncement was ignored for the

most part and a subsequent decree in 1823 was necessary to halt the rampant corruption within

the manumission juntas. The focus on these juntas, responsible for carrying out the emancipation

laws with little to nonexistent oversight at the national level, is also evident in the interpretive

decrees Simon Bolivar authored. Concerned about the lack of accountability that local

government officials ejoyed, Article 6 of the decree Sobre Reglas De Las Juntas De Manumision

demands that “everything that has to do with the branch of manumission, at the time of

publication of this decree, must be precisely charged within the six months that follow

16
Appelbaum, Nancy P. Muddied Waters: Race, Region, and Local History in Colombia, 1846-
1948. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 211.
17
Posada, Eduardo, and Jose Restrepo. La esclavitud en Colombia. (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional,
1933), 164.
 Sevilla-Garcia 10

immediately after ”18. By establishing time limits on manumission cases and requiring official

records of financial transactions on the compensation for slave-owners, Bolivar attempted to

assert the republic’s authority in how legislation was implemented. Nevertheless, Article 17

provides even more discretionary power to these juntas as slaves “will be chosen by the juntas of

manumission to provide them their liberty”19 based on subjective determinants like loyalty to a

master or place of birth.

The seemingly contradictory provisions throughout Bolivar’s decree in 1828 would

further complicate the development of manumission in Gran Colombia as pro-slavery citizens

easily infiltrated local juntas in charge of carrying out the terms of emancipation. As Jose

Ignacio de Marquez assumed the presidency, his decree in 1839 can be understood yet again as

another explanation of the 1821 Ley Sobre Libertad de Partos, Manumisión y Tráfico de

Esclavos. President Marquez shifts the focus from manumission juntas to confronting a much

more contentious issue: the inclusion of former slaves into mainstream society. It was the role of

the state, according to the president, to require “reports on the conduct and procedures of the

children of slaves and promote with the governors, political leaders, and alcaldes parroquiales

(leaders of a parish) that they provide [slave children] useful trades and professions”20. In order

to ensure that recently freed Afro-Colombians contributed to society, government officials and

manumission juntas would be responsible for providing basic services such as citizen registration

and information on employment opportunities. Regardless of the goals Marquez envisioned

through his 1839 decree, various provisions continued to be “avoided by slave owners, interested

18
Decreto dado en Bogotá el 27 de Junio de 1828. Archivo General de la Nación.
19
Ibid
20
Decreto dado en Bogotá el 27 de Julio de 1839. Archivo General de la Nación.
 Sevilla-Garcia 11

in preserving the service of the offspring of slaves even after the age set forth by the law”21.

Further illustrating the incompetency of the national government in enacting manumission laws,

a census was finally created in 1842 to determine the number of remaining slaves in Colombia

and how many had obtained freedom since the first attempts of emancipation in 1814. Perhaps

aware that without quantifiable data the true level of success towards emancipation was

unverifiable, Congress established a mechanism to gauge progress. Besides the creation of a

census, this decree was also sanctioned in order to guarantee that manumission “laws that,

improving the condition of slaves and [colored] freedmen, impede that they become pernicious

members of society”22. Thinly veiled under the disguise of keeping track of the number of

enslaved vs. freed Afro-Colombians since the enactment of emancipation laws, the decree

demonstrates the persistent hesitance and fear of completely liberating Negros.

Finally, on the 21st of May in 1851 a condensed version of nearly half a decade of laws

and decrees was ratified by Congress and supported by President Jose Hilario Lopez. In the Ley

de Manumisión o de Liberación de los Esclavos en la Nueva Granada, the national government

looked to consolidate the drawn-out process of manumission into a single comprehensive piece

of legislation. For the first time since the abolitionist movement gained traction at the turn of the

19th century, the mention of citizenship for former slaves was included in the drafting of a law.

Beginning on the 1st of January of 1852, previously enslaved Afro-Colombians would “enjoy the

same rights that the Constitutions and laws guarantee and impose on the other granadinos”23.

The inclusive tone employed throughout this law signifies a drastic shift in how the recently

21
Posada, Eduardo, and Jose Restrepo. La esclavitud en Colombia. (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional,
1933), 166
22
Decreto dado en Bogotá el 1 de Marzo de 1842. Archivo General de la Nación.

23
Canal, Carlos, and Eduardo Posada. La Libertad De Los Esclavos En Colombia; O, Leyes De
Manumisión. II. (Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional, 1938), 153.
 Sevilla-Garcia 12

freed population was viewed by ruling elites. Instead of further criminalizing Negros or

establishing complicated compensation mechanisms, the Ley de Manumisión o de Liberación de

los Esclavos en la Nueva Granada of 1851 differed from previous legislation in its attempt to

once and for all eradicate the institution of slavery. Instead of taking an incremental policy

approach, with certain decrees expanding upon others or elaborating on particular provisions,

Colombian ruling elites enacted one final law signaling the end of the failed gradual

manumission process replaced by complete emancipation.

Geographical Concentration of Slavery: Creole Fear of a “Pardocracy”

It has been well documented that Simon Bolivar promised the President of Haiti

Alexander Petion the freedom of all slaves following a successful war for independence. As

“Petion provided Bolivar arms and munitions in the context of this ‘commitment’ to free all

slaves”24, the leader of the first free republic ruled by former slaves hoped to see emancipation

spread throughout South America. The ultimate failure by the newly established Bolivarian

nations to swiftly put an end to slavery was in large part due to concerns that introducing a

significant number of free Negros would inevitably disrupt the monopoly on power White and

Creole elites possessed. With the events of the Haitian revolution still fresh in the minds of the

ruling class, correspondence between Bolivar and Santander portray Haiti as a prime example of

how the Negro presents an imminent danger to societal structure. Bolivar warns Santander that

this island controlled by the Negro is “so complex and so horrible that no matter how you

consider it, it doesn’t present other than horrors and misfortunes”25. Deemed a potential threat to

24
Reales Jiménez, Leonardo. "Slavery, Racism and Manumission in Colombia (1821-1851)."
Revista Análisis Internacional 6, no. 1 (2015): 78
25
Cartas del libertador. Bolivar to Santander on December 23, 1822. Archivo General de la
Nación.
 Sevilla-Garcia 13

the sociopolitical stability of the new republic, the example of insurrection and disorder in Haiti

could serve to inspire the enslaved population.

In Colombia, the institution of slavery was concentrated in the departamentos of Bolívar

Valle Del Cauca, Chocó, Antioquia, and Cauca. Moreover, the cities of Cartagena de Indias,

Cali, Quibdó, Popayan, and Buenaventura were heavily dependent on slave labor to exploit

natural resources and to provide domestic services. As slavery specifically expanded throughout

these coastal regions, Whites and Creoles quickly became the minority due to not only the

importation of slaves but also the process of mestizaje or miscegenation. As far back as the 17th

century in Cartagena, the “1,500 [of the] Spanish neighbors excluding mestizos, mulattos, and

free blacks”26 were outnumbered by the more than 5,000 slaves. In the departamento of Chocó,

the depletion of gold reserves at the turn of the 18th century led to an exodus of White miners and

by “1782, when the central Chocó contained 17,898 inhabitants only 359 were whites”27. Lastly,

in the city of Cali frustrations towards the lack of progress in terms of the manumission process

lead to armed and violent insurrections by the colored population. In 1848 as former slaves

sought to take control of large plots of land and haciendas, an investigation into this uprising

“found no responsible individuals despite more than 2,000 people known to have participated”28.

This massive participation of disgruntled Negros would go on to further stoke fear in government

circles.

26
Navarrete, María. Historia Social Del Negro En La Colonia: Cartagena, Siglo XVII. (Santiago
De Cali, Colombia: Universidad Del Valle, 1995), 25.
27
Sharp, William Frederick. Slavery on the Spanish Frontier: The Colombian Chocó, 1680-
1810. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 19.
28
Valencia Llano, Alonso. Dentro De La Ley, Fuera De La Ley: Resistencias Sociales Y
Políticas En El Valle Del Río Cauca, 1830-1855. (Cali, Colombia: Universidad De Valle,
Facultad De Humanidades, Departamento De Historia, Centro De Estudios Regionales, 2008),
159.
 Sevilla-Garcia 14

The anxieties towards the possible emergence of a pardocracia (at the expense of White

and Creole superiority) expressed by governmental figures like Simon Bolivar contributed to the

gradualist manumission approach instead of full emancipation. Seeking to maintain the rigid

racial hierarchy that deemed the Negro as incapable of holding positions of power, the fathers of

the liberation movement “did not advocate more than legal equality for persons of color”29.

These racial prejudices, which were deeply entrenched in the ideology surrounding

manumission, would also lead to the seclusion of Afro-Colombians in the geographical areas

where slavery had originally expanded. However, also confronted with the possibility of being

outnumbered in violent uprisings because of this concentration, ruling elites deliberately

elongated the sanction of emancipation so as to prevent a mass unification of Negros.

Decentralization of Power: The Struggles of Nation-Building in Gran Colombia

Following the declaration of independence by a junta in Bogota on July 20th of 1810,

Colombia would begin a tumultuous process of autonomous governance. Years of infighting and

Spanish resistance, during a period known as la patria boba, complicated the push for liberation

and it would be at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819 where Bolivar and Santander finally defeated the

Monarchy. Present-day Colombia was first part of a broader region called Gran Colombia,

sharing its borders with countries like Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela. Its creation

followed the expulsion of the Spanish Crown and the loosely organized state now faced the

daunting task of replacing the inherited colonial institutions in order to achieve true

independence. Despite the intention to eliminate the Spanish administrative legacy, with no

experience on how to govern a vast territory ideological conflicts emerged. On the one hand

centralists called for a powerful executive branch via the presidency while federalists who were

29
Bierck, Harold A. "The Struggle for Abolition in Gran Colombia." The Hispanic American
Historical Review 33, no. 3 (1953): 378.
 Sevilla-Garcia 15

wary of the abuse of power preferred a decentralized government. As fervent nationalism

coincided with state building, the colored population would be thoroughly marginalized and

excluded from the formation of a national identity. Instead of embracing the lower classes in

defining inclusivity, nationalism “was mediated by creole elites who had been excluded from

political control during the colonial period”30. With the overt intentions of consolidating

sociopolitical dominance during the early stages in the creation of institutions, Creoles cemented

a “sociedad de castas [where] only one thing was certain: to be black or indian was bad, to be

white was good”31.

With gradual manumission owing its foundations to the 1814 Ley Sobre La Manumision

De La Posteridad De Los Esclavos Africanos, the failure to implement this decree and

succeeding legislation highlights the lack of effectiveness in the national government. Unable to

ensure the enforcement of manumission laws at the local level the disorganized structure of Gran

Colombia politics rendered federal laws incompetent. In order to improve its efficiency, local

councils known as “cabildos, cantones, [and] distritos parroquiales”32 were established. These

governmental bodies were to oversee and apply the numerous decrees related to the abolition of

slavery. By further delegating significant administrative powers to local institutions, the national

government continued to see its supremacy erode. Refusal to carry out controversial provisions,

the absence of economic funds, and a complex bureaucratic system became central features of

the regional councils. As the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1831 signified the shortcomings of

30
Wade, Peter. Blackness and Race Mixture: The Dynamics of Racial Identity in Colombia.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 11.
31
Ibid, 9
32
Jaramillo, Dolcey Romero. Los Afroatlanticenses: Esclavización, Resistencia Y Abolición.
(Barranquilla, Colombia: Universidad Simón Bolívar, 2009), 149.
 Sevilla-Garcia 16

Bolivar’s republican vision of a durable centralized government, the establishment of Nueva

Granada ushered in an era of even more ambiguous abolitionist laws.

Manumission Juntas: Institutional Failures in Enforcement of Manumission

After the passing of the Ley Sobre Libertad de Partos, Manumisión y Tráfico de Esclavos

during the Congress of Cuctuta, Juntas de Manumision were created to “direct and administer

gradual …[and] collect the funds which would be used to pay slaveowners, the value of the

slaves being manumitted”33. While the national government intended manumission juntas to

effectively enforce the gradual emancipation of slaves, their role transformed into one of

focusing on compensation and economic aspects instead. The success of manumission was

therefore the sole responsibility of these juntas and acting as a supposed arbitrator between

“those who sought to retain as long as possible a right that was theirs by time and custom and of

those who were moved by the new, compelling ideas of equality and democratic procedure”34.

However, these institutions would severely undermine manumission efforts as their

incompetence in speeding up rates of emancipation and fixation on financial reparations favored

the anti-abolitionist movement. Furthermore, with virtually no federal oversight juntas were

afforded the formation of their own political agendas. This would be directly responsible for a

number of decrees passed by Congress explicitly concerning the organization, duties, and

expectations of manumission juntas. In 1821, 1828, 1839, and 1842 legislation primarily

concerned itself with clarifying the role of these local bodies. For instance, the 1828 Decreto

Sobre Reglas De Las Juntas De Manumison was a response to the inability of manumission

juntas to provide satisfactory reports on the number of slaves being freed. It called for an

33
Ibid, 145
34
Bierck, Harold A. "The Struggle for Abolition in Gran Colombia." The Hispanic American
Historical Review 33, no. 3 (1953): 373
 Sevilla-Garcia 17

increase in formal manumission meetings and to consider cases “at least once per weekly

session…[to verify] whether they have fulfilled their duties”35. As the legislative and executive

branches scrambled to improve their efficacy, all but 4 of the 19 articulos or provisions in this

particular decree concern the restructuring manumission juntas. Despite also being a

condemnation of the inadequate fulfillment of federal laws, these explanatory decrees did little to

prevent the continued practices of sabotage by juntas who had minimal desire to abolish slavery.

Instead, “public officials used the [manumission] spectacles for their symbolic value in

mobilising followers and generating consent for their rule”36. Manumission juntas would

ultimately turn into highly bureaucratic political vehicles focused on maintaining the status quo

in regards to slavery.

Socioeconomic Interests of Slave-owners: Preserving White and Creole Superiority

As a slaveholder himself, Simon Bolivar was very well aware of the economic

implications that immediate emancipation would have on not only Colombia’s agricultural and

mining industries but also the racial composition in the country. In a letter to General Santander,

Bolivar requests “to the provinces of Antioquia, Choco, y Popayan, 3,000 slaves for the first two

and 2,000 for the last”37. The recruitment of such a large number of Negros, with the promise of

immediate liberation, led to the denouncement of Bolivar’s demands by members of Congress

who were concerned with a colored majority in the liberation armies, the depletion of vital labor,

and the inherent backwardness of the Negro in granting them citizenship. This last objection, of

inclusive citizenship following armed service, was considered particularly dangerous to the

welfare of the nation as “all slaves were ignorant and needed to become human before becoming

35
Decreto dado en Bogotá el 27 de Junio 1828. Archivo General de la Nacion.
36
McGraw, Jason. "Spectacles of Freedom: Public Manumissions, Political Rhetoric, and Citizen
Mobilisation in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Colombia." Slavery & Abolition 32, no. 2 (2011): 283.
37
Cartas del libertador. Bolivar to Santander in February of 1820. Archivo General de la Nacion
 Sevilla-Garcia 18

citizens”38. In recounting his military service during the era of independence, former slave Jose

Maria Martinez asks for “justice of a free man, and emancipated according [to principles] of

equity and justice”39. After his duty as a “soldier, working as a marine in the Magdalena place of

Morales, after providing my [military] services successively after the first [tour or military

service], along the coast with my Coronel …[guiding me] lieutenant Ventura Correa with his

troops”40, Martinez is disillusioned with the false promises of freedom and citizenship. It

becomes evident that previously enslaved Afro-Colombians like Martinez, fighting under the

false pretense of obtaining liberty, were forced to participate in numerous campaigns only to face

racial discrimination, become enslaved yet again, or afforded no opportunities for socioeconomic

mobility. As Colombia “maintained the socio-racial structure inherited from colonial

times…Afro-Colombians were systematically excluded from the most important political and

socio-economic decision-making institutions”41. Coupled with the role that manumission juntas

played in ensuring generous financial compensations for slave-owners, the institution of slavery

remained untouched due to the social, political, and economic influence it wielded in Colombian

society.

The Roman Catholic Church: The Role of Religion in Upholding Institutional Racism

38
Reales Jiménez, Leonardo. "Slavery, Racism and Manumission in Colombia (1821-1851)."
Revista Análisis Internacional 6, no. 1 (2015): 79
39
Jiménez Meneses, Orián, and Edgardo Pérez Morales. Voces De Esclavitud Y Libertad:
Documentos Y Testimonios, Colombia, 1701-1833. (Popayán, Colombia: Editorial
Universidad del Cauca, 2013), 296.
40
Ibid
41
Reales Jiménez, Leonardo. "Slavery, Racism and Manumission in Colombia (1821-1851)."
Revista Análisis Internacional 6, no. 1 (2015): 75
 Sevilla-Garcia 19

Colombia’s colonial legacy reveals “that the Roman Catholic church and a centuries-old

tradition of slavery in the Iberian Peninsula regulated Spanish…actions”42. While the church

condemned the forced labor of the Indian, disapproval of black slaves was never manifested.

Therefore the acceptance of these institutions, both slavery and the church, would become

engrained in the national discourse for those arguing against abolitionism in the young republic.

Furthermore, the church played a major role in acting as an intermediary between “new citizens”

and the government. In the Ley Sobre Libertad de Partos, Manumisión y Tráfico de Esclavos,

Congress mandated that freed slaves register their “names in the civic records of municipalities

and in parochial books”43. It was the duty of parroquias to maintain records of manumission and

it became common for high-ranking priests to be appointed to high political offices, such as the

case of Sacerdote Luis Antonio de la Peña and his membership of the “caucano delegates to the

Buga assembly”44.

Besides records kept in notaries, primary sources found in parochial archives exposes the

extent in how the church contributed to the marginalization of the Black population. Even before

considering the worthiness of Afro-Colombians in legally becoming citizens, the church was

preoccupied with the moral obligation of imposing Christianity on them. Using a racialized

narrative to elaborate on the vices that permeated Negro culture and their primitive religions,

words like vagos, alcoholicos, incesto, promiscuo, ladron, and bruto were used by religious

figures. A process of blanqueamiento (or whitening) was suggested “as a good strategy to

42
Wade, Peter. Blackness and Race Mixture: The Dynamics of Racial Identity in Colombia.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 5.
43
Palacio de Gobierno de Colombia, el Rosario de Cúcuta, 21 de Julio de 1821. Archivo General
de la Nación.
44
Valencia Llano, Alonso. Dentro De La Ley, Fuera De La Ley: Resistencias Sociales Y
Políticas En El Valle Del Río Cauca, 1830-1855. (Cali, Colombia: Universidad De Valle,
Facultad De Humanidades, Departamento De Historia, Centro De Estudios Regionales, 2008),
62
 Sevilla-Garcia 20

follow to ascend in the socio-racial pyramid inherited from the colonial époque”45 and it was

only through this social whitening that the church would hesitatingly accept Afro-Colombians.

This would directly lead to the Negro in Colombia “[carve] out their own niches or [be] relegated

to them and [have to create] specific forms of culture, identified as black and often persecuted,

even when these are reelaborated versions of European models”46. Marginalized from the

republic if this project of blanqueamiento was resisted, yet another intrusive obstacle before

deeming slaves worthy of citizenship was enacted.

This problematic racialization of the Negro through religion in Colombia inevitably

influenced the arguments of the pro-slavery population. In a pamphlet widely circulated in the

city of Cali in 1847, the piece titled “SLAVERY is supported in the holy books” makes

impassioned references to the ecclesiastical defense of slavery. The anonymous authors, unos

dueños de esclavos (owners of slaves), contend that “holy scriptures prove that the domination of

slaves is not theft”47. By legitimizing this institution through skewed interpretations of religious

texts, the anti-abolitionists sought to halt government incursion into what they considered private

property.

Conclusion

Discussing the role of regionalism in producing and maintaining rigid racial hierarchies, Nancy

Appelbaum states:

“All regions [in Colombia] were not created equal. Racial hierarchy was evident in this

geographical order. The racial types according to which the Colombian nation was defined were

45
Reales Jiménez, Leonardo. "Slavery, Racism and Manumission in Colombia (1821-1851)."
Revista Análisis Internacional 6, no. 1 (2015): 77.
46
Wade, Peter. Blackness and Race Mixture: The Dynamics of Racial Identity in Colombia.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 295.
47
J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana At Vanderbilt University: Esclavitud está apoyada
en los libros sagrados. Bogotá : Imprenta Sánchez i Morales, March 05, 1847.
 Sevilla-Garcia 21

themselves laden with the stereotypes of a modern world that prized fair skin and European

culture. Racial hierarchy, moreover, was institutionalized in the geographical ordering of the

modern Colombian state, most explicitly in the Regeneration. Regeneration leaders exalted

Colombia’s Spanish heritage and tried to create a Conservative white republic”48.

Despite the passage of the Ley de Manumisión o de Liberación de los Esclavos en la Nueva

Granada and the hopes of a homogenous nation, subsequent governments would explicitly use

the concentration of Afro-Colombians in departamentos like Chocó and Nariño to physically

seclude them and to ensure that emancipation was not to be confused with racial egalitarianism.

In a concerted effort to prevent a profound disruption of social castes and racial

hierarchies, the Colombian government favored a limited manumission process over widespread

emancipation. Through the analysis of legal documents from 1814 until 1851 the federal

authorities evidently established a complicated and often confusing framework towards the

abolition of slavery. Characterized by a series of bureaucratic obstacles, in regards to the

implementation of the various decrees and laws that were ratified, political leaders of the

republic consequently allowed for subjective interpretations of abolition legislation throughout

the country. This lengthy process of manumission was perhaps intended to allow for the

transition of Colombia from a society heavily dependent on slave labor into one now undertaking

a project of assimilation of Afro-Colombians. Nevertheless, the failures of ruling elites like

Bolivar and Santander to provide the comprehensive abolition of slavery led to the conditions for

those in bondage to remain unchanged for nearly half a century. While racial equality was never

considered as part of emancipation, Whites and Creoles dreaded the possibility of a pardocracia

with the unregulated inclusion of colored individuals as members of the republic. As the project

48
Appelbaum, Nancy P. Muddied Waters: Race, Region, and Local History in Colombia, 1846-
1948. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 209.
 Sevilla-Garcia 22

of nation building further incapacitated the national government’s ability to uniformly execute

abolition legislation, the decentralization of power in the early republic proved to be detrimental

to effectively end slavery. Instead, enforcement responsibilities were entrusted to local

authorities via manumission juntas. Their primary goal of just compensation for slave-owners

rather than achieving the freedom of slaves had a significant impact in the lengthy struggle

towards the eradication of slavery. Besides preserving the economic interests directly derived

from forced labor, Whites and Creoles sought to uphold the racial composition of the nation by

placing limits on the citizenship of Afro-Colombians. Finally, institutionalized racism became

most pronounced through the Roman Catholic Church as religious authorities continued to

criminalize blacks based on preconceived notions on who was a deserving member of society.

Ultimately, the ratification of the Ley de Manumisión o de Liberación de los Esclavos en la

Nueva Granada in 1851 as the final call for complete emancipation came far too late as Afro-

Colombians had been incrementally marginalized. The persistent racial prejudices that were

prevalent throughout the entire manumission process would now expand to the government’s

task to not only grant citizenship to former slaves but also incorporating them into society.
 Sevilla-Garcia 23

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González, Margarita. Ensayos De Historia Colombiana. (Bogotá: Editorial La Carreta, 1977).

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Humanidades, Departamento De Historia, Centro De Estudios Regionales, 2008).

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