Tra schiavitù e libertà : status e diritti nello spazio caraibico, XIX secolo

In 1843, six free Blacks from Jamaica were accused of abolitionist propaganda in Spanish Cuba. At the same time, some men and women in bondage applied to the British Consulate in Havana to have their free status recognized. In the XIX century, the revolts against the institution of slavery multiplied, raising the spectre of the Haitian revolution in the Atlantic world. Based on materials collected in European colonial archives (Madrid, London, and Aix-en-Provence), this paper deals whit the anti-slavery conflicts and the legal battles for the recognition of freedom in the Caribbean empires. The access to new statuses and rights by enslaved people questions different forms of resistance to slavery in the complex dialogue between collective insurrections and individual struggles.