Bolívar restates emancipation in the Ocumare proclamation

The Federal Constitution prohibited the commercial introduction of enslaved people, reaffirming an 1810 Caracas decree. It did not abolish slavery inside Venezuela: people already enslaved remained...

Francisco de Miranda’s martial law, issued at La Victoria, called free men aged fifteen to fifty-five to take up arms. The rule excluded enslaved men while applying to free Black and mixed-race men....

The Caracas provincial legislature ordered the conscription of one thousand enslaved men for the republican army. The state would purchase them when it could and promise freedom after four years of...

Black people, including enslaved and free residents of Curiepe, Capaya, and nearby valleys, rose in Barlovento on Saint John’s Day against the conscription drive. The uprising included refusal to...

Bolívar declared freedom for enslaved people in Río Caribe, Carúpano, and Cariaco, but men aged 14–60 had to enlist within 24 hours. Refusal could return a man and his family to servitude; women,...

A bando dated at El Consejo on 14 March 1818 called residents of the Tuy valleys to organize for the Republic. It stated that slavery had been abolished and directed men formerly enslaved to serve...

In his inaugural address to the Congress of Angostura, Bolívar argued for the abolition of slavery and the proscription of privileges. The speech placed emancipation within the design of a new...

Responding to Bolívar’s appeal, the Congress of Angostura adopted a gradual abolition measure. The measure framed emancipation as a process and accommodated owners’ claims to compensation. The gap...

Writing from Valencia after Carabobo, Bolívar asked the Congress of Colombia to make children born to enslaved mothers free from birth. He argued that children belonged to their parents and to God,...

The Congress of Cúcuta, governing Gran Colombia including Venezuela, declared children born to enslaved mothers free at birth. They were nevertheless required to serve their mothers’ enslavers until...