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La Abolicion de la Esclavitud en el Brasil y en España. Discurso pronunciado en la conferencia del 26 de Febrero de 1872

Biblioteca Nacional de España

Speech Abolition Slavery Brazil Spain Comparative Conference University Madrid Law Political Culture

A speech by Madrid university professor Salvator Aguilar, made at the 1872 Spanish abolitionist conference, and published as a pamphlet. Aguilar compares legal systems of slavery in the only two Western countries where it is still permitted: Spain and Brazil. Both had recently passed laws intended to favour gradual emancipation. He also contrasts the lively abolitionist political culture of Brazil with public indifference or hostility in Spain and in Cuba and Puerto Rico, where "there is no freedom of the press for abolitionists" and they are treated as "amateur philanthropists" (8).

"Conferencias Anti-Esclavistas", volume 5. This publication by the Spanish Abolitionist Society is stamped with a logo of a kneeling slave, raising his chained hands to the sky, a image modelled on the British abolitionist "Am I not a man and a brother" logo. The front inside cover contains a description of the Society's founding principles and organisational structure, and the back inside cover lists its major publications and periodicals. Appendices: texts of the Spanish emancipation law of 6 July 1870, and the Brazilian emancipation law of 28 September 1871.