The Slave Soldiers of Spanish South America: From Independence to Abolition

In the 1850s, the wars of independence and the recruitment of slaves as combatants almost culminated in the end of slavery in what had been Spanish South America. Throughout the continent slaves were involved in the military process, helping to gain freedom for their nations and weakening the very institution that kept them in chains. Slave recruitment suggested the gravity of the situation, reversing a longstanding policy that prohibited the arming of this sector of the population. This chapter examines the role of slave soldiers in the fight for independence in Spanish South America and in the eventual abolition of slavery.