Barlovento uprising rejects conscription and asserts freedom

The Supreme Junta of Caracas prohibited the international introduction and trade of enslaved people. The measure did not emancipate people already enslaved, end domestic sale, or dismantle...

The Congress of Venezuela declared independence from Spain. The declaration asserted sovereignty and criticized colonial conquest, but did not abolish slavery or free enslaved people. That omission...

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...

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 month after the Carúpano decree, Bolívar issued a broader proclamation at Ocumare de la Costa promising freedom to enslaved people who joined the republican cause. Like other wartime emancipation...

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...