¿Eran ciudadanos los afrodescendientes libres en las sociedades esclavistas? Cuba, Brasil y Estados Unidos en el siglo XIX

Abstract

This article addresses the status of free people of African descent in the Americas’ largest slave societies using the point of view of social and political rights of subjects and citizens. With the letter of freedom, former slaves could obtain for themselves and their freeborn descendants, in theory at least, the same rights and obligations that had been conferred to the population of European origin. However, for reasons of “public safety” and the desire to “maintain the established order”, restrictions for some and privileges for others were established in order to preserve the social distance between Whites and African-Americans. Comparing the three most notorious slave societies in the Americas during the nineteenth century, Brazil, Cuba and the United States, this article examines the right of free movement, access to higher education, as well as suffrage and property rights.