Monagas asks Congress to abolish slavery while protecting owners’ claims

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...

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...

The Senate approved the abolition measure, completing congressional passage. The law declared slavery abolished forever and ended the legal service obligation of manumisos, but it compensated...

President José Gregorio Monagas signed the law, which stated that slavery was abolished forever in Venezuela and freed manumisos from compulsory service. It also barred the importation of enslaved...

The law was publicly promulgated in Caracas amid official ceremony and popular attendance. Contemporary accounts emphasized national leaders and republican symbols. A decolonial account also asks...

The day after promulgation, women newly freed by law continued their customary work carrying employers’ carpets to church. A crowd seized and tore the carpets, shouting “¡Abajo las alfombras!” The...