Slavery in Argentina

History

Slavery and its trade in Argentina

Indigenous enslavement

African enslavement

Slavery in the furthest southern reaches of the Spanish Empire was not as prevalent compared to regions with plantation slavery, making for a distinct lack of information on the presence, lives, and conditions of enslaved Africans in Argentina, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. Despite this, the first account of Africans in present day Argentina dates to around 1585 in Buenos Aires. Additionally, some of the earliest archaeological findings of African communities and the presence of slave labor is dated to the early 17th century in the Catamarca province, with significant populations being present in areas like Santa Cruz and the provincial capital, Ciudad de Catamarca.

By the late 18th century, slavery in the Río de la Plata and in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo expanded greatly, with Montevideo being the key port for slave arrivals, and large amounts of legal and illegal slave trade being done with Buenos Aires. This expansion was halted by the May Revolution of 1810, which led to the Argentine War of Independence, the dissolution of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, and the passing of the Law of Wombs in 1813. In 1825, Spanish rule in the Río de la Plata ended, and a year later the British-Brazilian Treaty of 1826 was signed, effectively ending the slave trade in any legal capacity, though slavery itself persisted in newly independent Argentina until 1853.

White slavery

Path to freedom and abolition

During and after Spanish rule in the Río de la Plata, manumission was one of very few ways slaves could achieve freedom. However, manumissions were typically conditional and did not immediately grant freedom to the enslaved.

In 1813, with the implementation of the Law of Wombs in full swing, the state provided manumissions to enslaved children under the condition that they would work under their former masters for a period of time. Boys worked until they reached the age of twenty, and girls worked until the age of sixteen.

Manumissions were also given out to some slaves by the early Argentine government during the war of independence; slaves were freed, armed, trained, and led by the Argentine military for the duration of the war.

Ultimately, slavery in Argentina was to be abolished completely in 1853 with the adoption of the Argentine Constitution of 1853, with all previous technicalities that allowed slavery to persist being formally addressed under Article 15:

In the Argentine Nation there are no slaves: the few who still exist shall become free as from the swearing of his Constitution; and a special law shall regulate whatever compensation this declaration may give rise to. Any contract for the purchase and sale of persons is a crime for which the parties shall be liable, as well as the notary or officer authorizing it. And slaves who by any means enter the nation shall be free by the mere fact of entering the territory of the Republic.

Afro-descendant Identity

Despite legally being free in the eyes of the law, many free Afro-descendants and former slaves faced discrimination and less-than-equal treatment in early Argentine society. This culminated in many formerly enslaved Afro-descendant and mixed blood men organizing into the so-called "Black Militias" to exert institutional and social influence in society. This was especially common during the British invasions of the River Plate, the May Revolution, and the Argentine War of Independence, in which black soldiers and black Afro-descendant leaders played a pivotal role.