Officials request a count of people manumitted at Easter

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...

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...

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...

On 10 March 1854 President José Gregorio Monagas addressed Congress during debate over abolition. He urged passage of a just law while insisting that abolition not violate slaveholders’ property...

The House approved an abolition decree by a large majority after years of petitions and debate. Arguments centered on ending slavery while compensating enslavers for their alleged property losses. The...