Natural law philosophy and slavery in Cuba: the captives of schooner Nuestra Señora del Carmen (1795-1803)

Abstract

Data de publicació electrònica: 29-05-2025

On 22 June 1795, slavery had already been abolished in France when a French privateer loaded 94 Africans on a Spanish slave ship going to Cuba from Jamaica. A few days later, the privateer captain transferred the 94 Africans to a Spanish captain who sold them as slaves in Trinidad, Cuba. In 1797, the General Captain of Cuba reconsidered the status of these 94 Africans enslaved under his jurisdiction. After consulting the Consejo de Indias in Spain, both the consular and captain general's polemics draw heavily on naturalistic ideas. The philosophy of Natural Law and geopolitical relations in the period explain King Charles IV's decision. In 1800, he upheld the legal emancipation of the 94 Africans from their captivity. Despite his decree, liberating the 94 enslaved in the colony was problematic. María Antonia Mandinga was among the 94 lives trafficked by the French privateer in 1795 and freed by the Spanish king in 1800 but she died enslaved in Cuba. María Antonia's case allows us to examine a lesser-known path to freedom for enslaved men and women in the colonies: the intervention of the Crown and other elite colonial administrators using the philosophy of natural law.