The Path to Abolition Sindicos, Coartados, and the Presence of the State

Abstract

In 1840, the Audiencia Pretorial of Havana proposed eight new regulations in order to give the state’s attorneys more control over the síndicos appointed by the city council.¹ The Audiencia proposed that when a slave’s action against a master/owner was just, the authorities should try to find an extrajudicial solution and seek an informal conciliatory compromise. The conflict should be resolved outside the courts, in the síndico’s own house, and the síndico was to offer his arbitration free of charge, for the public good. Secondly, the síndico should subordinate to the authority of slave owners, and he should also obey...