An 1825 Consultation of the Council of Castile on the Abolition of Slavery in Spain

Abstract

This article is based on an initiative of the King of Spain Ferdinand VII in 1825 for the Council of Castile to study the possibility of abolishing slavery in all or part of its dominions. It reviews some antecedents of the reign of Ferdinand VII in relation to the abolition of slavery and the circumstances of the time, in order to better understand the historical framework of the royal proposal and to understand some of the reasons for such an initiative. The article then analyzes the opinion prepared by the prosecutors of the Council of Castile for the full Council, followed by the final consultation that the full Council submitted to the King of Spain. The monarch, in agreement with his Council, decided not to alter for the moment the legal situation of slavery, both in the Spanish territories of the Peninsula and overseas, because of the consequences that this could have for the stability and control of those territories which, like Cuba and Puerto Rico, had a very high population of slaves. As a consequence of this royal decision, slavery continued in Spain for many more years and Spain was one of the last countries to abolish slavery. The article is based mainly on the consultation of documentation preserved in the National Historical Archive of Madrid, mostly unpublished.