Slave emancipation and state capacity in postcolonial Uruguay

For almost 30 years following independence, in 1825 slavery remained legal in Uruguay, but children of slaves were born free under the republic's 'free womb law'. Relying on manuscript population registers, I offer the first systematic quantitative evidence of slave emancipation in postcolonial Uruguay and advance three arguments about it. First, and contrary to traditional historiographical claims, the 'free womb' institution was very unevenly enforced. Second, the likelihood of freedom among Black people reflected preceding colonial social hierarchies, which were especially punishing for those born in Africa and those of darker complexion. Third, state capacity had contradictory effects on the emancipation of Africans and their descendants. Freedom was relatively more likely where the coercive reach of the state was at its strongest (guaranteeing the enforcement of the 'free womb' institution) and where it was at its weakest (allowing slave runaways to start anew). In intermediary places where the state was capable of recapturing slaves but not capable enough to impose the 'free womb law' on slaveowners, the likelihood of freedom decreased. Using a probit model to control for the effect of age, gender, and other covariates, I find that there was an U-shaped relationship between distance to Montevideo's citadel (a rough proxy of state capacity) and Black emancipation from slavery.