Socio-Racial Sensibilities towards coloured subaltern sectors in the Spanish Atlantic

Abstract

This article studies from a longue durée perspective the articulation of anti-slavery sentiments and other socio-racial sensibilities within the Spanish Atlantic, from the first theological criticisms of the 16th century to the efforts to abolish slavery in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Spain, in the second half of the 19th century. We focus on the most significant cases of individuals who shared a white identity and who advocated against slavery, slave trade and socio-racial discrimination of Free Coloureds. We argue that the many egalitarian proposals made during the Spanish American revolutions and at the Cortes of Cádiz represent a second golden moment (after the ‘Mulatto Affaire’ during the French Revolution) in the struggle for the granting of political equality to subaltern sectors the Atlantic World. In the end, we expect to provide a clearer picture of how the socio-racial sensibilities contributed to accelerate, or to postpone, the introduction of abolitionist or equalitarian measures vis-à-vis the coloured subaltern sectors in the Spanish Atlantic in the Late Modern Age.

Keywords

• abolitionism
• slavery
• citizenship
• race
• revolutions
• liberalism
• emotions
• atlantic world