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Liberated Africans Series: "Early Anitslavery Sentiment in the Spanish Empire"

Prof. Emily Berquist, California State University, Long Beach author of The Bishop's Utopia Envisioning Improvement in Colonial Peru (2014)

Dr. Berquist examines the dynamics of slavery and antislavery in the Spanish Empire prior to the Independence of the Spanish American mainland.
Rather than focusing on the Spanish Caribbean and the “late” period of slavery in the second half of the nineteenth century, she explores the politics of slavery and antislavery from an imperial perspective, using early antislavery texts, records from the Spanish Cortes of 1810-1812, and various royal decrees pertaining to slavery. Although Spain sought to grow its own interests in the slave trade in the late eighteenth century, did not abolish the slave trade until 1817, and only did so with intense outside pressure, the prevailing notion there was no native antislavery movement in the Spanish empire overlooks a more complex reality. Early antislavery movements were relatively quiet in the late Spanish Empire, yet outlining their contours helps to illuminate the pragmatic nature of Spanish imperial rule in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.

For further information: UCI Department of History, (949) 824-6521 or history@uci.edu

Light Refreshments will be served