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‘Our Fellow Creatures’: Anti-Slave Trade Discourses from within Ferdinand VII’s Administration (1814-1820)

Fri, May 25, 9:00 to 10:30am, TBA

Abstract

This paper aims to confront a teleological approach to the construction of abolitionist discourses in Spain, and argues that anti-slave trade discourses were not limited to liberal political actors. After the collapse of the first constitutional period in the Spanish History, Fernando’s VII governments consistently opposed to the abolitionist pressure of the British authorities and aimed to protect the economic and political interests of a very complex network of metropolitan and colonial agents. The Spanish absolutist governments and the Spanish King never supported the abolition of the slave trade yet the British diplomatic pressure eventually forced them to introduce legislation and to formally assume some aspects of the anti-slave trade discourse. 
This paper argues that Ferdinado’s VII administration was forced to define a new official discourse on slave trade. This new line of argument was built upon a conservative tradition, but also, upon the ideological influence of British actors and, crucially, the political debates that had taken place at the Cortes of Cadiz. This paper will show that during this process of ideological shaping relevant inconsistencies within the Spanish administration arose.

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