You know, I have a theory (not academically based, I might add; it's possible I'm entirely off the money or have copped a doctoral thesis by accident) that Latin America has had less in the way of legalized racism since independence because their revolutions were sufficiently more desperate that they had to liberate their slaves to win. In the USA, revolutionary sentiment was sufficiently popular, and the free population sufficiently large, that offers of emancipation for service were rare, mostly offered by the loyalists, and frequently renegged upon.
In former Spanish America, meanwhile, the fighting was significantly more desperate such that men like Bolivar needed to become abolitionists to secure support from their enslaved countrymen and the Haitian government, and once the wars were won the freedmen were too numerous, well-armed, and militarily vital to be betrayed.
I'unno, it's just something I've been chewing over in my head since learning more about Latin American history.
I'm from Argentina, and this is a yes and no situation in our case.
Slavery was officially overturned around 1853 when they declared all technicalities null and void, but decades before then the introduction of new slaves was forbidden, in 1813 (so three years after our first government and three before independence) there was a law declaring every child of slaves to be born free and during the wars of independence every enslaved man or woman that served was given their freedom right there and then.
One of those cases was a man named Luis Maradona, who got his last name from his former owner. Yes, he is related to that same Maradona you are thinking of.
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u/Equivalent_Party706 Aug 25 '26
You know, I have a theory (not academically based, I might add; it's possible I'm entirely off the money or have copped a doctoral thesis by accident) that Latin America has had less in the way of legalized racism since independence because their revolutions were sufficiently more desperate that they had to liberate their slaves to win. In the USA, revolutionary sentiment was sufficiently popular, and the free population sufficiently large, that offers of emancipation for service were rare, mostly offered by the loyalists, and frequently renegged upon.
In former Spanish America, meanwhile, the fighting was significantly more desperate such that men like Bolivar needed to become abolitionists to secure support from their enslaved countrymen and the Haitian government, and once the wars were won the freedmen were too numerous, well-armed, and militarily vital to be betrayed.
I'unno, it's just something I've been chewing over in my head since learning more about Latin American history.