Congress reforms manumission but leaves gradual emancipation in place

On 25 June 1835 the Interior and Justice ministry decreed that enslaved people who entered military service remained enslaved. The rule reversed the wartime promise that service could bring freedom...

A law approved on 23 May 1836 expanded owners’ authority to punish enslaved people and raised the permitted maximum from 29 to 100 lashes. Fundación Empresas Polar describes it as a regression...

The treaty signed in Caracas on 15 March 1839 declared the African slave trade permanently abolished and allowed specified searches of suspected ships. It defined the prohibited trade narrowly:...

A decree of 27 April 1840 addressed what happened to manumisos after leaving their owners’ custody. It directed that they be trained in industrial or rural occupations, returned to free parents when...

On 2 September 1846 Francisco Rangel began an armed uprising near Magdaleno. The movement drew in hacendados, renters, peons, muleteers, enslaved people, and others facing economic and political...

On 15 December 1850 the provincial deputation of Maracaibo established a subsidiary tax in favor of freedom for enslaved people. It was a local funding measure within the gradual manumission...

On 29 November 1851 the provincial deputation of Barquisimeto set aside 10,000 pesos for enslaved people’s freedom. The initiative made emancipation a public budget question but still routed payment...

A circular dated 23 September 1852 asked for quarterly returns on manumisos placed in apprenticeship. The paperwork tracked people whose legal status was described as free while their labor remained...

On 24 September 1852 the Interior ministry requested registers of enslaved people from named governors. The census order made the remaining enslaved population legible to the state as the government...

A Caracas order dated 25 September 1852 requested a table of enslaved people manumitted during the previous Easter period. The request reflects the limited, scheduled operation of manumission...