Abolitionism and the End of the Slave Trade in Spain’s Empire (1800-1870)

Spain was the last country in the Atlantic World to tolerate the traffic in slaves across the Ocean. For four centuries, millions of men, women and children were banished from their homelands and forced into a life of slavery in the Americas. Spanish abolitionist activists challenged this reality and contested the public legitimacy of the odious commerce. This thesis analyses how abolitionist ideas were shaped, transformed and developed in Spain’s empire and the crucial role that British activists and diplomats played in advancing the abolitionist cause. It explores the complexity of abolitionist and anti- abolitionist ideas in Spain’s public life from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Atlantic slave trade.