Barquisimeto allocates 10,000 pesos to free enslaved people

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...

Congress passed a new manumission law on 21 April 1848; it was ordered into effect on 28 April. It reorganized local boards and reporting, and continued a system that freed people through limited...

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...

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...

On 10 December 1852 the Caracas provincial deputation issued an agreement asking Congress to pass a law abolishing slavery. The appeal came after decades of gradual manumission that freed relatively...

A document dated 21 December 1852 set out the distribution of 50,000 pesos from the national budget to provincial manumission funds. It put public money behind gradual emancipation, but the archive...