Interior ministry requests quarterly reports on manumisos in apprenticeship

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...

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...

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...

A circular dated 30 April 1853 reminded governors that the law barred bringing enslaved people into Venezuela, including as personal servants. Its publication in the Gaceta de Venezuela on 29 May...