Abolition of Slavery in Uruguay

Abolition of slavery in Uruguay was a long, confusing process, from the first proposal of a law on behalf of slaves in 1825, until their rights were finally guaranteed in 1853. The political instability and racial prejudice in the country during those years made it nearly impossible for slaves to receive their rights, despite being technically guaranteed by the Constitution in 1830.

One of the first official pieces of legislation on behalf of Afro-Uruguayans was the Free Womb Law which was proposed by the Immortal Thirty-Three in 1825, and written into the Constitution of 1830 (Rout 198). The law stated that children born to slave mothers were legally free men and women, however they were to serve their master until the age of majority when they would become fully free (Andrews 182).

The Constitution of 1830 guaranteed full civic and legal equality of Uruguayan citizens, however racial inequality and prejudice were still rampant. The first declaration of the abolition of slavery did not occur until the end of the Uruguayan Civil War in 1842, under President Joaquín Suárez  (Rout 199). Despite slavery being abolished, patronato ensued, “which effectively extended the period of servitude by placing blacks under the ‘tutelage’ of their masters for a determined period of time” with former slaves still working in slave-like conditions (Appiah 1999, 1929). Freed and able-bodied male slaves were also immediately “drafted into the army ‘for whatever time is deemed necessary’” (Rout 199-200).

On May 2, 1853, Law 316 was passed which “proclaimed the total abolition of slavery,” however, according to Rout it is “impossible to ascertain when all the slaves in Uruguay were liberated” (200).  Slave owners were still allowed to keep their libertos (free people) who were under the age of sixteen, and many sold their slaves to other countries rather than free them. Others continued to work their former slaves in slave-like conditions. There was widespread job discrimination, so few slaves had other opportunities available to them, leading Rout to conclude that “slavery seems to have eventually died of old age” (200).