Abstract

PERDOMO-FORERO, Yurany  and  RODRIGUEZ-CAPORALLI, Enrique. Access to Freedom for the Enslaved Population of the Chocó Providence (New Granada/ Colombia) between 1810 and 1851. Hist. Soc. [online]. 2023, n.44, pp.71-97.  Epub Feb 21, 2024. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n44.104475.

This article made a quantitative description of the different ways in which the enslaved people from the providence of Chocó (New Granada/Colombia) accessed freedom between 1810 and 1851. For this purpose, a documentary review was made of three historical archives from which a total of 1.378 records were obtained, which allowed to create a database distributed into three big categories: notarial freedom, freedom by Law of Manumission of 1821 and escapes. With this compilation, it was possible to establish that the main means of access to freedom for enslave people in this province was through the Law of Manumission of 1821. Nevertheless, these cases are concentrated in the last two years of the study (1850-1851), which is why notarial freedom is also relevant, with the largest number of records found in 28 years of the period under the analysis. On the other hand, in regards to the escapes, it was concluded that, although their percentage as a means to gain access to freedom was minimal, they were sometimes successful alternative of resistance as they became a means of gaining access to freedom. The existence of these strategies also confirms that, during the study period, the enslaved people were in constant search for their freedom and that they were not limited only to the republic proposal (Manumission Law of 1821), which, as demonstrated, only had a significant effect in the last two years of slavery (1850-1851).

Keywords : Slavery; freedom; abolition; self-manumission; law of manumission; escapes; New Granada; Colombia; 19^th century.

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