This volume, a collection of eleven papers presented at a commemorative gathering on the centennial of the abolition of slavery in Cuba, represents an attempt by Spanish historians to compensate for the marginal historiographical contribution of Spain to the discussion of slavery. The articles can be grouped under three main themes: a) slavery in the Spanish peninsula; b) slavery in the New World; c) the ideological evolution of the antislavery movement. The first three articles, one by Alonso Franco Silva on slavery in Andalusian cities in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, another by Vicenta Cortés Alonso on the slave trade in Valencia in the fifteenth century, and one by Manuel Lobo Cabrera on the commerce between the Canaries and West Africa are based on archival research, and stress the peculiar medieval roots of the institution. Cortés Alonso’s article includes graphs and charts showing the origin of slaves, their African names, and their owners and buyers. It proves convincingly that there was an active trade crossing the Spanish kingdoms, yet leaves unanswered questions about what might have been occurring regarding slavery in other regions of Spain.
Only two articles analyze social or economic aspects of slavery in the New World. Enriqueta Vila Vilar presents an excellent synthesis of some of the issues raised in the different settings where slavery took root. She stresses the importance of slavery in the work force (though she does not mention the evidence that makes her take issue with those who minimize slavery in minerías once the gold was running out) and notes the problems of runaways (cimarrones). Sylvia L. Hilton’s article summarizes some of the issues raised by the North American anti-slavery movement. One misses here a reference to the controversy raised by Fogel and Engerman.
More than half of the articles focus on the parliamentary issues raised by the abolitionists. Julia Moreno García traces the evolution of the international pressure on the antislavery movement in Spain. The same theme is taken up in José U. Martínez Carreras’s highly schematic article. Leoncio Cabrero Fernández analyzes the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico, without new evidence. His interpretation is that of Díaz Soler, a respectable source, but thoroughly revised in works published during the last decade. Concepción Navarro Azcue examines the different legal stages of Cuban abolition over a period of six years. Mario Hernández Sánchez-Barba generalizes without a single reference. To state, as he does, that slavery was doomed because “las naciones europeas hubiesen quedado degradadas por los males de las civilizaciones esclavistas, cuyo primer enfermo mortal había sido el imperio romano” (p. 124) is to beg the question as to why the economies of those countries which thrived on slave trade flourished more than those like Spain, where it lagged. The subtler philosophical issues raised by the abolition of slavery are treated by José Manuel Moreno. Many of his observations could have been more forceful had he eschewed some of the legalistic rhetoric. In all, some articulate Spanish historians have tried to participate in the broad debate on slavery, an attempt that should be welcomed.
